# Stacks Wizard > Use when a procedure needs a human in the loop and the agent has hit a wall it cannot pass alone - provisioning cloud credentials, verifying a sending domain, setting CI secrets, clicking through a registrar or third-party dashboard, or running a one-off cutover. Generates an interactive bash wizard that opens each URL, captures each value, and writes it into .env and GitHub secrets. - Skill: `stacksjs/stacks-wizard` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add stacksjs/stacks-wizard` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/stacksjs/stacks-wizard/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: DevOps & Infra - License: MIT - Author: stacksjs (https://skillmd.com/u/stacksjs) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/stacksjs/stacks-wizard --- # Wizard A **wizard** is a bash script that walks a human, step by step, through a manual procedure that is tedious to do by hand and tedious to re-explain to an agent every time. It opens each URL, says exactly what to click and copy, captures the values, writes them where they belong, confirms before anything irreversible, and shows how many stages are left. The UX is already solved by [scripts/template.sh](scripts/template.sh): stage-by-stage progress, confirmation gates, cross-platform URL opening including WSL, hidden entry for secrets, idempotent `.env` upserts, `gh secret` and `gh variable` writes, and a closing summary. **Your job is only to scope the procedure and author its stages.** Everything above the `STAGES` marker is identical in every wizard, and that consistency is the point. Never hand-edit it. A wizard is ephemeral by default: built for one run, saved to a scratch path or `scripts/`, deleted when the job is done. Commit it only when the user wants a repeatable setup path that should live in the repo. Credit: adapted from Matt Pocock's `wizard` skill (MIT), . The template library is his, unchanged except for the example stage. ## When this is the right tool Reach for it the moment you hit a step only the human can take. In a Stacks project that is a short and predictable list: - **AWS access** for `buddy deploy` and `buddy cloud`, and the IAM permissions behind them. - **Domains and DNS**: `buddy domains:purchase`, registrar nameserver changes, the delegation that has to happen at the registrar rather than in Route53. - **Email**: SES domain verification, DKIM records, moving out of the sandbox, the port 25 request. - **CI secrets**: every `secrets.*` and `vars.*` reference in `.github/workflows/*` is a value the wizard should produce. - **Server provisioning**: a Hetzner or other provider token, an SSH key added to the account, the first-boot steps. - **Payments**: Stripe keys and webhook endpoints. If the agent could just do it itself, it should. This is for where a human is genuinely in the loop. ## Process ### 1. Scope the procedure Work out every manual step the human must take and every value captured along the way. Read the repo first, do not ask cold: - `.env`, `.env.example`, `.env.*`, and `config/services.ts` for what the app already expects. - `config/cloud.ts`, `config/dns.ts`, `config/email.ts` for what the deploy targets. - `.github/workflows/*` for every secret and variable CI reads. - The relevant skill (`stacks-deploy`, `stacks-cloud`, `stacks-dns`, `stacks-email`) for which steps the CLI already automates, so the wizard covers only the gap. 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 is written (`.env`, a GitHub secret, both, or nowhere, since some stages are pure actions), and (c) whether it is secret and so needs hidden entry. ### 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 the value is shown, which variable it fills. For example "Route53 console, Hosted zones, pick the domain, copy the four NS records". Where you do not 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 `scripts/template.sh` to the target path. Replace the example stage with one `stage` per step, in dependency order. Set `TOTAL_STAGES` to the number you wrote. Use the library helpers: `stage`, `say`, `step`, `note`, `warn`, `open_url`, `ask`, `ask_secret`, `write_env`, `set_secret`, `set_var`, `pause`, `confirm`. Hold the bar the template sets: - Open the URL before asking for its value. - `ask_secret` for anything secret. - `write_env` every persisted value. - `set_secret` only the values CI actually needs. - `confirm` before anything irreversible. - One focused task per `stage`, because each stage clears the screen and anything the human still needs must not have scrolled away. In a Stacks project, finish with a stage that encrypts what you just wrote: `./buddy env:encrypt`, and for a production file the matching `buddy env:keypair` / `buddy env:rotate` step. A wizard that leaves plaintext credentials in `.env.production` has done half a job. `buddy env:check` is the verification line for the closing stage. ### 4. Verify and hand off - `bash -n