I had what I thought was a simple order. A straightforward request for the kitchen. "I'd like to automate posting about my new iOS app, Urban Rider, to Reddit. Nothing fancy, just a script that posts to a different, relevant subreddit each day without being a spammy nuisance."
Simple, right?
I sat down at my favorite table here at the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, the one with the wobbly leg and the IDE open. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. But the chef, a quirky, undocumented platform called Relay.app, had other plans. What followed was a delightful, maddening, and ultimately illuminating multi-course meal of errors, discoveries, and a final dish that was far more interesting than the one I originally ordered.
First Course: The Appetizer of Confusing Errors
My first order was simple: "I'll have the plain JavaScript, please." I wrote a script to authenticate with the Reddit API.
The waiter (the error log) came back almost immediately. "Sorry, chef says this is a TypeScript-only dish." It was covered in red squiggles complaining about things like Promise<Output>.
"Okay," I said, a little confused. "No problem, I can speak TypeScript. Let me rephrase my order." I carefully rewrote the script with all the proper types. This time, I asked for some standard ingredients: fetch to make the web request, and Buffer to encode my credentials.
The waiter returned, looking apologetic. "About that... we're out of fetch. And Buffer. Actually, we don't have any of the ingredients you'd normally find in a kitchen."
This was a truly mistaken order. I was in a restaurant that had no ingredients. It was like ordering a steak and being told the very concept of "cow" was not supported in this establishment. Every attempt failed. The code couldn't find axios, then it couldn't find http, then it complained about invalid characters in a header that my own tools had corrupted.
The "Aha!" Moment: Reading the Chef's Menu
This is where the magic of this restaurant kicks in. After sending back every dish, I realized my mistake. I was trying to tell the chef how to cook using my own recipe book. I needed to stop and ask: "What's the Chef's Special today?"
I stopped trying to write code. Instead, I looked at the menu the platform provided: the no-code UI steps. The user manual I found (thanks to my helpful AI rubber duck) confirmed it: the Code step was a tiny, limited kitchen, but the Custom HTTP Request step was a full-service Cordon Bleu kitchen, complete with all the tools we needed.
I had ordered a custom meal, but the real solution was the buffet all along.
Second Course: Getting the Recipe Right
Switching to the no-code UI was a game-changer. All the complex authentication logic was suddenly a set of simple fields. But there was one last mistaken order. My request was rejected with a 401 Unauthorized error.
After double-checking everything, we discovered the "secret sauce." The UI didn't have a clear Authentication button. The solution? We had to create the Authorization header manually.
- Combine the ingredients: We took my app's
Client IDandClient Secret. - Use a special tool: We used an online Base64 encoder to transform them into a single, secret string.
- Add the finishing touch: We added the
Authorizationheader with our new encoded string.
Voilà. The API returned a 200 OK. We had successfully authenticated.
Third Course: The Smart Automation Dessert
Now for the fun part. With the connection established, we built the workflow I had wanted from the start.
1. The Daily Special (Choosing a Subreddit) To avoid posting to the same place every day, we added a small JavaScript step. This code acts as our friendly host, seating us at a new table each day. It uses the number of days since 1970 to create a rotating index, ensuring we cycle through our list of 12+ subreddits with plenty of time between visits to the same one.
2. The AI Sous-Chef (Generating the Content) This is where it gets really cool. We added an OpenAI step. But instead of just telling it "write a post," we gave it a detailed recipe (a prompt) to follow:
- Act like a human: "You are a helpful and passionate developer, not a marketer."
- Know your audience: "The target subreddit is
[Subreddit Name]. Analyze the name and tailor your tone." - Focus on one thing: "Pick ONE key problem Urban Rider solves (like avoiding highways) and make that the theme of the post."
- Be engaging: "End with an open-ended question to start a real conversation."
The result was magic. The AI produced a perfect, authentic-sounding post that didn't feel like an ad at all.
3. Plating and Serving (Posting to Reddit)
The final step took the output from the AI (title and body), the chosen subreddit, and our auth token, and used another "Custom HTTP Request" to serve the final dish to Reddit.
The Moral of the Story
My visit to the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders was a success. I didn't get the "simple script" I originally ordered. Instead, I was served a sophisticated, multi-course automation that was far more robust and intelligent.
The experience taught me a valuable lesson: sometimes the best solution isn't about forcing a tool to work your way, but about understanding the tools you're given and using them to their full potential. The "Chef's Special" is often better than anything you could have ordered off the menu.
So, what's your favorite "mistaken order" story from a project you've worked on? I'd love to hear it in the comments. And if you're a scooter rider tired of being sent onto the freeway, you know which app to check out.
