pointhound

Pointhound CLI

Every Pointhound flight search, plus a local SQLite of every deal you've ever seen, balance-aware reachability, and drift detection no other award-search tool has.

Pointhound's web search is great for one-off lookups but doesn't compound. This CLI lets you batch search 20 routes overnight, ask 'where can I go with the points I actually have' in one call, watch a route and exit-code-2 when a new deal appears, and pivot every snapshot through agent-native --json output.

Learn more at Pointhound.

Created by @salmonumbrella (salmonumbrella). Contributors: @tmchow (Trevin Chow).

Install

The recommended path installs both the pointhound-pp-cli binary and the pp-pointhound agent skill (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and other agents supported by the upstream skills CLI) in one shot:

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound

For CLI only (no skill):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound --cli-only

For skill only — installs the skill into the same agents as the default command above, but skips the CLI binary (use this to update or reinstall just the skill):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound --skill-only

To constrain the skill install to one or more specific agents (repeatable — agent names match the skills CLI):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound --agent claude-code
npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound --agent claude-code --agent codex

Without Node (Go fallback)

If npx isn't available (no Node, offline), install the CLI directly via Go (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer):

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

This installs the CLI only — no skill.

Pre-built binary

Download a pre-built binary for your platform from the latest release. On macOS, clear the Gatekeeper quarantine: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine <binary>. On Unix, mark it executable: chmod +x <binary>.

Install for Hermes

Install the CLI binary first. The installer writes binaries to a per-user managed bin directory by default: $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows.

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound --cli-only

Then install the focused Hermes skill.

From the Hermes CLI:

hermes skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-pointhound --force

Inside a Hermes chat session:

/skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-pointhound --force

Restart the Hermes session or gateway if the newly installed skill is not visible immediately.

Install for OpenClaw

Install both the CLI binary and the focused OpenClaw skill. The installer defaults binaries to a per-user bin directory ($HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pointhound --agent openclaw

Restart the OpenClaw session or gateway if the newly installed skill is not visible immediately.

Use with Claude Desktop

This CLI ships an MCPB bundle — Claude Desktop's standard format for one-click MCP extension installs (no JSON config required).

The bundle reuses your local browser session — set it up first if you haven't:

pointhound-pp-cli doctor

To install:

1. Download the .mcpb for your platform from the latest release.
2. Double-click the .mcpb file. Claude Desktop opens and walks you through the install.

Requires Claude Desktop 1.0.0 or later. Pre-built bundles ship for macOS Apple Silicon (darwin-arm64) and Windows (amd64, arm64); for other platforms, use the manual config below.

Manual JSON config (advanced)

If you can't use the MCPB bundle (older Claude Desktop, unsupported platform), install the MCP binary and configure it manually.

Install the MCP binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release.

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pointhound": {
      "command": "pointhound-pp-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Authentication

Most of the CLI works anonymously — flight offer reads, filter facets, airport autocomplete, credit-card catalog. Only the top-deals-matrix and search commands need authentication, which happens via pointhound-pp-cli auth login --chrome — the CLI reads your existing Pointhound login cookies from Chrome (cf_clearance + ph_session) so no separate token is needed.

Quick Start

# Find airport codes with Pointhound's deal-aware autocomplete (no auth).
pointhound-pp-cli airports SFO --agent

# Read the offers for a search session you obtained from the website (anonymous).
pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id ofs_xxx --cabins business --sort-by points --json --select id,pricePoints,airlinesList,totalDuration,totalStops

# Optional: import Chrome cookies to unlock search creation and top-deals matrix.
pointhound-pp-cli doctor

# The headline novel command: where can I go in business this October?
pointhound-pp-cli from-home SFO --balance "ur:250000,mr:80000" --search-ids ofs_xxx --cabin business --month 2026-10

Unique Features

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

Local state that compounds

• from-home — Tell me where I can fly with the points I actually hold — feed in your Chase UR, Amex MR, Bilt, Capital One, and Citi TY balances and get back every destination reachable in the requested cabin within those balances, ranked by lowest effective spend.

  When an agent has a goal like 'plan a fall trip' and a balance fact like 'user has 450k transferable points', this command answers the multi-step optimization in one call instead of N searches.

  pointhound-pp-cli from-home SFO --balance "ur:250000,mr:80000,bilt:120000" --cabin business --month 2026-10 --agent

• compare-transfer — Given a transferable points program (Chase UR, Amex MR, etc.) and a route, list every redemption ranked by source-program points spent — multiplying each offer's price by the real transfer ratio (1:1 instant for UR→United vs 0.333:1 up_to_72 for Marriott→United).

  Agents reasoning about 'cheapest redemption' should ask in user-input units, not airline-output units. This command does the math.

  pointhound-pp-cli compare-transfer chase-ultimate-rewards --search-id ofs_xxx --json

• batch — Issue N route+date searches in parallel from a CSV file (or repeated --route flags); all results are snapshotted to the local SQLite store with throttling.

