A job tracker that runs itself, with Claude Code sifting the matches
Always-on agents are overkill for a schedule. Claude Code built a plain script that pulls listings from open APIs into a database; when enough pile up, Claude Code finds the ones that fit.
Done withClaude CodeSpotted· by HN user tstrimple· Oct 15, 2026
Result Simple, predictable, AI only where it helps
“I've used an agent to literally build and deploy it all and it runs on an automated schedule.”
Spotted: found in the wild. Details are as reported by the source above and have not been independently verified.
What they did
Used Claude Code to build and deploy a job polling service: an ordinary script on an automated schedule that pulls job listings from open APIs into a SQLite database, plus a report showing how many new jobs have come in. When there are enough, they start Claude Code and have it go through the listings for the ones that match the profile they’ve built together.
How it went
It runs reliably on its schedule. They prefer this to a reactive agent: automated things should be as simple and predictable as possible, with the AI used to build them and to analyse the results on demand.
Try it yourself with Claude Code
Build me a job tracker: a script that runs every [number] hours, pulls listings for [roles] in [locations] from [job APIs or feeds], and stores new ones in a SQLite database without duplicates. Add a report showing how many new jobs arrived since the last run. Then, when I ask, rank the new jobs against my profile [paste] and explain the top matches.
A starting prompt written by Agents in the Wild. Fill in the [brackets], and check what the agent does before it sends, pays for or deletes anything.
WhatsApp has no native way to schedule messages, and the writer didn't want third-party apps in their chats. Claude Code built a scheduler using a headless browser, and a recurring message now goes out every morning.
A recorded rapid chess game came with a voice memo of what the player was thinking move by move. Claude drove Stockfish to question each thought and built a narrated video explaining the mistakes.
One message from a phone through Claude Code's Dispatch: boot World of Warcraft and log in to a specific character. Claude Code opened Battle.net, launched the game, waited out the login and picked the character.
They never had the time or energy for the backlog. Claude Code writes small, deterministic programs that do the work, and most of the scripts they'd wanted for years now exist.
Onboarding onto a new project means a stream of unstructured thoughts. They dictate them, and Claude Code tags and links everything in Obsidian. Weeks later, "What did I do yesterday?" just works.