Hotel GOAT — Printing Press CLI
Prerequisites: Install the CLI
This skill drives the hotel-goat-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:
- Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to
$HOME/.local/binon macOS/Linux and%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\binon Windows:npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install hotel-goat --cli-only - Verify:
hotel-goat-pp-cli --version - Ensure the reported install directory is on
$PATHfor 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 1.26.6 or newer):
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/hotel-goat/cmd/hotel-goat-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
Reach for hotel-goat whenever a user needs to search hotels by location and date range, find the cheapest dates in a window, find hotels near a specific address, or save properties to a local wishlist. Pair it with flight-goat when composing an itinerary; both share the same flag and envelope shape so a future travel-pp-cli orchestrator is a thin merge layer. Skip it when the user wants to actually book (Google Hotels is metasearch — hotel-goat surfaces the OTA deep-link, then the user books on the OTA).
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.
Agent-native plumbing
hotels— Dotted-path selection through nested results.prices[], results.booking_urls, results.images[]. Returns only the fields the agent needs.Use when you need only a couple of fields per hotel rather than the full nested response.
hotel-goat-pp-cli hotels "San Francisco" 2026-08-15 2026-08-17 --agent --select results.name,results.rating,results.price_per_night,results.booking_urls.primary
Command Reference
hotels — Hotel search results from Google Hotels for a location + date range
hotel-goat-pp-cli hotels— Search hotels by location and date range.
hotel — Single-property commands
hotel-goat-pp-cli hotel show <property-token>— Full property detail by Google's property_tokenhotel-goat-pp-cli hotel reviews <property-token>— Review breakdown for one property
Finding the right command
When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:
hotel-goat-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
Filtered search with European currency
hotel-goat-pp-cli hotels "Paris" 2026-07-20 2026-07-23 --currency EUR --hotel-class 4,5 --max-price 300 --sort cheapest
Premium 4-5 star hotels in Paris under €300/night, sorted cheapest.
Agent-friendly nested-field selection
hotel-goat-pp-cli hotels "San Francisco" 2026-08-15 2026-08-17 --agent --select results.name,results.rating,results.price_per_night,results.booking_urls.primary
Returns only the four fields the agent needs, not the full per-result payload.
Property detail by token
hotel-goat-pp-cli hotel show <property-token>
Full property details (amenities, nearby places, full image gallery) from a property_token returned by the search.
Save and recall properties
hotel-goat-pp-cli wishlist add <property-token> && hotel-goat-pp-cli wishlist list
Local-SQLite wishlist: save properties from searches, list them later.
Health check
hotel-goat-pp-cli doctor
Confirms network reachability to Google Hotels and that the parser still finds AF_initDataCallback blobs.
Auth Setup
No authentication required. Google Hotels SSR is publicly accessible. Set Accept-Language via the system locale; pass --currency EUR to get pricing in another currency.
Run hotel-goat-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 —
--selectkeeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:hotel-goat-pp-cli hotels "San Francisco" 2026-08-15 2026-08-17 --agent --select results.name,results.price_per_night,results.booking_urls.primaryPreviewable —
--dry-runshows the request without sendingOffline-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 AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.
Agent Feedback
When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:
hotel-goat-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
hotel-goat-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
hotel-goat-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10
Entries are stored locally at ~/.hotel-goat-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless HOTEL_GOAT_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or HOTEL_GOAT_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.
hotel-goat-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
hotel-goat-pp-cli --profile briefing hotels "San Francisco" 2026-08-15 2026-08-17
hotel-goat-pp-cli profile list --json
hotel-goat-pp-cli profile show briefing
hotel-goat-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 |
| 5 | API error (upstream issue) |
| 7 | Rate limited (wait and retry) |
| 10 | Config error |
Argument Parsing
Parse $ARGUMENTS:
- Empty,
help, or--help→ showhotel-goat-pp-cli --helpoutput - Starts with
install→ ends withmcp→ MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above - Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with
--agent)
MCP Server Installation
- Install the MCP server:
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/hotel-goat/cmd/hotel-goat-pp-mcp@latest - Register with Claude Code:
claude mcp add hotel-goat-pp-mcp -- hotel-goat-pp-mcp - Verify:
claude mcp list
Direct Use
- Check if installed:
which hotel-goat-pp-cliIf not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill). - Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
- Execute with the
--agentflag:hotel-goat-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent - If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:
hotel-goat-pp-cli <command> --help.