wizard

v2026.09.24

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.

GitHub
Install command
npx skhub add akillness/wizard
Markdown
SKILL.md

Wizard

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.

This skill is imported from mattpocock/skills (MIT) and is model-invoked upstream.

When to use this skill

  • 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.

Instructions

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 references/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>; 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.

Examples

  • Apply this skill to one narrow scope first, confirm the output matches the shape described above, then widen to the full task.
  • When a step needs a fact from the repository or the environment, look it up instead of asking the user for it.

Best practices

  • Keep the upstream procedure intact; record deviations explicitly instead of silently improvising.
  • Stop and hand control back to the user at every decision point this skill marks as theirs.
  • Prefer small reversible changes, and state assumptions rather than burying them.

References

  • Upstream skill: mattpocock/skills skills/engineering/wizard/SKILL.md (commit 3cca18b, MIT)
  • Companion doc: references/template.sh
  • Asset: references/template.sh
  • Project standards: .agent-skills/skill-standardization/SKILL.md
  • Validator script: .agent-skills/skill-standardization/scripts/validate_skill.sh
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Version
Latest version metadata

Version

v2026.09.24

Published

Sep 24, 2026

Category

Uncategorized

License

Not specified

Source path

.agent-skills/wizard

Default branch

main

Latest commit

f579bfe

Tree SHA

34a09b3