Silent and Unattended CLI Execution Skill
Overview
This skill provides a comprehensive reference for running command line programs in unattended/non-interactive environments. It documents environment variables, command-line flags, and configuration options to:
- Disable interactive prompts - Ensure programs run without user input
- Suppress progress indicators - Disable spinners, progress bars, and real-time updates
- Disable colored output - Remove ANSI color codes and terminal formatting
- Reduce output verbosity - Limit output to essential information only
- Force non-TTY mode - Prevent programs from detecting terminal capabilities
Coverage
- 155 programs across Linux, macOS, and Windows
- Cloud platforms, containers, version control, build tools, databases, security, monitoring, CI/CD, IaC, and more
Structure
/
├── SKILL.md # This file - skill overview
├── INDEX_BY_NAME.md # Program index alphabetically
├── INDEX_BY_CATEGORY.md # Program index by category
├── PLATFORM_COVERAGE.md # Platform coverage statistics
├── UNIX.md # Unix/Linux usage examples
├── WINDOWS.md # Windows-specific notes
├── programs/ # Individual program documentation (155 files)
│ ├── git.md
│ ├── curl.md
│ ├── aws.md
│ ├── docker.md
│ └── ...
└── scripts/ # Helper scripts (if needed)
Quick Reference
- INDEX_BY_NAME.md - Alphabetical listing of all programs
- INDEX_BY_CATEGORY.md - Programs organized by category
- PLATFORM_COVERAGE.md - Platform coverage statistics
- UNIX.md - Unix/Linux usage examples
- WINDOWS.md - Windows-specific notes (reserved filenames, etc.)
- CONTRIBUTING.md - How to contribute, program documentation format
Universal Environment Variables
These environment variables affect many programs:
| Variable | Value | Effect |
|---|---|---|
CI | true | Indicates continuous integration environment, triggers non-interactive mode for many tools |
DEBIAN_FRONTEND | noninteractive | Prevents apt/dpkg from prompting (Debian/Ubuntu) |
FORCE_COLOR | 0 | Disables colored output (Node.js, some JS tools) |
NO_COLOR | 1 | Disables colored output (growing standard) |
TERM | dumb | Minimal terminal capabilities |
TZ | UTC | Sets timezone, prevents timezone prompts |
PYTHONUNBUFFERED | 1 | Unbuffered Python output |
NODE_NO_WARNINGS | 1 | Suppress Node.js warnings |