I built baker (https://github.com/coezbek/baker) for this some time ago (pre-LLM mostly). It uses markdown with embedded bash and ruby commands to give you a checklist which is run both automated for commands or with human in the loop for things which aren't automated (like login to some admin panel and generate that key, copy it here).

The checklist gets checked off both by human actions (you confirm that you did it) and automated e.g. success bash command runs. So you keep a markdown artifact on where you are in your project and can continue later.

You can wrap commands to run via SSH (of course clunkier than what scotty here does, but you can select a port for SSH).

Ok.

> run them from your terminal and watch every step as it happens

> and watch every step as it happens

Yes, this is usually how scripts work.

> When everything finishes, you get a summary table with timing for each step.

> If a task fails, its output is shown and execution stops right there so you can investigate.

Yes, I write my larger scripts to do such things...

> Writing plain bash instead of Blade

Yes, probably a good idea.

Call me crazy (you're crazy!) but I'm not seeing the point.

  tar cpf - provision/ | ssh ubuntu@192.168.1.99 "tar xpf - -C /tmp && cd /tmp/provision && bash /tmp/provision/bootstrap.sh && rm -rf /tmp/provision"

I named "Ansible for the Frugal"