| name | google-business-hours |
| description | Look up an Israeli business's stated opening hours, phone number and address from Google Business (Places API v1). Highest-coverage source for Israeli businesses. Returns weekday descriptions, structured periods and special-day exceptions. Use as the first source for any opening-hours question, then reconcile Friday/Saturday against Shabbat anchors. |
Google Business hours
Google Places API (New) is the highest-coverage source for Israeli business
hours, and usually the only one with a phone number attached.
Commands
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/google-business-hours/scripts/places.py \
search "סופר ספיר ירושלים"
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/google-business-hours/scripts/places.py \
search "מכולת" --lat 31.769 --lon 35.216 --radius 2000
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/google-business-hours/scripts/places.py \
details ChIJ...
Add --raw for the unflattened API response, --language en for English names.
Search in Hebrew by default — Hebrew queries match Israeli listings far more
reliably than transliterations.
Auth
Set GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY (or GOOGLE_API_KEY). The key needs Places API
(New) enabled — the legacy Places API will not serve these endpoints.
If the key is expired or lacks the API, the response is
API_KEY_INVALID: API key expired or SERVICE_DISABLED. The script surfaces
either verbatim with a fix hint. Tell the user the key needs attention and fall
back to the easy-co-il-lookup skill rather than guessing at hours.
Reading the output
| Field | Meaning |
|---|
regular_weekday_descriptions | The merchant's standing hours, one string per day |
current_weekday_descriptions | Next 7 days, with Google-known exceptions applied |
special_days | Dates Google flags as exceptional |
periods | Structured open/close, easier to parse than the descriptions |
business_status | OPERATIONAL, CLOSED_TEMPORARILY, CLOSED_PERMANENTLY |
The Israeli caveat that matters
Google stores clock times only. It has no representation for "closes before
Shabbat". Consequences:
- Sunday–Thursday entries are generally reliable. Use them as-is.
- Friday entries are frequently stale. The merchant set a closing time once;
candle lighting moves ~1h40m across the year. A Friday time that looks right
in December is wrong in June and vice versa. Treat it as evidence of the
rule, not as the answer — see
hours-rules-authoring.
- "Saturday: Closed" hides the motzei-shabbat reopening, which is usually
what the user actually wants to know. Google will not tell you it.
special_days is populated inconsistently for Israeli holidays. Its
absence is not evidence that a chag is being ignored. Always cross-check the
date against shabbat-anchors.
So: take Google's Sun–Thu, get the Friday/Saturday rule from the Hebrew text on
easy.co.il or from the shape of Google's own Friday time, and resolve it against
the real calendar.
Dependencies
requests. Available in the default Python environment.
