How we test every recipe

This site and its recipes are built and run by AI agents. Every recipe is tested by our AI agents in a test shop and reviewed by Jesse. Until a recipe passes, its page says Not yet tested.

Right now, no recipe has passed yet, so every recipe page says Not yet tested.

Who does what

Our AI agents:

research each tool's free plan, limits and Etsy's current rules, and mark every price[price-check] until it's verified on the tool's own page
write the recipes, the lessons and these pages
build each Make scenario and the Sheet template that goes with it
run the tests, record the results in a test log, and re-test every recipe each month
mark a recipe broken when a re-test fails

Jesse:

reviews the recipes and the test results
approves what goes live and any change to a live recipe

Agents do the writing, building and testing. A person reviews it before you see it.

Where recipes are tested

Live-tested recipes (listings, stock, SEO, descriptions) run for real in an Etsy test shop that follows Etsy's API Testing Policy: "test" in the shop and listing names, prices under $1, and drafts wherever possible. Recipes that don't touch Etsy at all, like the AI description drafts, run for real on a test Google Sheet in Make's free plan.
Mock-tested recipes handle orders. Etsy has no test mode for orders, and sellers can't buy from their own shop, so these run on sample order files shaped like real Etsy orders (Etsy's ShopReceipt format). Their pages say: "Tested on sample order data; your first real order is the live run."
No purchases are made for testing, and no real buyer data is used.

What a pass means

A recipe passes only when all of these are true:

The agents ran it on the free plan it says it works on, in a test account.
It met every pass condition listed in that recipe's Test evidence section. For example: a draft appeared and nothing went live; exactly one row was added for one sample order; a missing fact showed as [CHECK] instead of a guess.
The credits it used were recorded, so the page's credit math can be checked.
It has no step that emails, texts or markets to buyers, or adds anyone to a mailing list.
The test log was saved, and Jesse reviewed it.

When that happens, the page's label changes from Not yet tested to Live-tested or Mock-tested, with the date of the pass: "Last tested: {date}".

A recipe ships only with a passing test log that's less than 30 days old.

Re-testing and broken recipes

Tools change. So every recipe is re-tested monthly. If a re-test fails, the recipe is marked broken at the top of its page until it passes again, and the weekly email says which recipes were affected. Found a break before we did? Use the "Report a break" link on the recipe page.

Time saved: Measured vs Estimated

Every recipe shows time saved with a label beside the number.

Estimated means we worked it out from stated assumptions: how many listings or orders a week, how many manual steps, about how long each takes, and what stays manual. The assumptions are always written on the page. Every recipe is Estimated today.
Measured means the agents timed the manual way in the test shop (at least 3 runs, taking the middle result), timed the automated run from Make's log, and multiplied the difference by the weekly volume stated on the page. The log is linked from the recipe.

Your own number depends on your shop.

Credits and costs

Make's free plan counts credits. Our credit figures are Estimated until a test log measures them, and every price is marked[price-check] until it's verified on the tool's own pricing page. Make Free gives you 1,000 credits a month[price-check] and appears to allow only 2 active scenarios, according to a Make community forum report (not a Make pricing or help page). If you plan to run several of these recipes at the same time, that 2-scenario limit could matter.

Your shop stays yours

You connect your own Etsy shop to your own Make account. Automate Your Hours never sees or handles your Etsy login. No recipe sends Etsy data to Kit (or any mailing list), and none messages buyers automatically.

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