pp-apartments

What this skill does

<!-- GENERATED FILE — DO NOT EDIT.
     This file is a verbatim mirror of library/other/apartments/SKILL.md,
     regenerated post-merge by tools/generate-skills/. Hand-edits here are
     silently overwritten on the next regen. Edit the library/ source instead.
     See the repository agent guide, section "Generated artifacts: registry.json, cli-skills/". -->

# Apartments.com — Printing Press CLI

## Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the `apartments-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 `$HOME/.local/bin` on macOS/Linux and `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin` on Windows:
   ```bash
   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install apartments --cli-only
   ```
2. Verify: `apartments-pp-cli --version`
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on `$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 1.26.3 or newer):

```bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/other/apartments/cmd/apartments-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 when an agent or human needs structured Apartments.com data and needs the workflows the website itself doesn't expose: cross-search diffs over time, $/sqft and total-cost-of-occupancy rankings, multi-slug union queries, side-by-side comparison, and digest-style summaries. Reach for it for relocation tracking, value-per-dollar screens across shortlists, leasing-agent weekly digests, and any rental-search scenario that needs JSON + offline composition. Skip it for one-off browsing — the apartments.com website is fine for that.

## 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.

### Time-series intelligence
- **`watch`** — Re-run a stored search and surface what's NEW, REMOVED, or PRICE-CHANGED since the last sync.

  _Pick this when an agent is tracking a relocation over time and needs a reproducible 'what changed since last week' digest, not a fresh search._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli watch austin-2br --json --since 7d
  ```
- **`drops`** — List listings whose max-rent dropped by ≥N% within a time window.

  _Pick this when timing the market or watching for distressed listings._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli drops --since 14d --min-pct 5 --json
  ```
- **`stale`** — Flag listings whose price and availability haven't changed in N days — often phantom or stuck.

  _Pick this when a listing seems too good to be true; stale ones often are._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli stale --days 30 --json --select url,maxrent,unchanged_days
  ```
- **`phantoms`** — Surface listings flagged by a three-signal join: 404 on re-fetch, dropped from saved-search results, or stale ≥45 days.

  _Pick this when prepping a shortlist for tour scheduling — phantoms waste tour slots._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli phantoms --json
  ```
- **`history`** — Time-series of every observation of one listing — rent, availability, status.

  _Pick this when reasoning about a single listing's price trajectory._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli history https://www.apartments.com/example-property-1234 --json
  ```

### Cross-market joins
- **`nearby`** — Fan out a search across multiple cities, zips, or neighborhoods and return one ranked, deduped list.

  _Pick this when an agent needs a single ranked feed across multiple search slugs without writing a fan-out loop._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli nearby austin-tx round-rock-tx pflugerville-tx --beds 2 --price-max 2500 --rank sqft --agent
  ```

### Local-store math
- **`value`** — Rank synced listings by 12-month total cost (rent + pet rent + pet deposit + pet fee), filtered to your hard budget.

  _Pick this when budget is binding and pet fees might push a listing over the line._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli value --budget 2800 --pet dog --months 12 --json --select rank,url,total_cost
  ```
- **`rank`** — Rank synced listings by ratio metrics — price per square foot or price per bedroom.

  _Pick this when value-per-dollar is the goal, not 'best match' or 'lowest price'._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli rank --by sqft --beds 2 --price-max 2500 --json --limit 10
  ```
- **`floorplans`** — Rank per-floor-plan rent/sqft across synced listings — same building can yield 4 plans at different ratios.

  _Pick this when a building has multiple floor plans and you want the cheap one specifically._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli floorplans --rank price-per-sqft --beds 2 --json --limit 10
  ```
- **`must-have`** — Filter synced listings to those whose amenities array contains ALL listed terms via FTS5.

  _Pick this when the must-haves are free-text, not in apartments.com's amenity dropdown._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli must-have "in-unit washer" "covered parking" "dishwasher" --json
  ```

### Shortlist workflows
- **`compare`** — Pivot 2–8 listings into a wide table — one column per listing — with computed $/sqft and amenity overlap.

  _Pick this when narrowing a shortlist; the wide table makes amenity-overlap deltas obvious._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli compare austin-arboretum-1 austin-arboretum-2 austin-arboretum-3 --json
  ```
- **`digest`** — Single-shot composer: new + removed + price-drops + top-5 by $/sqft + stale + phantom flags for one saved search over N days.

  _Pick this when an agent needs a Monday-morning summary in one call._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli digest --saved-search austin-2br --since 7d --format md
  ```
- **`shortlist`** — Tag-based local shortlist table; add/show/remove listings with notes and tags.

  _Pick this when an agent or user is curating a shortlist; downstream commands like `compare` read from it._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli shortlist add https://www.apartments.com/example-1234 --tag austin --note "liked the kitchen"
  ```

### Aggregations
- **`market`** — Median, p10, p90 of rent and rent/sqft, pet-friendly share, by city/state and bed count.

  _Pick this when an agent needs to anchor 'is this a fair price' against the local distribution._

  ```bash
  apartments-pp-cli market austin-tx --beds 2 --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: 0 API entries from 0 total network entries
- Protocols: html-ssr (95% confidence)
- Generation hints: use Surf with Chrome TLS fingerprint at runtime (UsesBrowserHTTPTransport), all responses are HTML/SSR — extract via html_extract mode: page, no clearance cookie capture; no resident browser sidecar, schema.org microdata (meta itemprop=streetAddress|addressLocality|addressRegion|postalCode) plus data-beds / data-baths / data-maxrent attributes are the primary extraction targets
- Candidate command ideas: rentals — Path-slug search is the primary entry point at apartments.com; listing — Listing detail page extracts schema.org microdata
- Caveats: protection-active: Apartments.com (CoStar) employs Akamai-style bot detection. stdlib HTTP returns 403; Surf with Chrome TLS fingerprint clears it. Watch for protection escalation that might require Chrome-clearance cookie import or full-browser fallback in future versions.

## Comm