Pp Productive

Productive — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the productive-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 productive --cli-only
   

2. Verify: productive-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 1.26.6 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/productive/cmd/productive-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.

A CLI over the entire Productive.io v2 JSON:API — projects, tasks, deals/budgets, people, bookings, time entries, invoices, line items, expenses, and every other resource, each with list/get plus a generic create/update/delete write surface and 11 report types. It removes the MCP token ceiling that forced line-item pulls in 15–20-invoice batches, paginates large result sets to exhaustion, and ships a local SQLite mirror for offline SQL/full-text search. On top of that full-API coverage it adds hand-built revenue-recognition commands (recognized-revenue, invoiced, reconcile, aging).

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI to extract Productive.io financial data for a revenue-recognition reconciliation pipeline: recognized revenue by budget and month, invoiced amounts via invoice attributions, unpaid receivables, and bulk raw pulls of invoices, line items, and attributions in bulk. It is the right tool when you need paginated, scriptable, offline-queryable financial data rather than interactive chat answers.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use it as a substitute for the Productive web UI for complex multi-step editing — it offers generic create/update/delete, not guided forms.
• Do not use it for interactive one-off questions where the official MCP connector is more convenient.
• Do not assume server-side aggregation beyond what the report endpoints provide; heavy cross-resource analytics belong in the local SQLite store via sync + sql.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Revenue recognition

• recognized-revenue — Pull recognized (earned) revenue grouped by budget and month across a date range in one call.

  Reach for this when you need earned revenue per budget per month for revenue recognition — it replaces a chain of manual report calls.

  productive-pp-cli recognized-revenue --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-06-30 --json
  

• invoiced — Net finalized invoiced amount attributed per budget per month, drafts reported separately.

  Use for the billed side of the ledger when comparing against recognized revenue.

  productive-pp-cli invoiced --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-06-30 --json
  

• reconcile — Join recognized revenue and invoiced amounts per budget×month and flag the deltas.

  This is the reconciliation itself — pick it to surface budgets where earned and billed revenue diverge.

  productive-pp-cli reconcile --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-06-30 --threshold 100 --json
  

Bulk extraction

• export — Stream full paginated pulls of any resource to JSONL or JSON (auto-paginated, no memory pressure).

  Use to refresh bulk raw pulls for a downstream pipeline; pair with list --csv when you need CSV.

  productive-pp-cli export line_items --format jsonl --output line_items.jsonl
  

Local state that compounds

• sync — Mirror any resource into local SQLite, then query it with SQL and full-text search offline.

  Sync once, then run sql/search repeatedly with zero API cost and no rate-limit risk.

  productive-pp-cli sync --resources invoices,line_items,invoice_attributions,deals
  

• aging — Bucket unpaid invoice amounts by age past their due date.

  Use for a quick receivables snapshot — which invoices are overdue and by how long.

  productive-pp-cli aging --as-of 2026-07-04 --json
  

Command Reference

activities — Activity-feed events

• productive-pp-cli activities get — Get one activities by id
• productive-pp-cli activities list — List activities

attachments — Uploaded files

• productive-pp-cli attachments get — Get one attachments by id
• productive-pp-cli attachments list — List attachments

bookings — Planned work / absence scheduling

• productive-pp-cli bookings get — Get one bookings by id
• productive-pp-cli bookings list — List bookings

comments — Comments on tasks/deals/etc.

