New to Claude Skills? Learn how to install them →

Bmattpocock on GitHub

Bash Wizard

Free

Create interactive wizards for manual procedures in Bash.

by mattpocock212.7k stars on mattpocock/skills
3 views
Updated Aug 6, 2026
Get this skill

Free · Opens the source repo

What Bash Wizard does

The Bash Wizard is a tool designed to streamline manual processes that require human intervention, particularly in scenarios such as provisioning infrastructure, setting up credentials, or performing migrations. It generates a bash script that guides users through each step, ensuring that they capture necessary values and execute tasks in a structured manner. By utilizing a predefined template, the wizard maintains consistency and usability across different scripts, allowing for a seamless user experience.

To create a wizard, users first scope the procedure by identifying each manual step and the values that need to be captured. This involves reviewing relevant files and documentation to ensure all necessary information is accounted for. Once the stages are defined, the user maps out the exact instructions for each step, detailing the actions required and the locations of any values that need to be captured. This meticulous planning ensures that the resulting script is clear and effective.

After mapping the stages, users can author the wizard by copying a template script and replacing example stages with their defined steps. The script includes various helper functions to manage user input, open URLs, and write values to configuration files. The wizard is designed to be ephemeral, meaning it is typically used for a one-time task and can be discarded afterward unless the user opts to commit it for future use.

This skill is particularly useful for developers and DevOps engineers who need to guide team members through complex setups or migrations, ensuring that no critical steps are overlooked and that sensitive information is handled securely. The Bash Wizard simplifies the process of creating interactive scripts, reducing the burden of repetitive explanations and enhancing productivity.

When to use it

Use this tool when you need to guide someone through a manual procedure that involves multiple steps and value captures, such as setting up a new service or migrating data.

When not to use it

Avoid using this skill for tasks that can be fully automated or performed by the agent without human intervention, as it is designed specifically for manual processes.

What you can build with it

Provisioning Infrastructure

Use the Bash Wizard to guide team members through the steps required to provision new infrastructure, ensuring all necessary configurations are captured.

Setting Up CI Secrets

Create a wizard that walks users through the process of setting up continuous integration secrets, capturing sensitive values securely.

Running Migrations

Utilize the Bash Wizard to facilitate one-off migrations, providing clear instructions on each step to ensure a smooth transition.

How to install Bash Wizard

View source

1. Install with the skills CLI

npx skills add mattpocock/skills/wizard --agent claude-code

2. Or install it manually

Download the skill folder and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ to scope it to one repo. Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.

Anthropic's agentic coding CLI, and the reference implementation of Agent Skills. Drop a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills and Claude Code loads it automatically whenever a task matches the skill's description. Claude Code docs

Inside SKILL.md

Written by mattpocock

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/* (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.

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 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>; 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.

Frequently asked questions about Bash Wizard

Similar skills