diff --git a/bin/README.md b/bin/README.md
index 6fa93d433..c97568e2d 100644
--- a/bin/README.md
+++ b/bin/README.md
@@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ Things in this directory can be unfinished or out of date.
 The hledger-*.hs scripts here are example/experimental hledger [add-on commands].
 See <https://hledger.org/scripting.html> for more about this.
 
-They are mostly implemented as [stack] scripts; if you have stack in your $PATH,
-they should just work, automatically installing their dependencies if needed.
-(You can also run them with [cabal], or runghc, or compile them with
-ghc, if you take care of the dependencies yourself.)
+They are mostly implemented as [stack] runghc scripts. See the comments in
+hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs for more about how to run or compile them.
+Short version: run bin/compile.sh to compile all scripts, and add this directory
+to your $PATH so they show up in hledger's command list.
 
 Scripts overview, simplest first:
 
diff --git a/bin/compile.sh b/bin/compile.sh
index 1f54298af..a613e3868 100755
--- a/bin/compile.sh
+++ b/bin/compile.sh
@@ -1,15 +1,13 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-# Compile all add-on scrips in this directory.
+# Compile all add-on scripts in this directory.
 
 cd "$(dirname "$0")" || exit
 
-echo "building hledger libraries"
+echo "building hledger libraries for scripts"
 stack build hledger
 
-echo "installing extra libraries needed by scripts"
+echo "installing extra libraries for scripts"
 stack install string-qq
 
-echo "compiling hledger-* scripts"
-for f in hledger-*.hs; do stack ghc -- "$f"; done
-  # stack script --compile would install extra libs more automatically
-  # but would also run scripts, which we don't want
+echo "compiling the hledger-* scripts"
+for f in `git ls-files 'hledger-*.hs'`; do stack ghc -- "$f"; done
diff --git a/bin/hledger-balance-as-budget.hs b/bin/hledger-balance-as-budget.hs
index 77d49a138..53db9c740 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-balance-as-budget.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-balance-as-budget.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger -- -O0
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger
 -- See hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
 
 -- {-# OPTIONS_GHC -Wno-missing-signatures -Wno-name-shadowing #-}
diff --git a/bin/hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs b/bin/hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
index 579e2ba5a..898f36b7e 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
@@ -1,24 +1,20 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger-lib -- -O0
--- Run this script once from inside the hledger source tree; it will
--- compile itself using the corresponding source version of hledger,
--- which is the version it is tested with. You can run the compiled
--- version from anywhere. It is compiled unoptimised, which takes less
--- time and probably won't be noticeable otherwise; if you care, you
--- can remove the "-O0" above.
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger-lib
+
+-- Run this script from inside the hledger source tree, so that it
+-- will use the corresponding source version of hledger, which is the
+-- version it is tested with.
 --
--- To run it interpreted, eg while tweaking it: replace "ghc" above
--- with "runghc", and run from inside the hledger source tree.
+-- You can compile these scripts by running compile.sh in this directory.
+-- The compiled executables can be run from anywhere, so you could add
+-- this directory to your $PATH and see them in hledger's command list.
 --
--- To make it a standalone script that runs from anywhere and
--- recompiles itself when changed: replace "ghc" above with
--- "script --compile --resolver lts-16" (eg).
--- However this uses the hledger version from that stackage resolver,
--- so in this case you should check out the corresponding release-tagged
--- version of this script for compatibility (eg: git checkout 1.18.1).
---
--- env -S and a multi-argument shebang line is used, rather than a stack
--- options line, because current stack won't run the ghc command that way.
--- Hopefully your env supports -S.
+-- You could make this a standalone script that runs from anywhere and
+-- recompiles itself when changed, by replacing "runghc" above with
+-- "script --compile --resolver lts-16" (eg). However this uses the
+-- hledger version from that stackage resolver, so in this case you
+-- should check out the corresponding release-tagged version of this
+-- script for compatibility (eg: git checkout 1.18.1).
 
 {-
 ```
diff --git a/bin/hledger-check-tagfiles.hs b/bin/hledger-check-tagfiles.hs
index d9051e00d..4c881aae1 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-check-tagfiles.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-check-tagfiles.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger -- -O0
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger
 -- See hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
 
 {-
diff --git a/bin/hledger-combine-balances.hs b/bin/hledger-combine-balances.hs
index 9255f2d67..ceaced4d3 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-combine-balances.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-combine-balances.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger -- -O0
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger
 -- See hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
 
 {-# OPTIONS_GHC -Wno-missing-signatures -Wno-name-shadowing #-}
diff --git a/bin/hledger-print-location.hs b/bin/hledger-print-location.hs
index 44d8e5de3..b429c5cb9 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-print-location.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-print-location.hs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger -- -O0
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger
 -- See hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
-
 --package string-qq
 
 {-
diff --git a/bin/hledger-smooth.hs b/bin/hledger-smooth.hs
index 10449a5d3..12061a0c5 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-smooth.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-smooth.hs
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger -- -O0
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger
 -- See hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
-
 --package string-qq
 
+
 -- This is an unfinished prototype, see https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1171
 -- Requires a contemporaneous version of the hledger package.
 -- Requires journal entries to be sorted by date.
diff --git a/bin/hledger-swap-dates.hs b/bin/hledger-swap-dates.hs
index cb81735cd..b644875a3 100755
--- a/bin/hledger-swap-dates.hs
+++ b/bin/hledger-swap-dates.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S stack ghc --verbosity info --package hledger -- -O0
+#!/usr/bin/env stack
+-- stack runghc --verbosity info --package hledger
 -- See hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs
 
 {-# OPTIONS_GHC -Wno-missing-signatures -Wno-name-shadowing #-}