• productive-pp-cli comments get — Get one comments by id
• productive-pp-cli comments list — List comments

companies — Client organizations

• productive-pp-cli companies get — Get one companies by id
• productive-pp-cli companies list — List companies

contact_entries — Contact data (email/phone/address)

• productive-pp-cli contact-entries get — Get one contact entries by id
• productive-pp-cli contact-entries list — List contact entries

custom_fields — User-defined fields

• productive-pp-cli custom-fields get — Get one custom fields by id
• productive-pp-cli custom-fields list — List custom fields

deal_statuses — Pipeline stages

• productive-pp-cli deal-statuses get — Get one deal statuses by id
• productive-pp-cli deal-statuses list — List deal statuses

deals — Sales deals and production budgets (filter --stage-type budget for budgets)

• productive-pp-cli deals get — Get one deals by id
• productive-pp-cli deals list — List deals

events — Absence categories

• productive-pp-cli events get — Get one events by id
• productive-pp-cli events list — List events

expenses — Non-labor costs on a budget service

• productive-pp-cli expenses get — Get one expenses by id
• productive-pp-cli expenses list — List expenses

filters — Saved views/reports/widgets

• productive-pp-cli filters get — Get one filters by id
• productive-pp-cli filters list — List filters

folders — Collections of task lists (boards) within a project

• productive-pp-cli folders get — Get one folders by id
• productive-pp-cli folders list — List folders

holiday_calendars — Holiday calendars per country/region

• productive-pp-cli holiday-calendars get — Get one holiday calendars by id
• productive-pp-cli holiday-calendars list — List holiday calendars

holidays — Non-working days within a holiday calendar

• productive-pp-cli holidays get — Get one holidays by id
• productive-pp-cli holidays list — List holidays

invoice_attributions — Invoice<->budget attribution amounts

• productive-pp-cli invoice-attributions get — Get one invoice attributions by id
• productive-pp-cli invoice-attributions list — List invoice attributions

invoices — Invoices and credit notes

• productive-pp-cli invoices get — Get one invoices by id
• productive-pp-cli invoices list — List invoices

line_items — Invoice line items (paginate by --invoice)

• productive-pp-cli line-items get — Get one line items by id
• productive-pp-cli line-items list — List line items

memberships — Access-sharing entries

• productive-pp-cli memberships get — Get one memberships by id
• productive-pp-cli memberships list — List memberships

pages — Rich-text docs pages

• productive-pp-cli pages get — Get one pages by id
• productive-pp-cli pages list — List pages

payments — Payments and write-offs against invoices

• productive-pp-cli payments get — Get one payments by id
• productive-pp-cli payments list — List payments

people — Employees, contractors, contacts, placeholders

• productive-pp-cli people get — Get one people by id
• productive-pp-cli people list — List people

pipelines — Sales/production pipelines

• productive-pp-cli pipelines get — Get one pipelines by id
• productive-pp-cli pipelines list — List pipelines

projects — Project workspaces

• productive-pp-cli projects get — Get one projects by id
• productive-pp-cli projects list — List projects

proposals — Sales quotes for deals

• productive-pp-cli proposals get — Get one proposals by id
• productive-pp-cli proposals list — List proposals

reports — Aggregated report endpoints

• productive-pp-cli reports booking — Scheduling/resourcing report
• productive-pp-cli reports budget — Budget-level tracking report
• productive-pp-cli reports deal — Deal/sales pipeline report
• productive-pp-cli reports expense — Expense report
• productive-pp-cli reports financial-item — Financial line-item report (revenue/cost/profit across sources)
• productive-pp-cli reports invoice — Invoice report (amounts, tax, payments, aging)
• productive-pp-cli reports line-item — Invoice line-item report
• productive-pp-cli reports payment — Invoice payments report
• productive-pp-cli reports project — Project portfolio report
• productive-pp-cli reports task — Task report (worked/estimated/remaining)
• productive-pp-cli reports time-entry — Time tracking report (hours, billable, cost)

roles — Permission sets

• productive-pp-cli roles get — Get one roles by id
• productive-pp-cli roles list — List roles

service_types — Work categories the org delivers

• productive-pp-cli service-types get — Get one service types by id
• productive-pp-cli service-types list — List service types

services — Line items on a deal/budget

• productive-pp-cli services get — Get one services by id
• productive-pp-cli services list — List services

