pp-blacklane

name	pp-blacklane
description	Upfront chauffeur quotes from the terminal — transfer and hourly, with a local price history no other tool has. Trigger phrases: `blacklane quote`, `chauffeur from the airport`, `how much is a blacklane to`, `price a car service`, `quote a transfer`, `use blacklane`, `run blacklane`.
author	Omar Shahine
license	Apache-2.0
argument-hint	<command> [args] | install cli|mcp
allowed-tools	Read Bash
metadata	{"openclaw":{"requires":{"bins":["blacklane-pp-cli"]}}}

Blacklane — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the blacklane-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 blacklane --cli-only
   

2. Verify: blacklane-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 1.26.4 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/commerce/blacklane/cmd/blacklane-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

Reach for this CLI to price a chauffeur ride (airport transfer or hourly) without opening the Blacklane site, to compare vehicle classes and departure windows, or to keep an offline, searchable record of quotes. It never books and needs no account.

Unique Capabilities

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

Local state that compounds

• watch — Track a saved route's price over time and flag drops.

  Reach for this to catch chauffeur price drops before a trip.

  blacklane-pp-cli watch "San Francisco Airport" "Union Square San Francisco" --at 2026-06-25T15:00 --agent
  

• compare — Quote one route across many departure times to find the cheapest.

  Use when the pickup time is flexible and price matters.

  blacklane-pp-cli compare "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --dates 2026-06-20T15:00,2026-06-21T15:00 --agent
  

• log — Every quote saved to SQLite, full-text searchable and SQL-queryable.

  Use to recall and compare past quotes offline.

  blacklane-pp-cli search "Times Square" --agent
  

Trip planning

• trip — Quote a sequence of legs and total the fares.

  Use to budget a full day of ground transport.

  blacklane-pp-cli trip --leg "JFK Airport>Times Square New York" --at 2026-06-20T09:00 --agent
  

• fit — Recommend the cheapest vehicle class that fits the party.

  Use to avoid overpaying for more car than you need.

  blacklane-pp-cli fit "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --pax 3 --bags 4 --at 2026-06-20T15:00 --agent
  

Authenticated account

• bookings — List your upcoming and past Blacklane rides (requires auth login).

  Pull your ride history/status without opening the site.

  blacklane-pp-cli bookings --when upcoming --agent
  

• me — Show your Blacklane profile (requires auth login).

  Confirm which account the CLI is acting as.

  blacklane-pp-cli me --agent
  

• wallet — Show wallet credits and vouchers (requires auth login).

  Check available credits before booking.

  blacklane-pp-cli wallet --agent
  

Booking

• book — Quote and assemble a booking, then open browser checkout for payment under --confirm. Never charges.

  Assemble and price a ride in the terminal, confirm payment yourself in the browser.

  blacklane-pp-cli book 'JFK Airport' 'Times Square New York' --at 2026-06-25T15:00 --class business
  

Command Reference

catalog — Vehicle-class service catalog (models, capacity, features)

• blacklane-pp-cli catalog <slug> — Get a vehicle class by slug (business, first, van)

prices — Raw pricing quotes (prefer the top-level 'quote' command)

• blacklane-pp-cli prices — Request prices for a journey (raw body; see 'quote' for a friendly interface)

Finding the right command

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

blacklane-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

Quote and keep only class + price

blacklane-pp-cli quote "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --at 2026-06-20T15:00 --agent --select packages.title,packages.grossAmount,packages.currency

Narrow a verbose quote to just the class and total.

Find the cheapest departure

blacklane-pp-cli compare "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --dates 2026-06-20T15:00,2026-06-21T09:00,2026-06-22T09:00 --agent

Fan out quotes across times and rank by price.

Auth Setup

Quotes, the catalog, and geocoding need no auth. The account commands (me, bookings, wallet) and book act on your own Blacklane account. Easiest login — import straight from Chrome (log in to blacklane.com in Chrome first):

blacklane-pp-cli auth login --chrome

This reads your current access token from Chrome's local storage (valid ~24h; re-run --chrome to renew) and is non-invasive — it does not touch your browser's refresh session. For a durable, self-refreshing login, paste the refresh token instead (DevTools -> Application -> Local Storage -> https://www.blacklane.com -> the @@auth0spajs@@... key -> body -> refresh_token):

pbpaste | blacklane-pp-cli auth login

blacklane-pp-cli auth status / auth logout manage the session. No auth command ever places a booking; book hands payment off to your browser.

Run blacklane-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:

  blacklane-pp-cli catalog mock-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 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:

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

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/blacklane-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless BLACKLANE_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or BLACKLANE_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:

Sink	Effect
stdout	Default; write to stdout only
file:<path>	Atomically write output to <path> (tmp + rename)
webhook:<url>	POST the output body to the URL (application/json or application/x-ndjson when --compact)

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.

blacklane-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
blacklane-pp-cli --profile briefing catalog mock-value
blacklane-pp-cli profile list --json
blacklane-pp-cli profile show briefing
blacklane-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

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (wrong arguments)
3	Resource not found
5	API error (upstream issue)
7	Rate limited (wait and retry)
10	Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

1. Empty, help, or --help → show blacklane-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 blacklane-pp-mcp -- blacklane-pp-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which blacklane-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:

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

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