pp-pointhound

What this skill does

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

```bash
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._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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'._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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._

  ```bash
  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:

```bash
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 fe