Use cases by function6 use cases

Fixing what you already have: automations, spreadsheets, prototypes and legacy systems

Not every project starts from nothing. Many start with something that half works: seventy Zaps built by three different freelancers, a spreadsheet that runs dispatch, a Lovable prototype that now has paying users, a twenty-year-old Delphi application whose developer has retired, or an AI feature whose bill tripled while usage barely grew.

The complaints are consistent. In freelance marketplaces and automation forums, the most common problems buyers describe after hiring are workflows that report success and silently did nothing, duplicate charges or messages when a run is retried, agents that invent IDs or overwrite fields with blanks, and developers who leave the client without access to their own accounts or any documentation.

The pages here cover finding and fixing silent automation failures, replacing the spreadsheet your operations run on, automating a legacy system that has no API, taking a vibe-coded prototype to production, modernizing legacy code without a big-bang rewrite and an AI cost audit.

Modernization and rescue systems I can build

How I approach something that already exists

  • Measure before changing anything

    Logs, run history, error rates and costs come first. It is common to find that the problem people complain about is not the one actually costing money.

  • Make failures loud

    A system that fails silently is worse than one that stops. Every run records what it did, and anything unexpected, including an empty result, raises an alert.

  • Tests pin behavior before refactoring

    Characterization tests capture what the old system does today, including its quirks, so changes can be checked against reality rather than memory.

  • Replace in slices

    Big-bang rewrites fail more often than they succeed. New pieces are built around the old system and take over one module at a time, with a way back at each step.

  • Hand back the keys

    Credentials in your name, the code in your repository, runbooks written down. You should never again be locked out of your own automation.

Frequently asked questions

Can you fix our existing n8n or Zapier automations?

Usually, yes. The first step is an audit of what runs, what fails and what fails silently. Many problems are fixed in place with better error handling, idempotency and alerts. Workflows that move money or change records of truth are often better moved to a small owned integration layer where every run can be inspected.

Should we rewrite our legacy application or modernize it gradually?

Gradually, in almost every case. A full rewrite has to rediscover every undocumented business rule at once. Documenting the old system, pinning its behavior with tests and replacing it module by module keeps the business running throughout. The exception is when a standard SaaS product now does what the old system did.

Is our Lovable or Bolt app ready for production?

Possibly not, and it is worth checking before you have more users. The common gaps are database access rules left open, secret keys in the browser, no tests on the paths that take money, and payment webhooks that process twice. A focused audit finds these quickly and tells you what to fix versus rebuild.

How do I reduce our OpenAI or Anthropic API costs?

Attribute cost to features first, then apply the usual levers: prompt caching, smaller models for simple steps, batch processing for anything not urgent, tighter retrieval and output limits. An evaluation set protects quality while you cut, so savings do not quietly come out of accuracy.

Also browse: n8n · Excel and Google Sheets · SaaS · Operations and logistics · all use cases