subsidiaries — Legal entities within the organization

• productive-pp-cli subsidiaries get — Get one subsidiaries by id
• productive-pp-cli subsidiaries list — List subsidiaries

task_lists — Task groupings (milestones/sprints) within a project

• productive-pp-cli task-lists get — Get one task lists by id
• productive-pp-cli task-lists list — List task lists

tasks — Work items in projects

• productive-pp-cli tasks get — Get one tasks by id
• productive-pp-cli tasks list — List tasks

tax_rates — Tax/VAT percentages per subsidiary

• productive-pp-cli tax-rates get — Get one tax rates by id
• productive-pp-cli tax-rates list — List tax rates

teams — Groups of people

• productive-pp-cli teams get — Get one teams by id
• productive-pp-cli teams list — List teams

time_entries — Logged work time entries

• productive-pp-cli time-entries get — Get one time entries by id
• productive-pp-cli time-entries list — List time entries

todos — Checklist items on tasks/deals

• productive-pp-cli todos get — Get one todos by id
• productive-pp-cli todos list — List todos

workflow_statuses — Stages in a task workflow

• productive-pp-cli workflow-statuses get — Get one workflow statuses by id
• productive-pp-cli workflow-statuses list — List workflow statuses

workflows — Task status groups

• productive-pp-cli workflows get — Get one workflows by id
• productive-pp-cli workflows list — List workflows

Finding the right command

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

productive-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

Recognized revenue for H1, by budget and month

productive-pp-cli recognized-revenue --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-06-30 --json

The primary input for revenue reconciliation: earned revenue grouped by budget × month.

Reconcile earned vs billed and flag gaps

productive-pp-cli reconcile --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-06-30 --threshold 100 --json

Shows budgets where recognized and invoiced revenue diverge beyond the threshold.

Bulk-export line items to JSONL

productive-pp-cli export line_items --format jsonl --output line_items.jsonl

Auto-paginated streaming pull of every line item; use line-items list --csv for CSV instead.

Narrow a deep report response for an agent

productive-pp-cli recognized-revenue --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-06-30 --agent --select rows.budget_name,rows.date,rows.total_recognized_revenue

Uses --select dotted paths to keep only the fields an agent needs from a large report payload.

Offline: full-text search over synced data

productive-pp-cli search "Acme" --json

After 'sync' mirrors resources to local SQLite, search runs instant offline FTS (use 'sql' for arbitrary SELECTs).

Auth Setup

Productive uses two headers: X-Auth-Token (secret API token) and X-Organization-Id (your org id, not secret). Set PRODUCTIVE_API_TOKEN and PRODUCTIVE_ORGANIZATION_ID. Get a token from Productive → Settings → API access. Run productive-pp-cli doctor to confirm both are set and the API is reachable.

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:

  productive-pp-cli activities list --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

• Writes are explicit — read/list/report commands never mutate; create, update, and delete do (JSON:API envelope, application/vnd.api+json). Preview any write with --dry-run

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.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

• Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set PRODUCTIVE_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.

• Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: PRODUCTIVE_CONFIG_DIR, PRODUCTIVE_DATA_DIR, PRODUCTIVE_STATE_DIR, PRODUCTIVE_CACHE_DIR.

• Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, PRODUCTIVE_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.

• config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.

• Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.

• Run productive-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

• For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "productive": {
        "command": "productive-pp-mcp",
        "env": {
          "PRODUCTIVE_HOME": "/srv/productive"
        }
      }
    }
  }
  

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use PRODUCTIVE_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing PRODUCTIVE_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally as feedback.jsonl under the resolved data dir. They are never POSTed unless PRODUCTIVE_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or PRODUCTIVE_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:

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.

productive-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
productive-pp-cli --profile briefing activities list
productive-pp-cli profile list --json
productive-pp-cli profile show briefing
productive-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

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

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

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/productive/cmd/productive-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add productive-pp-mcp -- productive-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which productive-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:

   productive-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: productive-pp-cli <command> --help.