pp-pvgis

name	pp-pvgis
description	The free, single-binary PVGIS CLI — JRC solar-radiation and PV-yield estimates with offline cache, multi-site... Trigger phrases: `estimate solar production at`, `what's the optimal tilt for`, `get TMY weather for`, `PVGIS yield`, `use pvgis`.
author	Roberto Bissanti
license	Apache-2.0
argument-hint	<command> [args] | install cli|mcp
allowed-tools	Read Bash
metadata	{"openclaw":{"requires":{"bins":["pvgis-pp-cli"]}}}

PVGIS — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the pvgis-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:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install pvgis --cli-only
   

2. Verify: pvgis-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure $GOPATH/bin (or $HOME/go/bin) is on $PATH.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.3 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/other/pvgis/cmd/pvgis-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the install step did not put the binary on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for pvgis-pp-cli when an agent or pipeline needs ground-truth solar-yield estimates from the JRC PVGIS service without subscribing to commercial APIs. Best when the workflow involves multiple candidate sites, repeated parameter sweeps, or downstream consumers (PVSyst, SAM, custom models) that want clean JSON or CSV.

When Not to Use This CLI

Do not activate this CLI for requests that require creating, updating, deleting, publishing, commenting, upvoting, inviting, ordering, sending messages, booking, purchasing, or changing remote state. This printed CLI exposes read-only commands for inspection, export, sync, and analysis.

Unique Capabilities

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

Local state that compounds

• sites rank — Rank a CSV of candidate sites by annual yield/kWp under the same system spec.

  Use when an agent has a list of candidate roofs/sites and needs to recommend the highest-yield one without N round trips.

  pvgis-pp-cli sites rank --input sites.csv --tilt 30 --pnom 5 --system-loss 14 --agent
  

• production sweep — Compute a 2D grid of yields across tilt and azimuth, cache it, and serve future point queries from local interpolation.

  Use before recommending a fixed-mount orientation when the user can choose tilt and azimuth independently.

  pvgis-pp-cli production sweep --lat 45 --lon 9 --pnom 5 --system-loss 14 --tilt-min 0 --tilt-max 60 --azimuth-min -90 --azimuth-max 90 --agent
  

• sites diff — Compare annual production at a baseline site against a target site under identical system specs.

  Use to quantify how much a relocation or alternate roof loses or gains.

  pvgis-pp-cli sites diff --baseline 45.0,9.0 --target 41.9,12.5 --pnom 5 --system-loss 14 --agent
  

Cross-database insight

• production compare — Run the same site under PVGIS-SARAH3, PVGIS-NSRDB, and PVGIS-ERA5; report yield deltas.

  Use when assessing confidence intervals: how much do different databases disagree at this location?

  pvgis-pp-cli production compare --lat 45 --lon 9 --pnom 1 --system-loss 14 --tilt 30 --agent
  

• weather similar — Rank cached TMYs by similarity to a target site's 12-month temperature and GHI signature.

  Use to find analog climate sites for transfer-learning yield assumptions.

  pvgis-pp-cli weather similar --to 45.0,9.0 --within sites.csv --top 5 --agent
  

Command Reference

horizon — DEM-derived terrain horizon profile — the angular height of distant terrain in 49 azimuth steps.

• pvgis-pp-cli horizon — Terrain horizon profile (printhorizon) for a site. Returns the horizon height in degrees at 49 azimuth points from...

production — PV system production estimates — monthly summaries and full hourly time series for fixed mountings.

• pvgis-pp-cli production hourly — Hourly PV production time series (seriescalc) for a fixed-mount system. Returns one row per hour over the requested...
• pvgis-pp-cli production monthly — Monthly and annual PV production (PVcalc) for a fixed-mount system. Returns monthly energy E_m, daily energy E_d,...

radiation — Solar radiation queries — monthly irradiance on horizontal, tilted, or optimally-tilted surfaces, with optional terrain horizon.

• pvgis-pp-cli radiation — Monthly solar radiation (MRcalc) for a site. Returns 12 monthly values on the horizontal plane, the requested tilt,...

weather — Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) weather data — 8760-hour synthetic year representative of long-term climate.

• pvgis-pp-cli weather — Typical Meteorological Year for a site. Returns 8760 hourly rows with air temperature T2m, relative humidity, global...

Finding the right command

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

pvgis-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

Compare three rooftops under the same system spec

pvgis-pp-cli sites rank --input rooftops.csv --tilt 30 --pnom 5 --system-loss 14 --json --select rank,site,e_y

rooftops.csv must have lat,lon,label columns. Output ranks them by annual production.

Find the best tilt for a south-facing array

pvgis-pp-cli production optimal-tilt --lat 45 --lon 9 --azimuth 0 --json --select best_tilt,best_e_y

Returns just the winning tilt and its annual production.

Dump TMY climate as CSV for PVSyst

pvgis-pp-cli weather tmy --lat 45 --lon 9 --csv > milano-tmy.csv

PVSyst and SAM consume hourly CSVs of T, GHI, DNI, DHI, wind.

Check terrain shading at a hilly site

pvgis-pp-cli horizon --lat 46.2 --lon 11.3 --json --select 'outputs.horizon_profile'

Returns the 49-point DEM horizon in degrees; ingest into pvlib or visualize.

Compare databases for a North-American site

pvgis-pp-cli production compare --lat 40.7 --lon -74 --pnom 1 --system-loss 14 --tilt 30 --json --select results.database,results.e_y

SARAH3 may not cover this longitude; NSRDB will. See how much they disagree where they overlap.

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run pvgis-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:

  pvgis-pp-cli horizon --lat 42 --lon 42 --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

• Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

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:

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

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

pvgis-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
pvgis-pp-cli --profile briefing horizon --lat 42 --lon 42
pvgis-pp-cli profile list --json
pvgis-pp-cli profile show briefing
pvgis-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 pvgis-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 pvgis-pp-mcp -- pvgis-pp-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which pvgis-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:

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

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