Pp Slickdeals

Slickdeals — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the slickdeals-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 slickdeals --cli-only
   

2. Verify: slickdeals-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):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/commerce/slickdeals/cmd/slickdeals-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 you need agent-native access to Slickdeals data — hot deals, frontpage feed, coupons, category browsing, and local deal-tracking over time. The v0.2 release expands beyond v0.1's Nuxt endpoint wrapping: it adds an RSS surface for live frontpage data and a local SQLite snapshot store so agents can track deal velocity, run compound queries, and generate merchant analytics entirely offline.

Unique Capabilities

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

• hot — Top live frontpage deals filtered by min-thumbs, sorted thumbs DESC.
• frontpage-fresh — Live unfiltered frontpage RSS feed (today's drops).
• popular — Slickdeals "Popular Deals" feed (community-voted, distinct from editor-curated frontpage). New in v0.3
• search --live — Real server-side keyword search via the q= parameter, optionally scoped with --forum N. Fixed in v0.3 — v0.2 used the wrong parameter name and silently fell back to client-side filtering.
• category — Forum-scoped RSS feed via forumchoice[]=N. Five Slickdeals-advertised forum IDs: 4 (Freebies), 9 (Hot Deals), 10 (Coupons), 25 (Contests), 38 (Drugstore/Grocery). Rewritten in v0.3 to use real server-side filtering instead of v0.2's client-side keyword map.
• coupons — Live featured coupon list with optional --store merchant filter (Nuxt JSON endpoint).
• watch — Fetch a single deal from the live frontpage RSS, optionally persisting a snapshot row for time-series analytics.
• digest — Summarize the top-N captured snapshots over a window, optionally capped per merchant and grouped by merchant/category.
• deals — Flagship SQL compound query over captured snapshots: --store costco --since 24h --min-thumbs 50.
• analytics top-stores — Merchant aggregation over a time window: deal_count, avg_thumbs, max_thumbs, first/last seen.
• analytics thumbs-velocity — Chronological thumb-count observations for a deal with per-step delta — momentum signal for arbitrage and auto-snipe.

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.

Command Reference

v0.1 Commands (Nuxt endpoint wrappers)

ad-stats — Operations on ad-events

• slickdeals-pp-cli ad-stats <id> — POST /ad-stats/{id}/ad-events

ajax — Operations on bSubNavPlacement.php

• slickdeals-pp-cli ajax create_threadrate.php — POST /ajax/threadrate.php
• slickdeals-pp-cli ajax list_bSubNavPlacement.php — GET /ajax/bSubNavPlacement.php

frontpage — Operations on recommendations

• slickdeals-pp-cli frontpage list_json — GET /frontpage/promoted-content/json
• slickdeals-pp-cli frontpage list_recommendations — GET /frontpage/recommendation-carousel/recommendations

web-api — Operations on missed-deals

• slickdeals-pp-cli web-api list_featured_coupons — GET /web-api/frontpage/featured-coupons/
• slickdeals-pp-cli web-api list_missed_deals — GET /web-api/frontpage/missed-deals/

v0.2 Commands (Live RSS surface + local snapshot transcendence)

hot — Top Slickdeals frontpage deals by thumb count (live RSS)

• slickdeals-pp-cli hot [--min-thumbs N] [--limit N] — Pulls the live frontpage RSS and surfaces only deals whose community thumb score meets --min-thumbs. Results sorted by thumbs descending. Client-side filter (the forum=9&hotdeals=1 RSS lever returns empty feeds).

frontpage-fresh — Fresh Slickdeals frontpage RSS feed (live, unfiltered)

• slickdeals-pp-cli frontpage-fresh [--limit N] — Pulls today's drops from the live frontpage RSS (/newsearch.php?mode=frontpage&rss=1). Items in feed order (newest first). Unlike v0.1 frontpage list-json, this is not Nuxt-cached.

search — Full-text search across synced data or live API

• slickdeals-pp-cli search "<query>" [--live] [--limit N] — FTS5 search against locally synced data, or --live to hit the live RSS search endpoint. Client-side keyword filter on the frontpage feed (Slickdeals' RSS does not honor server-side search= params).

