Generate an Agent-Native CLI From Any API or Website

Open the Printing Press website (https://printingpress.dev/) and skim the examples before you install anything. The point is not just that Printing Press creates CLIs. The useful part is that it creates agent-friendly tools: compact commands, help output, and repeatable workflows your agent can call without browsing around every time.

You can also read the Printing Press GitHub repo (https://github.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press) for install notes and implementation details. Keep that link handy. In our test, giving the agent the relevant GitHub page helped it recover when it did not know how a starter skill was supposed to be configured.

Install the starter kit first. This gives your agent working examples before you ask it to generate anything new.

Run:

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install starter-pack

The starter kit includes example tools such as ESPN and flight-goat. Those are useful because they let you prove the setup works before you start designing your own commands.

Pro tip: do not debug installation and tool generation at the same time. First prove the starter kit works. Then move on to generating your own tools.

Now ask your agent to inspect the starter kit and try one safe read-only command. Use this prompt:

Inspect the starter kit. List the tools, read their help output, and try one safe read-only command from ESPN or flight-goat. Tell me which tool worked and which command you ran.

For ESPN, the agent should be able to inspect the CLI help and run a command that pulls live or recent sports data. In our Codex run, the ESPN CLI returned completed NBA playoff games from ESPN data.

If the agent gets stuck, point it back to the Printing Press website or GitHub repo and ask it to inspect the specific skill. Many generated skills include a doctor or verification command. That is the first thing to run when a starter tool does not work.

Pro tip: make sure your agent has access to GitHub. Printing Press tools often need the repo context, install instructions, or skill files to finish setup cleanly.

Once the starter kit works, install the Printing Press binary so your agent can generate its own tools:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/v4/cmd/printing-press@latest

Then ask your agent to confirm the binary is available:

Confirm printing-press is installed.

Do not skip this check. If the binary is not available, your agent should fix that before it tries to generate a new CLI.

Start with a simple site that has a lot of public data. A docs site, public catalog, sports site, recipe site, or API-backed directory is easier than a complex app with private endpoints.

Use this prompt:

Use Printing Press to generate read-only commands for [WEBSITE].
Propose the useful commands first, then generate and test them.

Ask for read-only commands first. Good starter commands are usually search, lookup, compare, export, or summarize. Save write actions for later, after you know the generated tool is safe and accurate.

If the site has an API key, docs page, or OpenAPI spec, give that to your agent. If it does not, ask the agent to look for public API endpoints and avoid private endpoints unless you explicitly provide credentials.