You can see my example test scripts test-cli/scripts/setup.sh and
test-cli/scripts/test.sh. They are designed to be run from the test-cli
directory.
These are set up for Elements alpha; if you want to use bitcoind (and
thus NOPs instead of OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY and
OP_CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY, as well as being vulnerable to malleability)
you can change the "FEATURES :=" line in Makefile (and make clean)
You can see other settings in test-cli/scripts/vars.sh.
As the utilities un test-cli don't keep any state, and don't talk to bitcoind/alphad, the commandlines get ugly fast (and don't handle all cases). They're only for testing.
Good luck!
Rusty.