Pp Tidycal

Tidycal — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the tidycal-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 tidycal --cli-only
   

2. Verify: tidycal-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/productivity/tidycal/cmd/tidycal-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.

Unique Capabilities

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

Agentic scheduling

• brief — Produce a contact-aware schedule brief for a day or date range.

  Use this before drafting prep notes or deciding whether a booking needs attention.

  tidycal-pp-cli brief --date today --format json
  

• triage — Identify booking problems such as missing meeting URLs, duplicate contacts, off-hours bookings, cancelled bookings, and incomplete contact data.

  Use this to decide which bookings require operator review.

  tidycal-pp-cli triage --from today --to +7d --format json
  

• propose-times — Fetch available TidyCal timeslots for a booking type and rank a paste-ready shortlist by date window, timezone, preference, and weekend policy.

  Use this when proposing meeting options in chat or email.

  tidycal-pp-cli propose-times 123 --from today --to +14d --count 3 --format json
  

• followups — Create an AI-ready follow-up queue from recent bookings without sending messages or notifications.

  Use this to prepare follow-up tasks after recent meetings.

  tidycal-pp-cli followups --from -7d --to today --format json
  

• assisted-book — Book on behalf of a contact through an inspectable dry-run and explicit confirmation gate.

  Use this only when the operator has approved the booking details.

  tidycal-pp-cli assisted-book 123 --name Ada --email ada@example.com --slot 2026-06-02T15:00:00Z --dry-run --format json
  

Command Reference

booking-types — Manage booking types

• tidycal-pp-cli booking-types create — Create a new booking type.
• tidycal-pp-cli booking-types list — Get a list of booking types.

bookings — Manage bookings

• tidycal-pp-cli bookings get — Get a booking by ID.
• tidycal-pp-cli bookings list — Get a list of bookings.

contacts — Manage contacts

• tidycal-pp-cli contacts create — Create a new contact.
• tidycal-pp-cli contacts list — Get a list of contacts.

me — Manage me

• tidycal-pp-cli me — Get account details.

teams — Manage teams

• tidycal-pp-cli teams get — Get details of a specific team.
• tidycal-pp-cli teams list — Get a list of teams the authenticated user has access to.

Finding the right command

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

tidycal-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.

Auth Setup

Run tidycal-pp-cli auth setup for the URL and steps to obtain a token (add --launch to open the URL). Then store it:

tidycal-pp-cli auth set-token YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

Or set TIDYCAL_API_TOKEN as an environment variable.

Run tidycal-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:

  tidycal-pp-cli booking-types 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

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success, and --ignore-missing only when a missing delete target 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 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:

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

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/tidycal-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless TIDYCAL_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or TIDYCAL_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.

tidycal-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
tidycal-pp-cli --profile briefing booking-types list
tidycal-pp-cli profile list --json
tidycal-pp-cli profile show briefing
tidycal-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 tidycal-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/tidycal/cmd/tidycal-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add tidycal-pp-mcp -- tidycal-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which tidycal-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:

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

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