CLI

Why I swapped GNU stow's symlink farm for chezmoi: one command to bootstrap a Mac with Homebrew packages and macOS settings, a small daily sync loop, and agent skills shared between Claude Code and Codex.

How cmd/go's script tests led me to testscript, and how to use it for CLI tests that exercise argv, stdout, stderr, exit codes, and scratch files.

Control Go test behavior with custom flags instead of build tags or env vars. Enable integration and snapshot tests with discoverable CLI options.

Learn variable indirection in Bash with ${!var} syntax. Build context-aware configs, function dispatch, and dynamic variable name resolution.

Automate environment variables per directory with direnv. Load .envrc files on entry, unload on exit. Integrate with Python venv and uv workflow.

Master Bash namerefs with declare -n to create dynamic variable references. Build generic functions for arrays and associative arrays without eval.

Replace mkdir, cp, and chmod with a single install command. Copy files, create directories, and set permissions in one step with GNU coreutils.

Organize custom scripts with comma-prefixed naming. Improve tab completion and eliminate clutter by prefixing script names with special characters.

Manage dotfiles across devices with GNU Stow. Symlink configuration files from git repo to home directory with simple, idempotent commands.

Build interactive CLI menus with Bash select statement. Create user-friendly command-line tools with option selection and function dispatch.

Format terminal output with tput instead of ANSI codes. Set colors, bold text, underlines, and backgrounds with simple commands in shell scripts.

Use the colon : command as a no-op in Bash scripts for cleaner debug output with -x flag. Alternative to echo for section markers and comments.

Automatically merge Dependabot pull requests using GitHub Actions. Configure branch protection and status checks for safe automated dependency updates.

View Python docstrings from the command line with pydoc or serve them as HTML documentation for modules, classes, and functions.

Why executable scripts shouldn't have extensions. Learn GitHub's scripts-to-rule-them-all pattern for language-agnostic project automation.