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I'm looking to automate more of my repetitive tasks but I'm not sure where to start. What programming workflow automation approaches have worked well for you? I'm interested in both simple scripts and more complex systems. How do you decide what's worth automating versus what's better done manually? Are there particular programmer productivity tools that excel at automation?

For programming workflow automation, start by identifying repetitive tasks you do daily. Build scripts for those first. Common candidates: project setup, database migrations, deployment steps, test runs. Use shell scripts, Makefiles, or task runners like npm scripts. The decision to automate comes down to frequency: if you do it more than a few times a week, consider automating.

I automate anything that's tedious and error-prone. Database backups, environment setup, dependency updates. For programmer productivity tools, I love tools that watch files and automatically run tests or restart servers. The key is to start small a simple bash script is better than no automation. Also, document your automation so others (or future you) can understand it.

Consider the maintenance cost of automation. Simple scripts are easier to maintain than complex systems. I use configuration management tools for environment setup, CI/CD pipelines for testing and deployment, and custom scripts for project-specific tasks. The best automation is invisible it just works and you forget it's there until you see someone doing things manually.

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