wizard
mattpocock/skills
Generate interactive bash wizards that guide humans through manual procedures, capturing values and writing configs.
What is wizard?
A wizard is an interactive bash script that walks a user step-by-step through tedious manual procedures like third-party service setup, migrations, or state transitions. It opens URLs, captures values, writes to .env files and GitHub secrets, and confirms each step with progress tracking. Use this when you need to codify a repeatable but complex manual workflow.
- Generates bash scripts that open URLs and guide users through exact click-and-copy sequences
- Captures user input and automatically writes values to .env files and GitHub Actions secrets
- Displays progress with time-remaining estimates and confirmation gates at each stage
- Handles cross-platform URL opening including WSL, hidden secret entry, and idempotent config updates
- Provides a reusable template library with helpers for stages, prompts, and secret management
- Traces procedures statically to verify all captured values land in the correct destinations
How to install wizard
npx skills add https://github.com/mattpocock/skills --skill wizard- Bash shell environment
- GitHub CLI (gh) if writing GitHub secrets or variables
- curl or similar for cross-platform URL opening
How to use wizard
- 1.Scope the procedure by identifying every manual step and value to capture, checking .env files, README, and CI workflows for context
- 2.Map each stage's journey: which URL to open, what to do there, where values appear, and where they're written
- 3.Copy template.sh to your target path and replace examples with one stage per step in dependency order
- 4.Use library helpers (stage, say, open_url, ask, ask_secret, write_env, set_secret, confirm) and set TOTAL_STAGES and TOTAL_MINUTES
- 5.Verify with bash -n and shellcheck, then chmod +x the script
- 6.Run the wizard and trace that every captured value lands in its intended destination
Use cases
- Setting up third-party service integrations (API keys, OAuth tokens, webhooks)
- Running one-off database migrations or data transformations with human confirmation at each step
- Moving a project from one deployment state to another with irreversible action gates
- Onboarding new team members through a standardized setup procedure
- Capturing environment-specific configuration from external services into local and CI environments
- Backend and DevOps engineers automating repetitive setup tasks
- Teams with complex multi-step onboarding or deployment procedures
- Projects requiring consistent third-party service configuration across environments
- Anyone codifying manual procedures that are tedious to re-explain
wizard FAQ
Commit it only when the user wants a repeatable setup path that should live in the repo. Otherwise, build it for one run, save to scripts/ or a scratch path, and delete when done.
Some stages are pure actions with no captured value. Use confirm or pause to gate the action, but skip write_env and set_secret for that stage.
Say so and ask the user or check the docs. Never invent steps that may not exist. Trace the procedure with concrete instructions a stranger could follow.
Use ask_secret for any sensitive input, which hides entry. Use set_secret only for values CI actually needs. The template library handles secure handling automatically.
Yes. After showing the ordered list of stages and their values, confirm with the user—they may add, drop, or reorder before you author the script.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from mattpocock/skills.
name: wizard description: Generate an interactive bash wizard that walks a human through a manual procedure — third-party setup, a one-off migration, an A→B state transition — opening URLs, capturing values, confirming each step, and writing .env files and GitHub Actions secrets. disable-model-invocation: true
Wizard
A wizard is a bash script that walks a human, step by step, through a manual procedure that's tedious to do by hand and tedious to re-explain to an AI every time. It opens each URL, says exactly what to click and copy, captures the values, writes them where they belong (.env, GitHub secrets), confirms at every stage, and shows how much is left. It might configure third-party services, run a one-off migration, or move the project from one state to another.
The delightful UX is already solved by template.sh — progress with time-remaining, confirmation gates, cross-platform URL opening (including WSL), hidden secret entry, idempotent .env upserts, gh secret/gh variable writes, and a closing summary. Your job is only to scope the procedure and author its stages. The library above the STAGES marker is identical in every wizard; that consistency is the point — never hand-edit it.
A wizard is ephemeral by default — built for one run, saved to a scratch or scripts/ path, deleted when the job's done. Commit it only when the user wants a repeatable setup path that should live in the repo.
Process
1. Scope the procedure
Work out every manual step the human must take and every value that gets captured along the way. Read the repo first — don't ask cold:
- For setup:
.env,.env.example,.env.*,README,docker-compose*, framework config, and.github/workflows/*(everysecrets.*/vars.*reference is a value the wizard must produce). - For a migration or transition: the current state, the target state, and the irreversible actions between them.
Then show the user the ordered list of stages and the values each produces, and confirm — they may add, drop, or reorder.
Done when: every stage is named in order, and for each captured value you know (a) where the human gets it, (b) where it's written (.env, a GitHub secret, both, or nowhere — some stages are pure actions), and (c) whether it's secret (hidden entry) or public.
2. Map each stage's journey
For each stage, write the precise path a human follows: which URL to open, what to do there, where a value is shown, which variable it fills — e.g. "Dashboard → Developers → API keys → Reveal test key → copy". Where you don't actually know the current UI or the exact command, say so and ask the user or check the docs — never invent steps that may not exist.
Done when: every stage traces to concrete instructions a stranger could follow.
3. Author the wizard
Copy template.sh to the target path. Replace the example stage with one stage per step, in dependency order. Use the library helpers — stage, say/step, open_url, ask/ask_secret, write_env, set_secret/set_var, pause/confirm — and set TOTAL_STAGES and TOTAL_MINUTES to honest estimates (this drives the time-remaining display).
Hold the bar the template sets: open the URL before asking for its value, use ask_secret for anything secret, write_env every persisted value, set_secret only the values CI actually needs, and confirm before any irreversible action. Each stage clears the screen so only the current step is visible — keep a stage to one focused task so nothing the human needs scrolls away. Don't touch the library above the marker.
4. Verify and hand off
bash -n <script>; runshellcheckif available.chmod +x <script>.- Don't run it end-to-end yourself — it opens browsers and blocks on human input. Trace it statically instead: every value from step 1 is captured and lands where step 1 said, and every
set_secretname exactly matches asecrets.*reference in CI. - Tell the user how to run it. If it's a repeatable setup path, commit it and link it from the README so the next person runs the script instead of asking an AI.
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