category — Browse deals by Slickdeals forum category

• slickdeals-pp-cli category <id|name> [--limit N] — Fetch live RSS deals for a forum category by numeric ID or friendly name (e.g. tech, gaming). Use --list to print the full built-in category→forum-ID map. Client-side filter against the frontpage feed.

coupons — List Slickdeals featured coupons (live Nuxt JSON)

• slickdeals-pp-cli coupons [--store <name>] [--limit N] — Fetch the live featured-coupons list via /web-api/frontpage/featured-coupons/. Uses the Nuxt endpoint because the RSS coupon filter (f2=1) does not work — Slickdeals ignores it and returns the frontpage feed.

watch — Fetch a single Slickdeals deal by ID from the live frontpage RSS feed

• slickdeals-pp-cli watch <deal-id> [--persist] [--once] — Fetch the current frontpage RSS and report the matching item. Use --persist to write the snapshot to the local SQLite store for later digest/deals/analytics queries. --once is the default (v0.2); background polling is v0.3.

digest — Summarize the top deals captured locally over a recent window

• slickdeals-pp-cli digest [--since 24h] [--top N] [--merchant-cap N] [--grouped-by merchant|category] — Read the local deal_snapshots store and return top deals within the window, sorted by thumbs. Snapshots are populated by watch --persist. Empty store returns a hint and an empty envelope.

deals — Compound query over locally captured deal snapshots

• slickdeals-pp-cli deals [--store <name>] [--category <name>] [--since <dur>] [--min-thumbs N] [--deal-id <id>] [--latest] — SQL compound query over the local deal_snapshots table. Returns the latest snapshot per deal by default (--latest=true). Does not hit the live feed.

analytics top-stores — Rank merchants by deal count and thumb score over a window

• slickdeals-pp-cli analytics top-stores [--window 30d] [--limit N] — Aggregate deal_snapshots by merchant over the given window, sorted by distinct deal count then max thumbs. Window accepts the same suffixes as --since: 30d, 24h, 1w, 30m, or 0 for all-time.

analytics thumbs-velocity — Time-series of thumb scores for one deal, with deltas

• slickdeals-pp-cli analytics thumbs-velocity <deal-id> — Return the chronological sequence of thumb observations for a single deal ID. Each row carries the absolute thumb count plus delta from the previous observation (0 on the first point).

Finding the right command

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

slickdeals-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

Get today's hottest deals

slickdeals-pp-cli hot --json --limit 10

Returns the top 10 frontpage deals by community thumb score (min 20 thumbs by default), sorted descending. Add --min-thumbs 50 to raise the bar.

Track a deal over time

# Capture a snapshot now
slickdeals-pp-cli watch 19510173 --persist --json

# After multiple captures, inspect thumb velocity
slickdeals-pp-cli analytics thumbs-velocity 19510173 --json

Each watch --persist writes a timestamped row to deal_snapshots. The velocity command shows how thumb count evolved across observations with per-row deltas.

Daily digest

slickdeals-pp-cli digest --since 24h --top 20 --merchant-cap 3 --json

Summarizes the top 20 deals captured in the last 24 hours, capping any single merchant at 3 entries. Requires at least one prior watch --persist run to populate the snapshot store.

Compound query

slickdeals-pp-cli deals --store costco --since 24h --min-thumbs 50 --json

SQL filter over local snapshots: Costco deals from the last day with at least 50 thumbs, deduplicated to the latest snapshot per deal.

Browse by category

# List all known categories
slickdeals-pp-cli category --list

# Browse tech deals live
slickdeals-pp-cli category tech --json

Uses the built-in forum→keyword map to fetch live RSS deals for a named category. Pass a numeric forum ID or a friendly name (tech, gaming, home, etc.).

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run slickdeals-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 — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  slickdeals-pp-cli ad-stats mock-value --breakpoint example-value --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

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success

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 — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally at ~/.slickdeals-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless SLICKDEALS_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or SLICKDEALS_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.

slickdeals-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
slickdeals-pp-cli --profile briefing ad-stats mock-value --breakpoint example-value
slickdeals-pp-cli profile list --json
slickdeals-pp-cli profile show briefing
slickdeals-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 slickdeals-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

Install the MCP binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release, then register it:

claude mcp add slickdeals-pp-mcp -- slickdeals-pp-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which slickdeals-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:

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

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