Instruction Mode

By default, Runbooks is interactive: when you click Run, Authenticate, Generate, Clone, or Create PR, the app performs that action on your machine — it executes scripts, captures credentials, renders templates to disk, and talks to git and GitHub for you.

Instruction mode flattens that same runbook into an explicit, ordered, copy-pasteable set of instructions you run yourself. The document still renders top to bottom with the same prose; only the blocks change — from “do it for me” to “here is exactly what to do, and a button to copy it.”

When instruction mode is on, Runbooks performs no actions: nothing is executed, no credentials are captured, and no files, clones, or pull requests are written. Every block becomes a description of what to do by hand.

When to use it

• Windows and other non-POSIX environments. Many runbook scripts and the boilerplate generator assume a Unix-style shell. Instruction mode shows the exact command so you can run it (or adapt it to PowerShell) yourself.
• Locked-down or managed machines where the app can’t run scripts, write files, or hold credentials.
• Transparency. Read exactly what would run, then do it yourself, in your own terminal, fully in control.

Turning it on

Instruction mode is a global setting, modeled on the light/dark theme control:

1. Open the Menu in the top-right of the window.
2. Under Mode, toggle Instruction mode.

The setting is remembered across launches and is off by default. Toggling it off instantly restores the interactive experience with no loss of state. While it is on, a banner at the top of every runbook reminds you that nothing runs automatically.

What each block becomes

Block	Interactive	Instruction mode
Command / Check	Run button; the app executes the script	”Run this:” with the resolved command in a copy block. File-backed scripts keep the source viewer.
AwsAuth	SSO / profile / key UI; captures credentials	”Log into AWS in the <account> account” (with the configured SSO details). No capture.
GitHubAuth	OAuth / PAT entry; holds a token	”Log into GitHub” noting the scopes the block needs. No capture.
Inputs	Form you fill	Still a form — it’s how you supply values that get substituted into the displayed commands.
Template	Generate button; renders boilerplate to disk	The variable form plus a copy-pasteable boilerplate invocation. No files written.
TemplateInline	Inline rendered preview	The rendered text as a copy block.
GitClone	Clone button	A copyable git clone … command (with a sparse-checkout note for sub-paths).
GitHubPullRequest	Create PR button	A copyable gh pr create … command, plus a reminder to push your branch first.
DirPicker	Native directory picker	An instruction to choose a directory; the path you enter flows into later commands.
Admonition	Static callout	Unchanged.

Filling in values

Runbooks substitutes every value you supply into the displayed commands, so you never see an unresolved {{ … }} template:

• Inputs form values are substituted directly into the commands shown.
• Values produced by an earlier step (a script’s outputs) can’t be known by the app, because it runs nothing. When a command needs one, instruction mode shows a small field labeled with the value it stands in for (for example, account_id — output of step create_account). Run that earlier step yourself, then paste the value in; the command updates as you type.

Tracking your progress

Each step has a Mark as done checkbox in its top-right corner. Tick it once you’ve performed that step by hand and the block turns green, so you can see at a glance what’s left. Your progress is remembered per runbook across reloads and even if you toggle instruction mode off and back on.

Notes

• Fidelity. Commands are resolved with the same template engine the interactive UI uses to preview them. If that engine is unavailable, a simpler client-side resolver is used and a small note is shown.
• Instruction mode is a rendering mode for a human reading the app — it is not a headless CLI or CI runner.