March 8, 2026
Bot boss vs. comment chaos
Show HN: AI agents run my one-person company on Gemini's free tier – $0/month
Solo dev says AIs run his biz for $0 — commenters cry “dead internet” and ask “MRR?”
TLDR: A solo dev says four AI agents run his company on Google’s free AI plan for $0, boasting millions of views and a live dashboard. The comments explode over authenticity and value—“dead internet,” demands for revenue numbers, and a 404 repo—turning a tech flex into a debate about whether anyone online is still human.
A solo developer in Taiwan claims four AI “helpers” now run his one-person agency for $0 a month using Google’s Gemini free tier. They crank out social posts, reply to comments, scan for security leads, and handle routine ops — all with a token-saving “read files, one shot, done” trick. He flaunts 27 Threads accounts, 12K followers, and 3.3M views, plus a live agent dashboard and a bilingual site at ultralab.tw. But the crowd’s first reaction? “The GitHub link is 404,” one user groans, side-eyeing the whole showcase (repo).
Then the mood turns existential. One commenter drops the “dead internet” bomb, asking how much of this guy’s engagement is real humans versus bots. Another calls the whole thing a business that “produces no value,” while a different voice cuts through with the money question: “What’s your MRR?” A melancholic aside wonders if the post itself was AI-written — and yes, that stung. The receipts include drama too: a surprise $127 bill from using the wrong key, an engagement loop that burned through 800 daily requests, and a Telegram glitch that cloned messages like rabbits. Meanwhile, the jokesters imagine “bots networking with bots,” dubbing it “Skynet for marketing.” Whether you see a scrappy automation win or a sign we’re all yelling into a robot void, the comments made one thing very clear: the real show is us wondering if anyone left is actually us.
Key Points
- •A solo developer runs a one-person tech agency with four AI agents on Gemini 2.5 Flash’s free tier, using ~105 of 1,500 daily requests for $0 LLM spend.
- •Agents automate content creation/engagement, research (via RSS, HN API, Jina Reader), security scanning with UltraProbe, lead monitoring, and Discord blog posting.
- •Token costs are minimized by pre-computed local intelligence files and single-turn prompts; the LLM is used only for creative/analytical tasks.
- •Reported metrics include 27 Threads accounts (12K+ followers, 3.3M+ views), 25 systemd timers, 62 scripts, 19 intelligence files, and 7% daily request utilization.
- •Pitfalls encountered: a $127 bill from using a GCP billing-enabled key, an engagement loop consuming ~800 requests/day, and a Telegram polling conflict causing duplicate messages.