I was packaging an upstream project, I had a git repo of scripts with no debian/ folder that represented upstream. It was an experiment to see if I could help package something more complicated, but starting with a trivial project so that there wouldn't be any complexities in the build system.

> Sounds like you would be better served by manually running dpkg-deb.

I dunno, maybe? I don't write the tutorials; I read them. It said debuild. I'd agree I'm not cut out to figure out the right tool and process, that is why I gave up.