os-step-by-step

The user is not stuck because the task is hard - they cannot tell what they are being asked to do. This skill turns "I need something from you" into an instruction a person who does not read code can follow without a follow-up question. os-done-or-not reports that something is needed; this one says exactly how.

Language

Write in the language the user speaks in this session, detected from the conversation. Commands, file names and identifiers stay English.

When to use

Triggers live in the description above - any moment you need the user's hands, or they ask what to do.

Step 0 - earn the right to ask

Every ask costs the user a context switch. Prove it is necessary; stop at the first item that clears the block:

1. Try it. A real 403 is a finding; "I probably lack permission" is a guess.
2. Find another route. Another tool, a value already on the host, a file you can read.
3. Shrink the ask. Obtain what you can yourself; hand over only the irreducible part.
4. Check you are not asking twice - search the session and the reports folder first.

Three walls where asking IS the correct move, never to be worked around: pulling a secret into your own context, loosening a guard that is there on purpose, doing what the user said only they do.

The shape

Always this order - the ask first, never after the diagnosis.

**What I need from you: <one sentence, plain words>.**

Why you and not me: <one or two sentences. A real reason, in human terms.>

**Step 1. <action in three to six words>**
<What to do. One action only.>

**Step 2. <action>**
<...>

**How you'll know it worked.**
<What the user will see. What to do if they see something else.>

**What happens next, on my side.**
<One line: what you do once they are done, and what you will say.>

After they act - verify, do not trust

"Done" is a claim. Run the one quickest check that would fail if the step had not worked - the file exists with the right owner, the service answers, the value works once. Never print a secret to confirm it: confirm its effect. If the check fails, give only the corrected step - never the whole list again. Verified versus assumed is exactly what os-done-or-not needs for "yes" versus "not checked".

Secrets and dangerous steps

A secret never goes through the chat - it would stay in the history and the logs. The command below puts it where it belongs directly; say who deletes it and when. A hard-to-undo step - live users, money, deletion - gets its own warning line before the command.

Writing a secret to a remote host - one line: it prompts, hides the typing, refuses a truncated paste, confirms by size:

printf 'Paste the connection string, then press Enter: '; IFS= read -rs V; echo; if [ ${#V} -lt 20 ]; then echo "Only ${#V} characters - that looks truncated, nothing was saved."; else printf '%s' "$V" | ssh root@HOST 'umask 077 && cat > /path/to/secret' && ssh root@HOST 'echo "Saved, $(wc -c < /path/to/secret) bytes"'; fi; unset V

Typed by hand rather than pasted - ask twice; a typo in a hidden field is otherwise undetectable:

printf 'Enter the token: '; IFS= read -rs A; echo; printf 'Enter it again: '; IFS= read -rs B; echo; if [ "$A" != "$B" ]; then echo "The two entries differ - nothing saved, run it again."; else printf '%s' "$A" | (umask 077; cat > /path/to/secret) && echo "Saved, $(wc -c < /path/to/secret) bytes"; fi; unset A B

These templates are for bash and zsh and have not been run on Windows. There, ask the user to open a separate Git Bash window just for this command, and to leave the agent running where it is. Never write an unchecked PowerShell one.

Two properties the templates cannot keep for you, both measured:

• printf …; IFS= read -rs VAR - never read -rsp. In zsh -p means "read from a coprocess": the variable comes back empty with no error and the secret file is written blank. macOS defaults to zsh.
• The value never appears in the command itself - only piped from the variable; anything in the arguments lands in shell history and the process list.

The rest the templates already embody - one single line, umask 077 before writing, refuse short input, confirm by byte count never by content, unset at the end. Adapt the prompt, the threshold and the path; keep every property.

The same pattern serves any value the user must supply by hand - a public key, a domain, an address, an id. Prompt for it the same way; keep the typing visible when the value is not secret (drop -s), skip the length gate when short is valid - and always end with a plain-words confirmation of what just happened, so pressing Enter never feels like dropping a coin into a well.

Choices, not instructions

A decision gets no steps. Use your tool's question picker where it has one (in Claude Code, AskUserQuestion), with the pack's contract: plain question, why it matters, what changes later, easy to undo, two to four options, the recommended one first and marked. Where there is no picker, write the same question and options as plain text, the recommended one first and marked.

Hard rules

1. The ask goes first. What you tried and what failed is your problem - one line at the end, or nothing.
2. One action per step. Two commands is two steps.
3. Label every command with what it touches - the test server, the live server, their own machine. Look-alike steps on different targets: say what happens if they are swapped.
4. A command is self-contained. One line the user pastes and runs; if it needs a value, it asks for it. Never make the user feed input by redirection, a heredoc or Ctrl-D.
5. No jargon inside a step. Avoid terms instead of explaining them: write what the person sees and clicks. One unavoidable term may stay - without a lecture.
6. Always give a way to check. A step the user cannot verify is a step they will redo out of doubt.
7. Never mix your work with theirs. Two lists with plain headings; a buried "this one's on you" is not an instruction.
8. Never compress a multi-step sequence - here brevity causes misreads. Blocks of two to three sentences; longer gets skimmed, and a skimmed step is a missed step.

Known gotchas

• A heading is not a summary: "one command per host" above two commands reads as one command. Count out loud.
• A dropped step is "skip step 3" - never a silent renumber.
• If you can verify it yourself, verify it yourself; do not ask for confirmation you do not need.
• "Say done" needs a subject - the user may have three of your requests open.