Daily Vinyl Recommender
An Apps Script that recommends 3 vinyl records every morning based on the vibe of the day.
Timeline
Hours, with iterative improvements
The Problem
I play a couple of records every morning with my coffee. Half awake, I kept reaching for the same albums: 500 records, and I was rotating through maybe 20. I'd been building a habit of asking 'how can AI help me?', so I pointed that question at my morning routine.
The Solution
A Google Apps Script emails me 3 recommendations every morning, matched to the vibe of the day. I wrote a mood for each day of the week and exported my 500-record collection from Discogs. No record repeats within 90 days, so there's always something I haven't heard in a while.
How AI Is Used
Claude does double duty. It tagged all 500 records with sub-genres and vibes, which I'd never have had the patience to do by hand. Each morning, it matches records to the day's mood and picks 3. It was a project of firsts: first AI-generated code, first Apps Script, first automation. I thought I needed an agent and tried Zapier and Make before ChatGPT pointed me to Apps Script as the simpler path.
Tech Stack
Built entirely in Apps Script, with Claude for the intelligence and Google Sheets as the database. No frameworks, no hosting, no app to maintain. It just runs every morning.
What I Learned
"Agents" are the AI buzzword of the year, but knowing the difference between LLMs, automations, and agents can lead to a simpler solution that works better.
*I'm a die-hard fan of em dashes — both visually, and as a form of written communication. All em dash placements are my own.