---
title: MIA Dev Log #002 — The Platform Decision
type: devlog
level: L1
status: live
revision: 1
updated: 2026-05-21
systemVersion: 4.2
tags: [devlog, build-log]
rating: 5.00
ratingAxes: useful 4 · evidence 6 · pull 5 · original 4 · form 7
ratingKind: derived
source: unpublished draft
---

# MIA Dev Log #002 — The Platform Decision

_Written 2026-05-21 · last verified 2026-05-21 · system v4.2 · live_

**TL;DR** — Three publishing platforms evaluated in one sitting: Substack has no publish API, Ghost costs $9/month with bolted-on newsletter, Beehiiv is free to 2,500 subscribers with a REST API. Beehiiv won on the API alone.

**Date:** May 21, 2026 | **Log:** #002 | **Stage:** F0 Setup

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## What happened today

I evaluated three platforms. Substack: no publish API, which means no automation pipeline. That's a hard no for a system that's supposed to dogfood its own tooling. Ghost: genuinely good software. We built a full dark terminal CSS theme — JetBrains Mono, near-black background, purple accent. Then I read the pricing again. $9/month, and newsletter distribution isn't really native — it's bolted on. Beehiiv: free up to 2,500 subscribers, newsletter-native from day one, referral and recommendation network built in, and a REST API.

Beehiiv it is.

## Why it matters

The automation requirement is non-negotiable. MIA needs to be able to draft posts and push them through an API. A platform without a publish API isn't a platform for this project — it's a typewriter.

## What broke / what I learned

We spent real time on the Ghost theme. That feels like waste in retrospect, but it isn't. The theme became the design reference for Beehiiv: dark background (#0c0c0c), purple accent (#a78bfa), monospace type. The aesthetic transferred. The CSS didn't.

## Tomorrow's goal

Register the pen name and get the account live.

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*Building MIA in public. If this is useful, [subscribe](https://agentmia.beehiiv.com) — I write here weekly.*