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name pp-atlas-obscura
description Every Atlas Obscura search, plus a local database, road-trip corridor routing Trigger phrases: `weird places near me`, `atlas obscura`, `hidden gems along my route`, `offbeat things to do in`, `unusual places to visit`, `use atlas-obscura`, `run atlas-obscura`.
author David Bryson
license Apache-2.0
argument-hint <command> [args] | install cli|mcp
allowed-tools Read Bash
metadata
openclaw
requires install
bins
atlas-obscura-pp-cli
kind bins module
go
atlas-obscura-pp-cli
github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/atlas-obscura/cmd/atlas-obscura-pp-cli

Atlas Obscura — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the atlas-obscura-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

  1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows: 
    npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install atlas-obscura --cli-only
  2. Verify: atlas-obscura-pp-cli --version
  3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/atlas-obscura/cmd/atlas-obscura-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Search the world's hidden wonders by keyword or coordinates, pull full place detail with Know-Before-You-Go notes, and mirror it all into a local SQLite store for offline, agent-native use. Then go further than any scraper: find wonders along a driving route, save and export trips, and track what you've visited. Community-sourced from atlasobscura.com — not an official API.

When to Use This CLI

Use Atlas Obscura when a user wants offbeat, unusual, or hidden points of interest — for trip planning, road trips, or adding curiosity stops to an itinerary. It excels at corridor routing between two cities, accumulating saved trips, and offline re-querying of a local mirror. Reach for it when the task is discovery of weird/wonderful places rather than mainstream travel booking.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

  • Do not use for booking hotels, flights, or restaurants — it only surfaces places.
  • Do not use for mainstream tourist attractions or reviews; it is curated oddities, not a general POI directory.
  • Do not use for real-time opening hours or ticketing — Atlas Obscura has no structured hours; check the place's own site.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Trip planning

  • route — Find Atlas Obscura wonders along the driving corridor between two cities, not just in one place.

    Reach for this when a user is driving between two places and wants worthwhile stops along the way.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli route "San Francisco" "Los Angeles" --min-score 6 --limit 15 --json

  • cluster — Group nearby wonders into spatially tight clusters that make a walkable half-day.

    Use to turn a pile of nearby wonders into an efficient day on foot.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli cluster "Edinburgh" --radius 3 --min 3 --json

  • export — Serialize a saved trip to GPX, GeoJSON, or a markdown itinerary, fully offline.

    Use to hand a road trip to a GPS, a map tool, or a human-readable log.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli export california-oddities --format md

Local state that compounds

  • trip — Accumulate places into named itineraries that persist across sessions.

    Use to build up a trip over multiple sessions instead of re-searching each time.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli trip add winchester-mystery-house --trip california-oddities

  • visited — Record which wonders you've seen, with optional date and note.

    Use to remember what you've already seen so gaps and surprise can skip them.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli visited mark salvation-mountain --note "worth the desert drive"

  • gaps — Show good wonders near a point that you haven't visited yet, ranked by interestingness.

    Use to plan what's left to see near a place you're revisiting.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli gaps "Portland, Oregon" --radius 40 --min-score 6 --json

  • surprise — Pick one high-interest wonder you haven't visited, seeded by date so it's stable per day.

    Use in a daily agent heartbeat to surface a fresh wonder without repeats.

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli surprise --near "Tokyo" --exclude-visited --json

Command Reference

categories — Browse places by Atlas Obscura category

  • atlas-obscura-pp-cli categories <slug> — List place links in a category (e.g. cemeteries, caves, ruins)

destinations — Browse places by destination (city/region)

  • atlas-obscura-pp-cli destinations <slug> — List place links for a destination (e.g. paris-france, new-york)

places — Atlas Obscura places (wonders)

  • atlas-obscura-pp-cli places <slug> — Fetch a place detail page by slug or numeric id

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

atlas-obscura-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Plan stops along a road trip

atlas-obscura-pp-cli route "Denver" "Moab" --min-score 6 --limit 12 --json

Surfaces the best-scoring wonders within the driving corridor between two cities.

Lean nearby scan for an agent

atlas-obscura-pp-cli near "35.0116,135.7681" --radius 3 --json --select results.title,results.distance_from_query,results.url

Deeply nested response narrowed to just title, distance, and URL so an agent doesn't parse image and coordinate noise.

Build and export a trip

atlas-obscura-pp-cli trip add winchester-mystery-house --trip ca && atlas-obscura-pp-cli export ca --format md

Accumulate places into a named trip, then render a markdown itinerary with descriptions and Know Before You Go.

What haven't I seen near home

atlas-obscura-pp-cli gaps "Austin, Texas" --radius 30 --min-score 6 --json

Cross-references cached wonders against your visited log and returns only the worthwhile unseen ones.

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run atlas-obscura-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

  • Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

  • Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

    atlas-obscura-pp-cli places mock-value --agent --select id,name,status

  • Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

  • Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

  • Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

  • Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

atlas-obscura-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
atlas-obscura-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
atlas-obscura-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/atlas-obscura-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless ATLAS_OBSCURA_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or ATLAS_OBSCURA_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Sink Effect
stdout Default; write to stdout only
file:<path> Atomically write output to <path> (tmp + rename)
webhook:<url> POST the output body to the URL (application/json or application/x-ndjson when --compact)

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

atlas-obscura-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
atlas-obscura-pp-cli --profile briefing places mock-value
atlas-obscura-pp-cli profile list --json
atlas-obscura-pp-cli profile show briefing
atlas-obscura-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Code Meaning
0 Success
2 Usage error (wrong arguments)
3 Resource not found
5 API error (upstream issue)
7 Rate limited (wait and retry)
10 Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

  1. Empty, help, or --help → show atlas-obscura-pp-cli --help output
  2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
  3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

  1. Install the MCP server: 
    go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/atlas-obscura/cmd/atlas-obscura-pp-mcp@latest
  2. Register with Claude Code: 
    claude mcp add atlas-obscura-pp-mcp -- atlas-obscura-pp-mcp
  3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

  1. Check if installed: which atlas-obscura-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
  2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
  3. Execute with the --agent flag: 
    atlas-obscura-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
  4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: atlas-obscura-pp-cli <command> --help.