| name | pp-shelters | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| description | Printing Press CLI for Shelters. Credible, real-time disaster shelter information for AI agents and people | |||||||||||||||||
| author | Abe Diaz (@abe238) | |||||||||||||||||
| license | Apache-2.0 | |||||||||||||||||
| argument-hint | <command> [args] | install cli|mcp | |||||||||||||||||
| allowed-tools | Read Bash | |||||||||||||||||
| metadata |
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This skill drives the shelters-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:
- Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to
$HOME/.local/binon macOS/Linux and%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\binon Windows:npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install shelters --cli-only
- Verify:
shelters-pp-cli --version - Ensure the reported install directory is on
$PATHfor 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/other/shelters/cmd/shelters-pp-cli@latestIf --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.
Gives agents and people the most credible open-shelter picture straight from FEMA's National Shelter System (NSS) OpenShelters feed: open shelters across all states and territories, who takes pets, who is wheelchair / ADA accessible, and who is filling up. It answers the questions people actually ask in a disaster, like 'the closest open shelter to me that allows pets' and 'which shelters are at capacity', geocoding addresses when the feed omits coordinates and never inventing a number it does not have. Deep thanks to all first responders, emergency management practitioners, and relief nonprofit organizations for the work you do in communities when disaster strikes. This is an unofficial tool; in a life-threatening emergency call 911 and follow the official guidance and evacuation orders from FEMA, your local emergency management, and your local authorities.
Do not activate this CLI for requests that require creating, updating, deleting, publishing, commenting, upvoting, inviting, ordering, sending messages, booking, purchasing, or changing remote state. This printed CLI exposes read-only commands for inspection, export, sync, and analysis.
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
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near— Ranks open shelters by straight-line distance from a lat,lon, ZIP, or street address; geocodes shelters that are missing coordinates and reports any it cannot locate rather than dropping them.Answers 'the closest shelter to me that allows pets' in one call; add --pets, --ada, or --wheelchair.
shelters-pp-cli near 78566 --pets --limit 3
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capacity— Computes utilization only where both a population and a capacity are reported, labeling the denominator (evacuation vs post-impact), and surfaces shelters reported FULL without asserting it as ground truth.Answers 'which shelter is at capacity?' honestly, marking unknowns as unknown.
shelters-pp-cli capacity --state TX
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brief— One command returns the open count, a breakdown by state, pet-friendly and accessible counts, and the capacity picture, with an optional human briefing.Reach for this first when an agent asks 'what is the shelter situation right now'.
shelters-pp-cli brief --markdown
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shelters— Open shelters flattened from the feed and filterable by state, pets, ADA, wheelchair, managing org, and status.Use to narrow open shelters to the ones that match a person's needs.
shelters-pp-cli shelters --state FL --ada --json
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shelter— Full detail for one shelter joined on the stable shelter_id rather than the churning objectid, with unreported fields as explicit null.Use when you have a shelter_id and need its full record.
shelters-pp-cli shelter 368133
shelters-pp-cli near 29.76,-95.37 --pets --limit 1 --json --select data.sheltersReturns just the nearest pet-friendly shelter so an agent does not burn context on the full feed.
shelters-pp-cli shelters --state TX --wheelchair --jsonFilters open shelters to those confirmed wheelchair accessible.
shelters-pp-cli capacity --json --select data.sheltersReports utilization where computable and flags reported-full shelters, honestly marking unknowns.
shelters-pp-cli brief --markdownBundles open count, by-state, accessibility, and capacity into a single human-readable briefing.
All commands are read-only and need no API key. They fetch the live FEMA OpenShelters feed (or a --fixture file for offline use), and emit a {source, fetched_at, data} JSON envelope.
shelters-pp-cli shelters(aliaslist) — Open shelters, filterable by--state,--pets,--ada,--wheelchair,--org,--status,--limit.shelters-pp-cli shelter <shelter_id>— Full detail for one shelter, joined on the stableshelter_id.shelters-pp-cli near <location>— Closest open shelters to alat,lon, ZIP, or address; geocodes shelters missing coordinates. Add--pets/--ada/--wheelchair,--limit,--max-miles. Use for "the closest shelter to me that allows pets."shelters-pp-cli capacity— Which shelters are at or near capacity, computed only where population and a capacity both exist (denominator labeled), plus any reported FULL. Use for "which shelter is at capacity?"shelters-pp-cli brief [--markdown]— One-call situational briefing: open count, by-state, pet-friendly + accessible counts, capacity picture.shelters-pp-cli gis-links— Stable FEMA service URLs and the full-NSS access path (link-out only).shelters-pp-cli credits— Gratitude to first responders / emergency managers / relief nonprofits, plus the unofficial-tool + safety disclaimer.
Quotas on honesty: coordinates are frequently null (geocoded by near, with anything unlocatable reported in a count), and capacity is never computed against a missing denominator.
When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:
shelters-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.
No authentication required.
Run shelters-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.
Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.
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Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
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Filterable —
--selectkeeps a subset of fields, with dotted paths descending into the envelope (the data is nested underdata). Critical for keeping context small:shelters-pp-cli near 78566 --pets --agent --select data.shelters
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Previewable —
--dry-runshort-circuits without sending the request -
Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag
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Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests
The shelter commands wrap output in a small provenance envelope:
{
"source": "<live feed URL | fixture:path>",
"fetched_at": "<ISO-8601 UTC, stamped client-side because the feed has none>",
"data": { ... }
}Parse .data for results and .source to know whether it was live or a fixture. A human listing is printed 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.
When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:
shelters-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
shelters-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
shelters-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10
Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/shelters-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless SHELTERS_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or SHELTERS_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.
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.
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.
shelters-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
shelters-pp-cli --profile briefing shelters
shelters-pp-cli profile list --json
shelters-pp-cli profile show briefing
shelters-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.
| 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 |
Parse $ARGUMENTS:
- Empty,
help, or--help→ showshelters-pp-cli --helpoutput - Starts with
install→ ends withmcp→ MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above - Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with
--agent)
- Install the MCP server:
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/other/shelters/cmd/shelters-pp-mcp@latest
- Register with Claude Code:
claude mcp add shelters-pp-mcp -- shelters-pp-mcp
- Verify:
claude mcp list
- Check if installed:
which shelters-pp-cliIf not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill). - Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
- Execute with the
--agentflag:shelters-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
- If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:
shelters-pp-cli <command> --help.