Pp Hostelworld

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Hostelworld — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the hostelworld-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 hostelworld --cli-only

2. Verify: hostelworld-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). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/hostelworld/cmd/hostelworld-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.

Resolve destinations, inspect property rules and fetch actual room plans for your dates. Source prices retain their per-bed or per-room basis; party totals are explicitly derived estimates.

When to Use This CLI

Use for Hostelworld destination search, dated hostel dorm/private comparison, payment/cancellation evidence and property rules. Japan examples apply to the provider’s worldwide source coverage.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Booking, payments, account/chat operations, traveler profiles or full review scraping.
• Guarantees of availability, safety, accessibility or atmosphere.

Unique Capabilities

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

Dated hostel decisions

• hostels compare — Compare actual dated dorm beds and private rooms with explicit source units.

  Compare actual dated dorm beds and private rooms with explicit source units.

  hostelworld-pp-cli hostels compare 67481 15725 --check-in 2026-11-10 --check-out 2026-11-13 --guests 2 --agent

• hostels dates — Check actual availability for each alternative check-in date.

  Check actual availability for each alternative check-in date.

  hostelworld-pp-cli hostels dates 67481 --starts 2026-11-10,2026-11-11 --nights 3 --guests 2 --agent

• hostels offers — Keep nightly bed, room and occupancy-slot price bases explicit.

  Keep nightly bed, room and occupancy-slot price bases explicit.

  hostelworld-pp-cli hostels offers 15725 --check-in 2026-11-10 --check-out 2026-11-13 --guests 2 --agent

• hostels offers — See rate terms and exact cancellation deadline alongside the price.

  See rate terms and exact cancellation deadline alongside the price.

  hostelworld-pp-cli hostels offers 67481 --check-in 2026-11-10 --check-out 2026-11-13 --guests 2 --agent

Saved evidence

• hostels saved — Re-read your bounded planning snapshots offline.

  Re-read your bounded planning snapshots offline.

  hostelworld-pp-cli hostels saved --agent

Discovery Signals

This CLI was generated with browser-observed traffic context.

• Capture coverage: 4 API entries from 4 total network entries
• Protocols: rest_json (75% confidence)
• Candidate command ideas: get_availability — Derived from observed GET /legacy-hwapi-service/2.2/properties/{property_id}/availability/ traffic.; get_properties — Derived from observed GET /legacy-hwapi-service/2.2/cities/{city_id}/properties/ traffic.; list_web — Derived from observed GET /autocomplete-service/v1/autocomplete/web traffic.

Command Reference

source — Observed read-only Hostelworld source contracts

• hostelworld-pp-cli source availability — Dated per-bed/per-room availability; source totals retain their units
• hostelworld-pp-cli source city-search — Dated bounded city discovery; summary from-prices are not room quotes
• hostelworld-pp-cli source locations — Public destination suggestions; application identifier bootstrapped transiently
• hostelworld-pp-cli source property — Public property facts and source rules

Finding the right command

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

hostelworld-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. --json (and other machine formats) keep that exit-2 contract and write {"matches":[]} on stdout so agents can inspect the envelope without treating a miss as success.

Recipes

Find a destination

hostelworld-pp-cli destinations search Osaka --agent

Keep the exact city ID and distinguish similarly named cities.

Inspect source rules

hostelworld-pp-cli hostels inspect 67481 --agent --select id,name,city,check_in,check_out,policies

Read source check-in and tax facts without verbose descriptions.

Compare bed and room costs

hostelworld-pp-cli hostels compare 67481 15725 --check-in 2026-11-10 --check-out 2026-11-13 --guests 2 --agent

Compare the same dates and guests, keeping source units and derived quantities visible.

Check alternative dates

hostelworld-pp-cli hostels dates 67481 --starts 2026-11-10,2026-11-11 --nights 3 --guests 2 --agent

Each date window is independently requested.

Auth Setup

No account, cookies or personal API key required. Search fetches Hostelworld’s public anonymous application identifier from its current first-party config into memory; it is never stored or hardcoded. Property and availability requests are public. Changed config fails clearly.

Run hostelworld-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color.

