From the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) universe come stubbed Semi-automation, README-based development and plain text data storage.

Braintree released a framework called runbook. You can start e.g. from a ToDo-list and gradually improve until you end up with script that does whatever it should, but fully automatically.

I had fun with it. While it especially scratches some DevOps itches (with support to work on multiple remote servers via ssh and stuff) it can also be used for any other task that your computer should be able to do.

Look into the gem itself at https://github.com/braintree/runbook/.

The introductory post is a good read, at https://medium.com/braintree-product-technology/https-medium-com-braintree-product-technology-runbook-be6f072cfc0d.

The philosophy of Runbook is heavily aligned with Dan Slimmon’s Do-nothing scripting and Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto. It is designed to minimize Toil.

For some experiments, see ecovillage/operations. Included is an auto-documentation (-> markdown) feature.