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wizard

skill · 44 lines · MIT · skills/engineering/wizard/SKILL.md

The facts

Its 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.

The description the agent reads to decide when to use it.

From its settingsline 3

When it starts

The agent would pick this skill when someone needs a guided, human-driven procedure turned into a runnable script — provisioning infrastructure, setting up credentials or CI secrets, walking through an unfamiliar third-party dashboard, or doing a one-off migration or cutover — and explicitly not for steps the agent can do itself.

Things a person might say (the model's guesses)

  • “Write me a bash script that walks me through setting up the Stripe keys and GitHub secrets for this repo.”
  • “I have to click through the AWS console to provision the new environment and I always forget a step — can you make a wizard for it?”
  • “We're cutting over DNS to Cloudflare next week; make me a step-by-step script so I don't miss anything.”

A model's summary of when it is used.

A model's reading

Files it mentions

template.sh

Files the text names, such as ones to read or write. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.

Found by matching wordsline 10 line 35

Stops for a person

1 line stops to ask a person

Lines that stop and wait for a person before going on. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.

Found by matching wordsline 29

What leads to it

Other skills that hand off to this one, call it, require it or offer it instead, as a model read them.

A model's reading

Licence

MIT, from LICENSE

The terms its author shares it under, which let it be shown here.

From the repositorylicence text
Other files in this skill (2) Close

The text

Open on GitHub

Most marks come from matching words in the file, so treat them as pointers.

1---
2name: wizard
3description: 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.
4---
5
6# Wizard
7
8A **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.
9
10The delightful UX is already solved by [template.sh](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.
12A 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.

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.

Raw lines 1 to 13
Reads a file template.sh :10
14## Process
16### 1. Scope the procedure
18Work 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:
20- For setup: `.env`, `.env.example`, `.env.*`, `README`, `docker-compose*`, framework config, and `.github/workflows/*` (every `secrets.*` / `vars.*` reference is a value the wizard must produce).
21- For a migration or transition: the current state, the target state, and the irreversible actions between them.
23Then show the user the ordered list of stages and the values each produces, and confirm: they may add, drop, or reorder.
25**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.

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/* (every secrets.* / 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.

Raw lines 16 to 26
27### 2. Map each stage's journey
29For 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.
31**Done when:** every stage traces to concrete instructions a stranger could follow.

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.

Raw lines 27 to 32
Involves a person ask the user :29
33### 3. Author the wizard
35Copy `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.
37Hold 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.

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.

Raw lines 33 to 38
Reads a file template.sh :35
39### 4. Verify and hand off
41- `bash -n <script>`; run `shellcheck` if available.
42- `chmod +x <script>`.
43- 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_secret` name exactly matches a `secrets.*` reference in CI.
44- 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.

4. Verify and hand off

  • bash -n <script>; run shellcheck if 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_secret name exactly matches a secrets.* 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.
Raw lines 39 to 44

From mattpocock/skills at 4ae2317, 2026-10-31. Skills read by DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on 2026-11-04. Summary and techniques by Claude Opus 5.5 on 2026-11-06.