diff --git a/.pylintrc b/.pylintrc
index 970b010..374c053 100644
--- a/.pylintrc
+++ b/.pylintrc
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [MASTER]
-disable=missing-module-docstring
+disable=missing-module-docstring,missing-class-docstring,missing-function-docstring
 ignored-classes=Column
 load-plugins=pylint_flask,pylint_flask_sqlalchemy
 max-line-length=120
diff --git a/app/cli/__init__.py b/app/cli/__init__.py
index e69de29..8db1e74 100644
--- a/app/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/app/cli/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import argparse
+from abc import abstractmethod
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    _SubparserType = argparse._SubParsersAction[argparse.ArgumentParser]  # pylint: disable=protected-access
+else:
+    _SubparserType = Any
+
+
+class BaseCliHandler:
+    def __init__(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
+        self.args = args
+
+    @classmethod
+    @abstractmethod
+    def add_subparser_to(cls, subparsers: _SubparserType) -> None:
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def run(self) -> None:
+        raise NotImplementedError
diff --git a/app/cli/__main__.py b/app/cli/__main__.py
index dde778f..ff38806 100644
--- a/app/cli/__main__.py
+++ b/app/cli/__main__.py
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ def parse_args(argv: List[str]) -> None:
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    verbose = "-v" in sys.argv or "--verbose" in sys.argv
+    VERBOSE = "-v" in sys.argv or "--verbose" in sys.argv
     logging.basicConfig(
-        level=logging.DEBUG if verbose else logging.INFO)
+        level=logging.DEBUG if VERBOSE else logging.INFO)
     logging.debug("Arguments: %s", sys.argv)
     parse_args(sys.argv)
diff --git a/app/cli/automate.py b/app/cli/automate.py
index 2395af9..fc91e6c 100644
--- a/app/cli/automate.py
+++ b/app/cli/automate.py
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-import argparse
 import datetime
 import json
 import logging
 from traceback import TracebackException
-from typing import Type, TYPE_CHECKING, Any
+from typing import Type
 
 from app import app
+from app.cli import _SubparserType, BaseCliHandler
 from app.extensions import db
 from app.models.activity import Activity
 from app.models.automation import Automation, AutomationState, AutomationLogs
@@ -30,12 +30,6 @@ from app.terraform.list.s3 import ListS3Automation
 from app.terraform.proxy.azure_cdn import ProxyAzureCdnAutomation
 from app.terraform.proxy.cloudfront import ProxyCloudfrontAutomation
 
-
-if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    _SubparserType = argparse._SubParsersAction[argparse.ArgumentParser]
-else:
-    _SubparserType = Any
-
 jobs = {
     x.short_name: x
     for x in [
@@ -63,6 +57,13 @@ jobs = {
 
 
 def run_all(**kwargs: bool) -> None:
+    """
+    Run all automation tasks.
+
+    :param kwargs: this function takes the same arguments as :func:`run_job` and will pass the same arguments
+                   to every task
+    :return: None
+    """
     for job in jobs.values():
         run_job(job, **kwargs)  # type: ignore
 
@@ -100,10 +101,10 @@ def run_job(job_cls: Type[BaseAutomation], *,
         # the error handling process isn't really handling the error, but rather causing it
         # to be logged for investigation. Catching more specific exceptions would just mean that
         # others go unrecorded and are difficult to debug.
-    except Exception as e:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
-        tb = TracebackException.from_exception(e)
+    except Exception as exc:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
+        trace = TracebackException.from_exception(exc)
         success = False
-        logs = "\n".join(tb.format())
+        logs = "\n".join(trace.format())
     if success:
         automation.state = AutomationState.IDLE
         automation.next_run = datetime.datetime.utcnow() + datetime.timedelta(
@@ -128,7 +129,7 @@ def run_job(job_cls: Type[BaseAutomation], *,
     db.session.commit()
 
 
-class AutomateCliHandler:
+class AutomateCliHandler(BaseCliHandler):
     @classmethod
     def add_subparser_to(cls, subparsers: _SubparserType) -> None:
         parser = subparsers.add_parser("automate", help="automation operations")
@@ -139,9 +140,6 @@ class AutomateCliHandler:
         parser.add_argument("--ignore-schedule", help="run job even if it's not time yet", action="store_true")
         parser.set_defaults(cls=cls)
 
-    def __init__(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
-        self.args = args
-
     def run(self) -> None:
         with app.app_context():
             if self.args.job:
diff --git a/app/cli/db.py b/app/cli/db.py
index a1d81dc..9b81a24 100644
--- a/app/cli/db.py
+++ b/app/cli/db.py
@@ -1,22 +1,16 @@
-import argparse
 import csv
 import datetime
 import logging
 import sys
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any
 
 from app import app
+from app.cli import _SubparserType, BaseCliHandler
 from app.extensions import db
 from app.models.base import Group, MirrorList
 from app.models.bridges import Bridge, BridgeConf
 from app.models.mirrors import Origin, Proxy
 from app.models.alarms import Alarm, AlarmState
 
