wizard
mattpocock/skills
Generate interactive bash wizards to guide humans through manual setup steps they must perform themselves.
What is wizard?
A wizard is a bash script that walks a human step-by-step through tedious manual procedures like provisioning infrastructure, configuring credentials, or running migrations. Use it when the task requires human interaction (clicking dashboards, copying values) rather than something an agent can automate directly.
- Generates stage-by-stage bash scripts with progress tracking and confirmation gates
- Opens URLs and guides users to exact locations for copying values
- Captures secrets with hidden entry and writes them to .env or GitHub secrets
- Provides cross-platform URL opening including WSL support
- Performs idempotent .env updates and gh secret/variable writes
- Shows remaining stages and closing summary for each procedure
How to install wizard
npx skills add https://github.com/mattpocock/skills --skill wizard- bash shell environment
- Ability to read and edit the provided template.sh file
- Understanding of the manual steps required for your specific procedure
How to use wizard
- 1.Scope the procedure by identifying all manual steps and values to capture
- 2.Map each stage's journey: which URLs to open, what to click, where values appear
- 3.Copy template.sh to your target path and replace example stages with your own
- 4.Use library helpers (stage, say, open_url, ask_secret, write_env, set_secret) for each step
- 5.Set TOTAL_STAGES to your stage count and verify with bash -n and shellcheck
- 6.Run the script and let it guide the human through the procedure interactively
Use cases
- Setting up third-party service credentials and API keys for a new project
- Configuring GitHub secrets and environment variables during CI/CD setup
- Walking through unfamiliar SaaS dashboards to extract required configuration values
- Running one-off database migrations or data cutover procedures
- Provisioning infrastructure with manual approval steps between stages
- DevOps engineers setting up new projects or environments
- Backend developers configuring external service integrations
- Team leads automating onboarding procedures for new team members
- Anyone managing repeatable manual setup workflows
wizard FAQ
Use a wizard only for steps that require human judgment or interaction: clicking through unfamiliar dashboards, approving irreversible actions, or copying values from systems the agent cannot access. Don't use it for steps the agent can automate itself.
Save ephemeral wizards to a scratch or scripts/ path and delete them after use. Commit the script to the repo only if it's a repeatable setup procedure that future team members should follow.
Use ask_secret for any sensitive value; it hides input on screen. Then use set_secret to write it to GitHub secrets (for CI) or write_env to store it in .env (for local use).
Yes. Before authoring, show the user the ordered list of stages and confirm they can add, drop, or reorder them. This ensures the procedure matches their actual workflow.
Say so explicitly and ask the user or check the service's documentation. Never invent steps that may not exist; the wizard must be accurate enough for a stranger to follow.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from mattpocock/skills.
name: wizard description: Generate an interactive bash wizard that walks a human through steps only they can perform. Use when provisioning infrastructure, setting up credentials or CI secrets, walking an unfamiliar third-party dashboard, or running a one-off migration or cutover. Don't invoke this for steps the agent can perform itself.
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 many stages are 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: stage-by-stage progress, 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. Set TOTAL_STAGES to the number of stages you wrote.
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.
Related skills
More from mattpocock/skills and the wider catalog.

write-a-skill
Create new agent skills with proper structure, progressive disclosure, and bundled resources.

writing-beats
Assemble raw material into a structured narrative journey, grounding concepts before each beat uses them.

writing-for-agents
Write agent-consumable documents with predictable, reliable formatting and structure.

writing-fragments
Mine raw writing fragments through exploratory conversation, no structure imposed.

writing-great-skills
Reference for writing predictable, deterministic AI agent skills — vocabulary and principles for skill design.

writing-shape
Shape raw material into a polished article, paragraph by paragraph, with grounding checks and format arguments.