Army of One

Table of Contents

Introduction
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Before AI matures enough to take all our jobs, it will first grant superpowers to those of us who want to learn

Using the right tools, a single person can achieve what once required an entire team!

What you’ll gain:

Automation of repetitive tasks
Increased productivity
Cost reduction

What you need:

DeepSeek R1 - Low API cost
Make.com - Free Plan to start
VSCode + Cline - Free

In this article, I’ll show you how to combine the power of these tools to create your own automation ecosystem.

DeepSeek: Powerful Assistant
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What is DeepSeek?
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DeepSeek is an advanced AI model that released a breakthrough R1 version on January 20, 2025, revolutionizing automation and programming capabilities. DeepSeek-R1 offers:

Performance matching or exceeding OpenAI-o1 in reasoning tasks
671B parameters (37B active) utilizing MoE (Mixture of Experts) architecture
Exceptional programming abilities (96.3 percentile on Codeforces)
Advanced mathematical capabilities (79.8% in AIME 2024, better than OpenAI o1-1217)
Fully open-source model with MIT license allowing commercial use

What sets DeepSeek-R1 apart from other AI models? Primarily its advanced reasoning and analysis capabilities that match or exceed closed commercial models. The model uses state-of-the-art MoE architecture, enabling significantly better performance while maintaining reasonable deployment costs.

The cost of using DeepSeek R1 is just $2.19 per million output tokens, 
compared to $60 per million tokens for the o1 model.

DeepSeek Applications
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Code and Content Generation
- Text generation
- Complete function and module creation
- Automatic unit test generation
- Existing code refactoring
Debugging and Optimization
- Code error analysis
- Performance optimization suggestions
- Security issue identification
Documentation and Explanations
- Automatic documentation generation
- Detailed code explanations
- Usage example creation

Make.com: Automation Hub
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Make.com Basics
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Make.com (formerly Integromat) is a powerful no-code platform for process automation. It offers:

Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
Over 1500 ready integrations
Advanced data processing capabilities
AI tool integration

Key Automation Features
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Workflows
- Visual automation creation
- Conditional task execution
- Complex business scenario handling
AI Integrations
- Connection with language models
- Automatic text and image processing
- Sentiment analysis and data classification
Data Management
- Automatic system synchronization
- Data transformation and validation
- Backup creation

1. Content Publication System
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graph LR
    A[DeepSeek] -->|Generates content| B[Make.com]
    B -->|Formats| C[Blog]
    B -->|Customizes| D[Social Media]
    B -->|Optimizes| E[SEO]

Implementation:

Use DeepSeek for initial content generation
Configure Make.com workflow:
- Automatic text formatting
- Adding images and metadata
- Publishing on various platforms
Monitor results and adjust process

2. Automatic Website and Application Creation
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Step by step, from installation to a working application with full automation.

Pro tip: When you have installation, understanding, or usage issues - ask deepseek chat for free

Step 1: Environment Setup
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Tool Installation

Download and install Visual Studio Code
Install Cline extension from marketplace

DeepSeek R1 Configuration

Open VSCode
Press Ctrl+Shift+P
Type: Cline: Open Settings
Select DeepSeek R1 as model
Paste your API code

Step 2: Website Creation
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Create new project folder in VSCode
In Cline write: “Create a responsive landing page for [description] company”

DeepSeek R1 will generate file structure:

project/
├── index.html
├── styles.css
├── main.js
└── assets/

Step 3: Automation with Make.com
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Create a new scenario in Make.com that will act as your project’s automatic guardian:
Step 1: Change Monitoring 🔍
- Add “Watch Folder” module
- Point to your project folder
- Set check frequency (e.g., every 15 minutes)
Step 2: Automatic Deployment 🚀
- When new or modified file appears
- Make.com automatically pushes changes to hosting
- You can choose Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages
Step 3: Notifications 📱
- After successful deployment
- Sends message to Slack or email
- Includes information about changes made

💡 Tip: You can add conditions, e.g., deploy only when HTML or CSS file changed

Step 4: Functionality Development
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In Cline you can request new features:
- “Add contact form with validation”
- “Optimize page performance”
- “Add scroll animations”
DeepSeek R1 will generate appropriate code that you can directly deploy. For simpler tasks, you can switch to the cheaper but also smart deepseek-chat in Cline.

Step 5: API Integration
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Use Make.com to connect with external services:
- Databases
- Payment systems
- Analytics tools

Tips for Effective Work
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Use Cline snippets for quick generation of repetitive elements
Let DeepSeek R1 suggest code optimizations
Use Make.com for test and deployment automation

Creating a Simple Business Application
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Step 1: Preparing CRM Application in VSCode
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Open VSCode with Cline extension and use the following prompt:

"Create a simple CRM application with web interface that will include:
- Login panel
- Customer database
- Notes system
- Meeting calendar
Use HTML, JavaScript and Bootstrap for frontend."

DeepSeek R1 will generate basic structure:

crm-app/
├── index.html          # Login page
├── dashboard.html      # Main panel
├── clients.html        # Client management
├── css/
│   └── style.css      # Application styles
├── js/
│   ├── main.js        # Main logic
│   ├── auth.js        # Authentication
│   └── api.js         # Integrations
└── assets/            # Images and icons

Step 2: Process Automation in Make.com
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Create new scenario for CRM:

Trigger: "New client added"
Actions:
1. Save data in Google Sheets
2. Create contact in Mailchimp
3. Schedule follow-up in calendar
4. Send Slack notification

Step 3: Functionality Development with Cline
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Adding new features through prompts:

"Add email notification system for:
- New leads
- Scheduled meetings
- Overdue tasks"

External API Integration:

"Integrate application with:
- Google Calendar API
- Mailing system
- Payment gateway"

Step 4: Optimization and Deployment
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Use Make.com for automation:
- Cyclic data backups
- Automatic updates
- Performance monitoring
Use DeepSeek R1 for optimization:
- Code performance improvement
- Security implementation
- UI/UX adjustments

Tips:
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Start with small functionality and gradually build up
Use Cline for rapid prototyping
Test each new feature before deployment
Automate repetitive tasks through Make.com

Costs and Optimization
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Monthly Costs of Example Setup:
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DeepSeek
- Chat: $0
- API: $5-20 depending on usage
Make.com
- Free plan: 1000 operations/month
- Basic plan: $9/month
- Pro plan: $16/month
Additional Free Tools
- Hosting:
  - GitHub Pages (free static page hosting)
  - Cloudflare Pages (free plan with CI/CD)
  - Firebase Hosting (free plan up to 10GB/month)
  - Netlify (free plan with 100GB transfer)
- Data Storage:
  - GitHub (up to 500MB per repository)
  - Google Drive (15GB free)
  - Firebase (free database up to 1GB)
  - MongoDB Atlas (free cluster up to 512MB)

Total Monthly Cost: from $5 to $20 (depending on chosen Make.com plan and API usage)

Cost Optimization:
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Use free plans where possible
Automate most time-consuming tasks
Monitor usage and optimize workflows

Best Practices
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Planning
- Identify repetitive tasks
- Define automation priorities
- Document processes
Implementation
- Start with small, simple automations
- Test each element thoroughly
- Introduce gradual improvements
Monitoring
- Track automation effectiveness
- Collect error data
- Optimize based on results