-if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    _SubparserType = argparse._SubParsersAction[argparse.ArgumentParser]
-else:
-    _SubparserType = Any
-
 models = {
     "bridge": Bridge,
     "bridgeconf": BridgeConf,
@@ -31,8 +25,8 @@ models = {
 def export(model: db.Model) -> None:
     out = csv.writer(sys.stdout)
     out.writerow(model.csv_header())
-    for r in model.query.all():
-        out.writerow(r.csv_row())
+    for row in model.query.all():
+        out.writerow(row.csv_row())
 
 
 def impot(model: db.Model) -> None:
@@ -46,35 +40,35 @@ def impot(model: db.Model) -> None:
                     sys.exit(1)
                 first = False
                 continue
-            x = model()
-            for i in range(len(header)):
-                if header[i] in ["added", "updated", "destroyed", "deprecated", "last_updated", "terraform_updated"]:
+            new_entity = model()
+            for idx, field_name in header:
+                if field_name in ["added", "updated", "destroyed", "deprecated", "last_updated", "terraform_updated"]:
                     # datetime fields
-                    if line[i] == "":
-                        line[i] = None  # type: ignore
+                    if line[idx] == "":
+                        line[idx] = None  # type: ignore
                     else:
-                        line[i] = datetime.datetime.strptime(line[i], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")  # type: ignore
-                elif header[i] in ["eotk", "auto_rotation", "smart"]:
+                        line[idx] = datetime.datetime.strptime(line[idx], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")  # type: ignore
+                elif field_name in ["eotk", "auto_rotation", "smart"]:
                     # boolean fields
-                    line[i] = line[i] == "True"  # type: ignore
-                elif header[i].endswith("_id") and line[i] == "":
+                    line[idx] = line[idx] == "True"  # type: ignore
+                elif field_name.endswith("_id") and line[idx] == "":
                     # integer foreign keys
-                    line[i] = None  # type: ignore
-                elif header[i] in ["alarm_state"]:
+                    line[idx] = None  # type: ignore
+                elif field_name in ["alarm_state"]:
                     # alarm states
-                    line[i] = getattr(AlarmState, line[i][len("AlarmState."):])
-                setattr(x, header[i], line[i])
-            db.session.add(x)
+                    line[idx] = getattr(AlarmState, line[idx][len("AlarmState."):])
+                setattr(new_entity, field_name, line[idx])
+            db.session.add(new_entity)
         db.session.commit()
         logging.info("Import completed successfully")
         # Many things can go wrong in the above, like IO, format or database errors.
         # We catch all the errors and ensure the database transaction is rolled back, and log it.
-    except Exception as e:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
-        logging.exception(e)
+    except Exception as exc:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
+        logging.exception(exc)
         db.session.rollback()
 
 
-class DbCliHandler:
+class DbCliHandler(BaseCliHandler):
     @classmethod
     def add_subparser_to(cls, subparsers: _SubparserType) -> None:
         parser = subparsers.add_parser("db", help="database operations")
@@ -84,9 +78,6 @@ class DbCliHandler:
                             help="import data from CSV format", dest="impot")
         parser.set_defaults(cls=cls)
 
-    def __init__(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
-        self.args = args
-
     def run(self) -> None:
         with app.app_context():
             if self.args.export:
diff --git a/app/cli/list.py b/app/cli/list.py
index 9b86091..5abe454 100644
--- a/app/cli/list.py
+++ b/app/cli/list.py
@@ -1,23 +1,18 @@
-import argparse
 import json
 import logging
 import sys
-from typing import Callable, TYPE_CHECKING, Any
+from typing import Callable, Any
 
 from app import app
+from app.cli import _SubparserType, BaseCliHandler
 from app.lists import lists
 
-if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    _SubparserType = argparse._SubParsersAction[argparse.ArgumentParser]
-else:
-    _SubparserType = Any
-
 
 def dump(list_f: Callable[[], Any]) -> None:
     json.dump(list_f(), sys.stdout, indent=2)
 
 
-class ListCliHandler:
+class ListCliHandler(BaseCliHandler):
     @classmethod
     def add_subparser_to(cls, subparsers: _SubparserType) -> None:
         parser = subparsers.add_parser("list", help="list operations")
@@ -25,9 +20,6 @@ class ListCliHandler:
                             help="dump a list in JSON format")
         parser.set_defaults(cls=cls)
 
-    def __init__(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
-        self.args = args
-
     def run(self) -> None:
         with app.app_context():
             if self.args.dump: