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name pp-pointhound
description Every Pointhound flight search, plus a local SQLite of every deal you've ever seen, balance-aware reachability, and... Trigger phrases: `find award flight`, `redeem credit card points for flight`, `pointhound search`, `where can I fly with my points`, `check pointhound for new deals`, `use pointhound`, `run pointhound`.
author salmonumbrella
license Apache-2.0
argument-hint <command> [args] | install cli|mcp
allowed-tools Read Bash
metadata
openclaw
requires
bins
pointhound-pp-cli

Pointhound — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the pointhound-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 pointhound --cli-only
  2. Verify: pointhound-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):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/pointhound/cmd/pointhound-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.

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI whenever you need to compound award-search work: comparing multiple routes, tracking deals over time, asking balance-aware questions, or wiring Pointhound into a daily cron. The web UI is fine for one-off searches but loses everything when you close the tab; this CLI keeps every snapshot in a local SQLite for SQL queries, drift detection, and cross-route ranking.

When Not to Use This CLI

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.

Unique Capabilities

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

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-observed traffic context.

  • Capture coverage: 30 API entries from 134 total network entries
  • Protocols: rest_json (95% confidence)
  • Auth signals: none; cookie — cookies: cf_clearance, ph_session
  • 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).
  • Caveats: :; :

Command Reference

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.

Finding the right command

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

pointhound-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

Where can I fly in business this fall with my Chase UR?

pointhound-pp-cli from-home SFO --balance "ur:250000" --search-ids ofs_xxx --cabin business --month 2026-10 --json --select destinationCode,bestEffectivePoints,sourceIdentifier

from-home does the transfer-ratio math locally; --select narrows the response to four fields so an agent doesn't drown in offer detail.

Watch a tough route for a new deal

pointhound-pp-cli watch SFO HND 2026-12-22 --search-id ofs_xxx --cabin business --quiet

watch exits 2 only when something changes, so the && only fires on actual news. Wire it into launchd or cron.

What did SFO-LIS look like last week vs today?

pointhound-pp-cli drift SFO LIS 2026-06-15 --cabin economy --json

drift joins two snapshots in local SQLite and shows per-offer new/cheaper/disappeared status — the question that has no web-UI equivalent.

Best month to fly SFO-NRT in business

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

Fan-out search across 12 months, groupby cheapest-per-month.

Which earn programs feed Aeroplan?

pointhound-pp-cli transferable-sources united --search-id ofs_xxx --json

Local lookup of Pointhound's transferOptions catalog. No web equivalent.

Auth Setup

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 status — the CLI reads your existing Pointhound login cookies from Chrome (cf_clearance + ph_session) so no separate token is needed.

Run pointhound-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:

    pointhound-pp-cli offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 --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 — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally at ~/.pointhound-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless POINTHOUND_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or POINTHOUND_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.

pointhound-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
pointhound-pp-cli --profile briefing offers list --search-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
pointhound-pp-cli profile list --json
pointhound-pp-cli profile show briefing
pointhound-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
4 Authentication required
5 API error (upstream issue)
7 Rate limited (wait and retry)
10 Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

  1. Empty, help, or --help → show pointhound-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

Install the MCP binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release, then register it:

claude mcp add pointhound-pp-mcp -- pointhound-pp-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

  1. Check if installed: which pointhound-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: 
    pointhound-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
  4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: pointhound-pp-cli <command> --help.