mvanhorn/cli-printing-press

CLI Printing Press – AI‑driven generator of production‑ready CLIs (and MCP servers)

What it is – A Go‑based tool that lets an AI‑assistant (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) turn any web service or API into a token‑efficient command‑line interface plus a matching MCP (Machine‑Code‑Plugin) server. It does the whole pipeline automatically:

1. Research – reads official docs, scrapes community CLIs, even captures browser traffic for undocumented sites.
2. Absorb – builds a manifest of every useful feature found in existing tools.
3. Generate – emits a Go CLI (Cobra‑based) and an MCP server that share the same client/store code.
4. Persist – creates a local SQLite store with full‑text search, incremental sync, and compound‑command support.
5. Verify – runs a scorecard, dog‑food tests, proof‑of‑behavior checks, and live smoke tests before publishing.

The result is a ready‑to‑install binary like notion‑pp-cli and a companion notion‑pp-mcp that agents can call directly, with minimal token cost.

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Why it matters for AI agents

• Speed & token economy – agents can invoke a concise CLI instead of walking through long API docs. Flags are designed for machine consumption (compact output, typed exit codes, auto‑JSON).
• Local‑first data – All fetched data lives in a SQLite DB, enabling ultra‑fast search, sql, and compound commands (stale, health, bottleneck) that a stateless API wrapper could never provide.
• Dual interface – The same generated code powers both a shell‑friendly CLI and an MCP server, so the tool works in terminal‑based agents (Claude Code, Codex) and IDE‑integrated agents (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline).
• Zero‑spec workflow – Point the press at a website (e.g., ESPN, Google Flights) and it captures traffic, reverse‑engineers an OpenAPI spec, and builds the CLI automatically.

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Quick install (binary + skills)

# one‑liner installs the Go generator and registers all Printing‑Press skills for Claude Code
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Add --cli-only or --skills-only to install just one side, and --agent codex to target Codex instead of Claude Code.

Manual alternative (if you prefer Go tooling):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/v4/cmd/cli-printing-press@latest
npx -y skills@latest add mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/skills --skill '*' -g -a claude-code -y

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Generating a CLI (the agent workflow)

1. Start your Claude Code (or Codex) session.
2. Inside the chat, run the skill:

   /printing-press <app‑name-or‑URL>
   

   Examples: /printing-press ESPN, /printing-press https://postman.com/explore
3. The skill calls the cli-printing-press binary, which runs the full 5‑phase pipeline and drops two binaries into ~/printing-press/library/<api>/:
   • <api>-pp-cli – the Cobra CLI.
   • <api>-pp-mcp – the MCP server.
4. Use the CLI directly (<api>-pp-cli --help) or let your IDE‑agent discover the MCP server.

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Core features of the generated CLI

Feature	What it does	Agent benefit
sync	Pulls fresh data into the local SQLite store.	One‑time network call, then all later queries are offline.
search / sql	Full‑text or SQL queries over the local data.	Millisecond‑scale answers, far fewer tokens.
stale, health, bottleneck	Domain‑specific analytics derived from historic data.	Gives agents high‑level insights without custom code.
--compact	Emits only high‑gravity fields (60‑80 % token reduction).	Keeps prompts short.
Typed exit codes	Machine‑readable status (0, 2, 3, …).	Agents can branch logic without parsing text.
Auto‑JSON	Emits JSON when piped, no --json flag needed.	Seamless composition with jq or other tools.

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Publishing & improving

• Publish – /printing-press-publish <api> validates, packages, and opens a PR to the public Printing‑Press Library.
• Polish – /printing-press-polish <api> runs diagnostics, fixes verification failures, and cleans up docs.
• Amend – After a dog‑food session, /printing-press-amend extracts friction points, creates a PR, and scrubs any PII automatically.

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How it works under the hood (high‑level flow)

Phase 0  Resolve spec or URL (1‑3 min)
Phase 1  Research brief – identity, competitors, data‑layer (5‑10 min)
Phase 1.5 Absorb ecosystem – catalog existing CLI/MCP features (5‑10 min)
Phase 1.7 Browser sniff – capture HAR if no spec (2‑5 min)
Phase 2  Generate Go CLI + MCP server (1‑2 min)
Phase 3  Build “GOAT” – add local store, compound commands, analytics (10‑20 min)
Phase 4‑5 Verify, score, and optionally publish

All phases are orchestrated by the cli-printing-press binary; the heavy lifting (code generation) can be delegated to Codex (/printing-press <api> codex) to save Claude Code token usage.

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Example generated CLI (ESPN)

espn-pp-cli games --date today --compact
# → JSON with NBA playoff scores, leading scorers, injury news in a single call

The same functionality is available via espn-pp-mcp for IDE‑based agents.

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Who might use this

• AI‑agent developers who need fast, low‑token tooling for dozens of services.
• DevOps / automation engineers wanting a local, searchable cache of SaaS data.
• Researchers who need to explore undocumented web APIs without writing scrapers.
• Tool builders who want to ship both a CLI and an MCP plugin from a single source.

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Links

• Catalog of ready‑made CLIs – https://printingpress.dev
• Printing‑Press Library (GitHub) – https://github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library
• Installation script – scripts/install.sh
• Docs for Codex – docs/CODEX.md
• Docs for Cursor – docs/CURSOR.md

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CLI Printing Press automates the entire lifecycle of turning any API—documented or not—into a high‑performance, agent‑friendly command‑line tool and an MCP server, dramatically cutting token cost and development effort for AI‑augmented workflows.