Global format flags share one contract on promoted, novel, sync, and --deliver paths:

• --json — one JSON document on stdout (sync progress events go to stderr)

• --compact — keep identity/status/timestamp fields; does not change the document vs stream shape

• --csv / --plain — tabular rows (collection envelopes unwrap to the row array)

• --quiet — one identity value per row, no envelope

• 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:

  hostelworld-pp-cli hostels offers 67481 --check-in 2026-11-10 --check-out 2026-11-13 --guests 2 --agent --select property_id,offers.source_stay_amount,offers.free_cancellation_status

• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — hostels saved and local search/SQL can read explicitly saved planning evidence; generic provider sync is unsupported

• 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.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

• Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set HOSTELWORLD_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.

• Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: HOSTELWORLD_CONFIG_DIR, HOSTELWORLD_DATA_DIR, HOSTELWORLD_STATE_DIR, HOSTELWORLD_CACHE_DIR.

• Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, HOSTELWORLD_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.

• config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.

• Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.

• Run hostelworld-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

• For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "hostelworld": {
        "command": "hostelworld-pp-mcp",
        "env": {
          "HOSTELWORLD_HOME": "/srv/hostelworld"
        }
      }
    }
  }

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use HOSTELWORLD_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing HOSTELWORLD_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.

Automatic learning

This CLI ships a self-capturing learning loop. The CLI does its own bookkeeping: every invocation is journaled locally, a failed flag followed by a corrected retry auto-derives a flag_alias candidate, and a teach on a query family without a playbook auto-synthesizes a playbook_candidate from the session's journal. Your job is judgment only: recall first, act on surfaced candidates, teach the final answer, playbook amend when you observe a correction. You never record failures by hand.

Step 1: recall before any discovery

Before list/search/drill commands on a new user question, pass the question as an argv or MCP tool argument to recall --agent. Do not interpolate user-controlled text into a shell command line.

Quoted recall "<question>" breaks on an apostrophe, which is ordinary English. A quoted heredoc breaks when a body line equals the delimiter, and that delimiter is published in these docs. Write the question with a non-shell file-writing tool, then read it back as data:

# Write the question verbatim with your file-writing tool (no shell involved).
# Command substitution on a file only ever yields data — the shell never
# parses the file's bytes as syntax.
QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
hostelworld-pp-cli recall "$QUERY" --agent

Prefer MCP: pass the question as the tool's query argument. "$QUERY" after a file read is argv-safe; putting the question itself in the command text is not.

The response envelope:

{
  "query": "...",
  "normalized": "<normalized form>",
  "query_entities": ["..."],
  "found": true | false,
  "match_score": 0.0,
  "results": [
    { "resource_id": "...", "resource_type": "...", "venue": "...",
      "confidence": 2, "entity_match": "exact|partial|unknown",
      "source": "taught|preseed|pattern", "warnings": ["..."] }
  ],
  "mismatches": [ /* only when --debug-mismatches */ ],
  "warnings": [ /* top-level */ ],
  "candidates": [
    { "id": 12, "class": "flag_alias | playbook_candidate",
      "summary": "...", "sightings": 3, "last_seen": "...",
      "rationale": "...",
      "next_action": ["<trial command>", "hostelworld-pp-cli learnings confirm 12"] }
  ],
  "playbook": {
    "query_family": "...",
    "playbook": {
      "steps": [ { "cmd": "<command with {slot} substitution>", "purpose": "..." } ],
      "entity_slots": ["$ENTITY"],
      "expected_tool_calls": 3
    },
    "slots_resolved": { "$ENTITY": { "token": "<live token>", "canonical": "<canonical>" } },
    "notes": "<workarounds + gotchas for this query family>"
  },
  "notes": "<duplicate surface for non-playbook callers>"
}

Empty-store short-circuit: if the store has no learnings, playbooks, or candidates yet (recall finds nothing and learnings list and learnings candidates are both empty), skip recall for the rest of this session instead of taxing every query; resume recall-first once something has been taught.

Step 2: decision tree

Read candidates, playbook, notes, results[0], and warnings in that order:

if Candidates present (warnings include "candidates_present"):
    -> candidates are try-then-confirm, never facts. Follow each candidate's
       two-step next_action verbatim: run the trial command first, then run
       `learnings confirm <id>` only after the trial verified the behavior.
       Reject a wrong candidate with `learnings reject <id>`.
    -> NEVER re-teach something recall surfaced as a candidate; confirm or
       reject that candidate instead of teaching a duplicate.
    -> candidates ride alongside playbooks and resource hits, not instead of
       them; continue with the branches below after acting on them.

