This week marked a significant milestone in HiLucy’s technical evolution. We shipped 50+ commits across our WordPress plugin and AI infrastructure, introducing autonomous development workflows, a complete deposit payment system, and new activity management capabilities. Here’s a technical breakdown of what we built and how it works.

1. AI-Powered Development Workflow

The most significant architectural addition is our AI Workflow System — a fully autonomous development pipeline that takes Monday.com tasks and executes them via Claude or Codex agents. When a task moves to “AI: Plan”, “AI: Refine”, or “AI: Build” status, our system takes over.

┌─────────────────┐     webhook      ┌─────────────────────┐
│   Monday.com    │ ───────────────▶ │  WordPress REST API │
│   (Task Board)  │                  │  /ai-workflow/{act} │
└─────────────────┘                  └──────────┬──────────┘
                                                │
                                     ┌──────────▼──────────┐
                                     │    Job Queue        │
                                     │  wp_hilucy_ai_jobs  │
                                     └──────────┬──────────┘
                                                │
                              ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
                              │                 │                 │
                    ┌─────────▼───────┐ ┌───────▼───────┐ ┌───────▼───────┐
                    │   AI: Plan      │ │  AI: Refine   │ │   AI: Build   │
                    │                 │ │               │ │               │
                    │ • Analyze task  │ │ • Review plan │ │ • Execute     │
                    │ • Write plan.md │ │ • Incorporate │ │ • Run tests   │
                    │ • List files    │ │   feedback    │ │ • Commit      │
                    └─────────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───────┬───────┘
                                                                  │
                                                        ┌─────────▼─────────┐
                                                        │   Git Repository  │
                                                        │   hilucy.wp       │
                                                        └─────────┬─────────┘
                                                                  │
                                                        ┌─────────▼─────────┐
                                                        │  GitHub Actions   │
                                                        │  CI/CD Pipeline   │
                                                        └───────────────────┘
            

How It Works

The workflow leverages Monday.com’s webhook system to trigger WordPress REST endpoints. When a task status changes:

// REST endpoint registration
register_rest_route('hilucy/v1', '/ai-workflow/(?P<action>plan|refine|build)', [
    'methods'  => 'POST',
    'callback' => 'hilucy_ai_workflow_webhook_handler',
    'permission_callback' => 'hilucy_verify_monday_webhook',
]);

The system fetches the task details including any linked Epic for broader context. This is critical — the AI agent receives not just the task description, but the entire epic scope, acceptance criteria, and related context.

// Fetch parent epic context
function hilucy_monday_get_parent_epic($item_id) {
    $query = <<<GRAPHQL
    query GetLinkedEpic(\$itemId: [ID!]) {
        items(ids: \$itemId) {
            column_values {
                id
                ... on BoardRelationValue {
                    linked_item_ids
                }
            }
        }
    }
    GRAPHQL;
    // ... fetch and return epic details
}

2. Deposit & Split Payment System

We implemented a complete deposit payment infrastructure for service bookings. Guests can now pay a partial deposit upfront with the remaining balance handled separately — crucial for high-value spa packages and activities.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        PAYMENT FLOW                                   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

   Guest                    HiLucy                    Stripe
     │                        │                         │
     │  1. Select service     │                         │
     │  ───────────────────▶  │                         │
     │                        │                         │
     │  2. Show deposit UI    │                         │
     │  ◀───────────────────  │                         │
     │                        │                         │
     │  3. Pay deposit (30%)  │                         │
     │  ───────────────────▶  │  4. Create PaymentIntent│
     │                        │  ─────────────────────▶ │
     │                        │                         │
     │                        │  5. payment_intent.id   │
     │                        │  ◀───────────────────── │
     │                        │                         │
     │  6. Confirm deposit    │                         │
     │  ◀───────────────────  │                         │
     │                        │                         │
     │         ...time passes (service delivered)...    │
     │                        │                         │
     │  7. Pay balance (70%)  │                         │
     │  ───────────────────▶  │  8. Charge saved card   │
     │                        │  ─────────────────────▶ │
     │                        │                         │
     │  9. Receipt            │                         │
     │  ◀───────────────────  │                         │

            

Implementation Details

The deposit system extends WooCommerce’s payment gateway architecture with a new WC_Gateway_COD_Deposit class:

/**
 * Create a PaymentIntent for a service deposit.
 *
 * @param int    $user_id    WordPress user ID
 * @param float  $amount     Deposit amount in dollars  
 * @param array  $metadata   Tracking data (staff_id, listing_id)
 * @return array Result with payment_intent_id or checkout_url
 */
public function create_deposit_intent($user_id, $amount, $metadata = []) {
    $stripe = new \Stripe\StripeClient(STRIPE_SECRET_KEY);
    
    return $stripe->paymentIntents->create([
        'amount' => $amount * 100, // Convert to cents
        'currency' => 'usd',
        'metadata' => array_merge($metadata, [
            'type' => 'deposit',
            'user_id' => $user_id,
        ]),
        'setup_future_usage' => 'off_session', // Save for balance charge
    ]);
}

The balance payment leverages Stripe’s saved payment methods, allowing us to charge the remaining amount after service delivery without requiring the guest to re-enter card details.

3. Activity Products REST API

We built a complete CRUD API for activity products, enabling the staff manager dashboard to create, update, and list activities programmatically.

Endpoints

Activity Finder Shortcode

Alongside the API, we shipped a Vue.js-powered Activity Finder component that hotel staff can embed on any page:

[activity_finder category="spa,wellness" columns="3" show_price="true"]

The component fetches from our REST API and renders a filterable grid of activities with real-time search, category filtering, and responsive layouts.

4. Multi-Currency Price Display

For our Mexico-based properties, we implemented inline MXN pricing alongside USD. Guests see both currencies without navigating away or using a currency switcher.

// Convert and display MXN inline
add_filter('woocommerce_get_price_html', 'hilucy_add_mxn_inline_price', 200, 2);

function hilucy_add_mxn_inline_price($price_html, $product) {
    if ($product->get_type() !== 'activity') return $price_html;
    
    $usd_price = floatval($product->get_price());
    $mxn_price = $usd_price * 17.5; // Current rate
    
    $mxn_formatted = number_format($mxn_price, 0, '.', ',');
    return $price_html . "<span class='mxn-price'> (MXN {$mxn_formatted})</span>";
}

Result: $125.71 USD (MXN 2,200)

5. Test Infrastructure Improvements

We significantly improved our CI/CD pipeline with better test reporting and reliability:

What’s Next

This week’s work lays the foundation for several upcoming features:

• Automated Refunds: Using saved payment methods to process partial refunds for cancelled bookings
• AI-Generated Activity Descriptions: Leveraging our LangGraph infrastructure to auto-generate SEO-optimized product descriptions
• Real-Time Currency Rates: Moving from static conversion to live exchange rate API integration
• Staff Performance Dashboard: Aggregating activity bookings, deposits collected, and guest satisfaction scores

Technical Summary