Hey fellow AI enthusiast, Engineering peers and Crypto Degen’s,
Welcome to Issue #001 of Deploy or Die.
I'm a Release Engineer with years of experience shipping software. I also spend a lot of time in AI, crypto, and anything that generates income outside a W-2. This newsletter is what I wish existed — practical, no-fluff insights at the intersection of all four.
No thought leadership. No motivational quotes. Just things that actually work.
Let's get into it.
⚙️ AI TOOL OF THE WEEK: Claude + GitHub Actions for Automated Release Notes
Release notes are the broccoli of software engineering. Everyone knows they're important. Nobody wants to make them.
Here's what I set up this week: a GitHub Actions workflow that triggers on every merge to main, sends the PR diff and commit messages to Claude via the API, and gets back a clean, formatted release note — automatically posted to a Slack channel.
Setup time: about 90 minutes.
Time saved per week: 3+ hours.
Watch the full walkthrough: Deploy or Die — Episode 1 on YouTube
The prompt I use is simple:
"You are a technical writer for a software team. Given the following git commits and PR descriptions, write a concise release note in bullet format. Group changes by: New Features, Bug Fixes, and Internal. Keep it under 150 words."
That's it. Claude does the rest.
What you need: GitHub Actions (free tier works), Anthropic API key (~$5/month in usage at normal release volume), a Slack webhook.
"The full workflow YAML is on GitHub — grab it, fork it, ship it: github.com/mttaylor/deployordiecontent"
💰 MONEY MOVE: The Productized Service Model for Engineers
Most engineers who want side income think about freelancing. The problem with freelancing is it scales terribly — more clients means more hours, which means less life.
The smarter model is a productized service. Instead of "hire me for whatever you need," you offer: "I deliver X specific thing in Y timeframe for $Z fixed price."
Example offer: "I'll set up your AI deployment pipeline — from model integration to production CI/CD — in 2 weeks for $1,500."
Why this works:
Fixed scope = no scope creep
Fixed price = easier for clients to say yes
Repeatable = you get faster every time
The fastest path to your first client: update your LinkedIn headline to reflect this offer today. Not next week. Today.
⛓️ CRYPTO/WEB3 SIGNAL: Polymarket as a Free Data Source
Forget trading on Polymarket for a second. The more interesting opportunity right now is using it as a data source.
First if you are in the United States, little disclaimer here, Polymarket is federally legal in the U.S. under CFTC oversight, but state-level restrictions create a complex legal landscape. So please do your due diligence and make sure to check your local regulations before doing anything silly. (NFA)
Polymarket has a free API. You can pull real-time odds on hundreds of events — Fed rate decisions, election outcomes, regulatory changes — directly into a spreadsheet or dashboard with a few lines of Python.
Why this matters for engineers: hedge funds pay thousands per month for this kind of data. You can access the same signal for free.
A simple use case: build a personal dashboard that tracks 5–10 markets relevant to your industry. If you work in tech, track markets around regulation and M&A. Set a price alert when any market moves more than 10% in a day.
Again, not financial advice. Just a signal worth watching.
🔗 3 LINKS WORTH YOUR TIME
→ Railway.app — Easiest way to deploy side projects. No DevOps overhead. Free tier is generous.
→ Beehiiv — What I use for this newsletter. Zero fees on subscriptions. Built for people who want to monetize, not just write.
→ ElevenLabs — AI voice cloning that actually sounds human. Useful if you're building faceless content or automating audio workflows.
That's Issue #001.
If this was useful, forward it to one engineer who'd appreciate it. That's the only growth strategy I'm running right now.
If it wasn't useful, reply and tell me why. I'd rather know.
— Matt
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