if Playbook present:
    -> READ Playbook.notes verbatim FIRST (workarounds + gotchas the CLI surface doesn't expose)
    -> replay Playbook.steps in order, substituting Playbook.slots_resolved entries
       for the entity slot tokens. If a step's slot is unresolved, fall back to
       discovery for that step only.
    -> the Playbook's expected_tool_calls is a budget; if you find yourself running
       materially more, record the divergence via `hostelworld-pp-cli playbook amend`
       at end-of-session.

elif Notes present (no Playbook):
    -> read Notes verbatim before any discovery step; they carry known gotchas
       for this query family even when no structured choreography exists yet.

elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "exact" AND Results[0].Confidence >= 2:
    -> skip discovery; fetch live data for Results[*].ResourceID in parallel

elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "partial":
    -> candidate hint, NOT a hit; read the resource title to validate before trusting

elif (any row in Mismatches[] when --debug-mismatches was passed):
    -> treat as cold start; the stored learning is for a different entity
       (different canonical resolved from query_entities)

else:  // Found == false, no playbook, no notes
    -> cold start; run discovery normally; teach the answer afterward (Step 4).
       If the family has no playbook yet, that teach auto-synthesizes a
       playbook candidate from this session's journal - you do not need to
       record one by hand.

Playbook and Notes are orthogonal to the per-resource path. A recall response can carry both a Playbook AND a Results[] hit - use both: the Playbook tells you which choreography to run; the resource hits short-circuit specific steps. Default to skipping mismatches; pass --debug-mismatches only when investigating cold-start surprises.

Candidate judgment details: learnings confirm <id> prints the candidate's full payload before materializing it - check that the printed payload matches the behavior you verified. learnings reject <id> tombstones the derivation signature so the same candidate does not resurface. The envelope carries only the few candidates worth acting on now; hostelworld-pp-cli learnings candidates lists the full open set.

Graceful degradation: if learnings confirm is an unknown command, you are driving an older binary - ignore the candidates guidance and follow the rest of the protocol.

Step 3: always read warnings

• low_confidence: row exists at confidence<2. Treat as a hint, not a skip-discovery hit.
• resource_not_in_store: the local store doesn't have the resource the learning points at. The match validator couldn't classify entities — direct-fetch and re-evaluate.
• cross_alias_match (per-result): the row was taught under a different alias and matched the live query's canonical via entity_lookups (e.g., a "USA" teach satisfying a "United States" recall). Trust the resource_id.
• similar_shape_different_entity:<canonical> (top-level): a structurally matching row exists but its canonical entity differs from the live query's. Treated as cold start; the warning carries the conflicting canonical as a hint, but the row is NOT promoted into Results.
• ambiguous_alias (top-level): a single query entity resolved to multiple canonicals (e.g., "Cards" → Arizona Cardinals + St. Louis Cardinals). Surface the ambiguity from context before committing to a resource.
• candidates_present (top-level): the envelope carries a candidates section. Handle it via the candidates branch in Step 2 before anything else.
• lookup_refresh_available (top-level): an entity in the query has no lookup row yet, but synced data could provide one. Generic provider sync is unsupported. Save normalized evidence with hostels inspect/offers --save; re-run the live planning command to refresh a dated observation.
• Top-level no_learnings_for_query_family: the table had no rows above the Jaccard floor. Pure cold start.

Step 4: teach & after finalizing your response - always

Teaching is unconditional. After resolving a query the store could not answer, background-teach the final resource mapping - no call-count threshold, no judging whether it was "worth" learning. The teach is the anchor of the loop: it triggers playbook synthesis for a family without a playbook, and same-referent phrasings fold into one family so near-duplicate teaches do not fragment the store. Fire it after assembling your user-facing response but BEFORE emitting it, with a shell & so the call returns immediately. Pass the query the same way as recall — argv/MCP, or file-then-$QUERY. Do not splice the question into the command text:

QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
hostelworld-pp-cli teach --query "$QUERY" --resource-type <type> --resource <id1> --resource <id2>
# (append shell `&` to background it)

Silent on success. Errors only land in teach.log under the resolved state dir. Teach the most specific resource - if the user asked a broad question and you walked through parent records to find the specific answer, teach the leaf id, not the parent. The CLI uses seeded entity_lookups for cross-alias resolution at recall time, so a teach under one alias (e.g., "Niners") satisfies future queries under another alias (e.g., "49ers", "San Francisco") automatically.

PII rule: teach the structural question with identifiers stripped - never include names, emails, phone numbers, account ids, or other personal identifiers in taught queries or notes. The CLI scans teach queries for obvious email/phone shapes and warns, but does not block; strip before teaching rather than relying on the warning.