We're big proponents of "work smarter, not harder" here at XDA, and that means figuring out how to automate as much of our daily workload as possible. Whether that's using IFTTT to link different systems together, automating Excel worksheets, or using Ansible to build out your home lab, there's always a way to make long tasks easier and repeatable. While you could install multiple apps to accomplish automation tasks, there are plenty of command line tools that can abstract away complex tasks, whichever operating system you're using at the time.

7 Bash

This command processor can easily be scripted to automate tasks

Bash is the ubiquitous CLI shell for almost every Linux system. It's also popular on macOS, and thanks to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you can use it on Windows. You can automate almost anything you want on your OS, from small tasks to multi-line CLI strings to solve complex tasks. Because of how many bash users there are, it's easy to find answers to any questions you may have as you learn about scripting, and it also serves as documentation of administration tasks, in case someone else has to take over your duties.

6 PowerShell

Not just limited to Windows anymore, PowerShell is powerful on every OS

The PowerShell CLI and scripting language is no longer limited to Windows users, and works on macOS and Linux as well. Because of this, you might find some automation tasks are easier to set up in PowerShell than any other tool, and if you're already familiar with .NET, it's a perfect choice.

Set up PowerShell scripts for filtering CSV data, system admin tasks, or setting up new VMs to toy with in your home lab. It's also the best way to automate annoying tasks in Exchange, Active Directory, or any other Microsoft product, and you can now use it on any operating system.

5 Ansible

Automate the setup and recovery of many computing tasks

Ansible is a fantastic tool for automating many computing tasks, including those in the home lab. It uses YAML-encoded Playbooks to orchestrate long-winded setup processes with ease, but that's not all it can do. Because it can automate tasks on almost every device in your home, it can also be used to set up your home network or smart home devices or run backup jobs.

It's also perfect if everything goes wrong, because your documented Playbooks have everything they need in them to get your system back to the state it was before you broke things. Just spin up a new VM and run your Ansible Playbook to get every package you need installing with one command.

4 Puppet

Automate repetitive network tasks because nobody likes doing them the long way

Another open-source task-based automation tool is Puppet, which looks very similar to Ansible at first glance but is designed for a different environment. Puppet is more powerful because it can set specific working states, whether that's to the last known working configuration or to a new desired state, with only a few commands needed. That makes it a highly useful deployment tool and also a maintenance tool once your home lab is up.

To enable this extra level of control, Puppet needs a client running on each server or machine that it's going to be managing. It's not uncommon for another deployment tool to be used first to get the infrastructure up and the Puppet client enabled, and then this powerful tool takes over.

3 Terraform

Manage your home lab with ease

While many automation tools handle the configuration of VMs or servers to suit your needs, Terraform is a powerful provisioning tool to get your infrastructure stack in place before you build your home lab or other configurations. It works with on-premises and cloud services and can build infrastructure in the correct order so that dependencies are maintained.

It's similar to Ansible in this regard, but instead of YAML, it uses Infrastructure as Code (IaC) written in declarative language. Thus, your infrastructure is not only documented but also reproducible from the original configuration documents. That makes it easy to scale infrastructure over however many servers you need.

Plus, it's extensible with plugins to configure the infrastructure once set up and can also use configuration management software like Puppet in the final stages. It makes it incredibly routine to spin up new resources as you need them, and is a powerful CLI tool for the home lab.

2 Zoxide

Make it easier to move between folders using your CLI

One of the most tedious tasks when using the CLI is going back to previously used folders. Even when the terminal emulator saves the last hundred lines or whatever you have it set to, it's annoying to use the arrow keys to navigate through the saved entries. It's even more annoying to type out the folder tree structure each time, but with Zoxide, you don't need to do either.

Once installed in your shell, you use z instead of cd to move through directories. The first time you manually type out a folder, the program will remember it, and then you can go back by just typing z folder instead of the full path. Automation doesn't have to be long and complex. Sometimes, it's all about removing extra steps from the tasks you use the most so that the time savings add up quickly.

1 AI assistants

Finally, a use for AI that doesn't just make stuff up

Do you need some web research and don't have the time to scroll through pages of search results? Wish your shopping list would magically turn into an online grocery order? Well, you might be in luck because those are some of the tasks that you can use AI agents, like OpenAI's Operator, Anthropic's Computer Use, or Google's Project Mariner, to accomplish with a short text-based prompt.

Okay, it's not a traditional CLI, but with AI agents being the hot thing right now, there's every chance that the traditional command line will get similar features in the future. What's more, the automation that these AI tools bring requires very little setup time or technical knowledge to use. That means you can automate more things faster and get on with your day. You'll still want to check your shopping basket before you check out, but one day, you might not even have to do that.

The command line is your best friend when you get into advanced scripting for automation tasks

While there are plenty of app-based automation tools, they can take longer to use or set up and most of them are limited to one operating system. By using command line interface tools, you get the same automations on every operating system you use, so you can build things once and gain even more time back. Plus, it's always fun to play around in the CLI.