Do you need Dispatch, or can your team wire it up?
An AI agent, a GitHub repository, and preview deployments can take you a long way. Here is honestly where a DIY setup holds up, and where the business needs more than a developer workflow.
In short
A DIY setup (an agent, pull requests, and preview deploys) works well when developers make and review every change. Dispatch adds what the rest of the business needs: plain-language requests, approvals by role and risk, attribution of who asked and who approved, one-click restore, and a single inbox.
If only engineers touch your site, DIY may be enough. If marketing, leadership, or compliance need a say, that is where Dispatch earns its place.
| Question | DIY agent workflow | Dispatch |
|---|---|---|
| Who can ask for a change | Anyone comfortable in GitHub or the agent’s own tools | Anyone on the team, in plain language, from Dispatch or Slack |
| Preview before release | Yes, if preview deploys are configured on your host | Every request gets a preview, by default |
| Approvals | Pull request reviews, usually by developers | Roles and risk tiers: a copy fix and a navigation change can follow different rules |
| Record of who did what | Commits and pull requests show what changed | Who asked, what context shaped it, who approved, and what changed, for people and agents |
| Work in parallel | Yes, with branches | Yes, every request runs on its own branch |
| Undo a change | A developer reverts the commit and redeploys | One-click restore for supported changes |
| Knowing what needs attention | Notifications spread across GitHub, the host, and chat | Approvals, findings, and alerts in one inbox, with Slack when a person needs to act |
| AEO monitoring | Separate tools, if any | Every page scored daily for the signals answer engines use |
| Lock-in | None | None. Turn Dispatch off and the website keeps running |
A DIY workflow is enough when…
- Only developers change the website
- Your developers are happy reviewing every pull request
- Nobody outside engineering needs to approve or audit changes
Add Dispatch when…
- Marketing, leadership, or compliance need to request or approve changes
- You want the rules for a copy fix and a pricing change to differ
- You need a record of who asked and who approved, not just what changed
- You want restore and alerts without a developer on call
Questions worth asking.
No. It uses your repository and host as they are, and adds what a developer workflow does not cover for the rest of the business: plain-language requests, approvals by role and risk, full attribution, one-click restore for supported changes, an inbox, and daily AEO scoring.
Yes. Dispatch is built around bring your own agent. Use an agent such as Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini, keep the site in your own GitHub repository, and deploy through the host that fits.
Yes. Claude Code works on our repository, and changes are governed through Dispatch.
Watch a real change, step by step >