  Multi-search is the common case for travel planning; web UIs only do one search at a time.

  pointhound-pp-cli batch --search-ids-file ~/routes.txt --throttle 1s --cabin business --json

• top-deals-matrix — Submit a multi-origin × multi-destination × month-range matrix search (e.g. SFO,LAX → LIS,FCO,LHR across Oct-Dec) and snapshot every result. Mirrors Pointhound's Premium Top Deals product but with offline access and cabin filtering.

  Travel agents and trip planners can ask 'best Europe deal this fall?' in one shot.

  pointhound-pp-cli top-deals-matrix --origins SFO,LAX --dests LIS,FCO,LHR --months 2026-10,2026-11,2026-12 --cabin business

• drift — For a watched route, diff the latest snapshot against the previous and show per-offer status: new, cheaper, disappeared, unchanged. Includes the points delta and timestamp gap.

  Answers 'did anything change?' in one terse output, which is what an agent or human re-checker actually wants.

  pointhound-pp-cli drift SFO LIS 2026-08-15 --since yesterday --json

• calendar — For a route + cabin, batch-search every month over a 12-month window and produce a month-grid showing min points cost per month (and the offer that achieved it).

  Trip-planning agents need a month picker, not a date picker, when the user says 'sometime next year'.

  pointhound-pp-cli calendar --search-ids ofs_a,ofs_b,ofs_c --cabin business --json

Agent-native plumbing

• watch — Register a route as a saved watch; subsequent runs poll Pointhound and exit with code 2 only when a new or cheaper deal appears since the last snapshot. Perfect for cron.

  The agent-native equivalent of 'tell me when something changes' — exit-code-driven, suitable for any scheduler.

  pointhound-pp-cli watch SFO LIS 2026-08-15 --cabin business --quiet && say 'new deal'

Service-specific patterns

• explore-deal-rating — Use Pointhound's scout.pointhound.com/places/search dealRating and isTracked fields to discover airports near a metro that historically have high-frequency deals, optionally chaining into batch to fetch live offers for them.

  Lets an agent narrow the search space before fan-out: 'find me cheap deals from somewhere near NYC' becomes one command, not three.

  pointhound-pp-cli explore-deal-rating --metro NYC --min-rating high --limit 5 --agent

• transferable-sources — Given an airline redeem program (e.g. United MileagePlus), list every transferable earn program that feeds it with the ratio and transfer time (instant vs up_to_72).

  Quick lookup for 'can I get to United via Capital One?' without remembering the table.

  pointhound-pp-cli transferable-sources united-mileageplus --json

Usage

Run pointhound-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.

Commands

offers

Flight offers returned for a search session

• pointhound-pp-cli offers filter_options - Get the filterable facets (card programs, airline programs, airlines) available for a given search session.
• pointhound-pp-cli offers list - List flight offers for an existing search session, with optional filters and sort.

Output Formats

# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

# JSON for scripting and agents
pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 --json

# Filter to specific fields
pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 --json --select id,name,status

# Dry run — show the request without sending
pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 --dry-run

# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 --agent

Agent Usage

This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:

• Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
• Pipeable - --json output to stdout, errors to stderr
• Filterable - --select id,name returns only fields you need
• Previewable - --dry-run shows the request without sending
• Read-only by default - this CLI does not create, update, delete, publish, send, or mutate remote resources
• Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
• Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless --human-friendly is set

Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 4 auth error, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.

Health Check

pointhound-pp-cli doctor

Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/pointhound-pp-cli/config.toml

Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.

Troubleshooting

Authentication errors (exit code 4)

• Run pointhound-pp-cli doctor to check credentials Not found errors (exit code 3)
• Check the resource ID is correct
• Run the list command to see available items

API-specific

• pointhound-pp-cli search returns 'cookie required' — Run pointhound-pp-cli auth login --chrome to import Pointhound cookies from your Chrome profile.
• offers list returns empty or 400 — The search session expired. Get a fresh ofs_* from the Pointhound website URL, or run pointhound-pp-cli search after auth login --chrome.
• from-home returns no results — Run pointhound-pp-cli sync to populate the local store with transferOptions; without it, balance math has no ratios to use.
• Rate limiting / 429 on batch — Increase --throttle (default 1s) and re-run; batch uses adaptive backoff but will surface a typed rate-limit error if exhausted.

HTTP Transport

This CLI uses Chrome-compatible HTTP transport for browser-facing endpoints. It does not require a resident browser process for normal API calls.

Discovery Signals

This CLI was generated with browser-captured traffic analysis.

• Target observed: https://www.pointhound.com
• Capture coverage: 30 API entries from 134 total network entries
• Reachability: standard_http (90% confidence)
• Protocols: rest_json (95% confidence)
• Auth signals: none; cookie — cookies: cf_clearance, ph_session
• Protection signals: cloudflare (95% confidence)
• Generation hints: primary_base_url=https://www.pointhound.com, auth_type=cookie, anonymous_read_endpoints, cross_domain_novel_commands=scout.pointhound.com,db.pointhound.com, search_create_blocked_by_cloudflare_requires_cookie_replay
• Candidate command ideas: — Primary read endpoint; verified replayable anonymously.; — Filter facets for a given search session; verified replayable anonymously.; — Airport/city autocomplete with deal-aware ranking (cross-domain — hand-written novel command).

Warnings from discovery:

• :
• :

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