what are the minimum services that airbyte would be functional with? Could I turnoff webapp and cron (I am running all jobs manually)?

Have you looked into using the API? https://airbyte-public-api-docs.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/rapidoc-api-docs.html#overview

yes I have, so that means I can turnoff webapp and cron scheduler? I believe it is possible to send APIs directly to 8001

I am unsure of the cron scheduler as I haven't used it, but I would assume so. You can definitely turn off the web app if you're just using the API.