Pp Hostex

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Hostex — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the hostex-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 hostex --cli-only

2. Verify: hostex-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/hostex/cmd/hostex-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.

Hostex has a REST API and an official MCP server but no first-class CLI. This one mirrors all 86 endpoints as typed commands with --json/--select/--dry-run, then syncs reservations, properties, listings, conversations, reviews, tasks and transactions into local SQLite so you can run joins the API can't: which occupied stays have no cleaning task, revenue by property this month, threads unanswered past your SLA, and price-parity gaps across channels. It gets the tricky Hostex plumbing right once: every response is HTTP 200 with error_code in the body, and the multi-layer rate limits return Retry-After.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when an agent or script needs to read or mutate a Hostex host's data: triaging the guest inbox, querying reservations by date/property/status, pushing price/inventory/restriction updates across channels, scheduling cleaning tasks, or rolling up revenue. It is the right tool when the question spans multiple entities (stays + tasks + transactions) because the local SQLite mirror answers those joins offline; a single REST call cannot.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI to build a multi-tenant SaaS that acts on behalf of many hosts — that needs the OAuth 2.0 partner flow, not a single access token.
• Do not use it as a real-time webhook receiver; it manages webhook subscriptions but does not host an inbound endpoint.
• Do not use it to bulk-message guests faster than the per-thread throttle allows; channel OTAs will suspend the account.

Unique Capabilities

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

Operations: stop problems before guests do

• ops-gaps — Find imminent or occupied stays with no cleaning task or missing check-in details.

  Reach for this to catch turnover and check-in problems before a guest complains, instead of eyeballing the calendar.

  hostex-pp-cli ops-gaps --within 7d --agent

• stay-brief — One dossier for a single stay: reservation, guest, thread state, tasks, transactions, and review.

  Use when you need the full picture of one stay; to scan many stays for problems use ops-gaps.

  hostex-pp-cli stay-brief HMABC123 --agent

Inbox and automation SLA

• inbox-sla — Rank open guest conversations by age since the last guest message and flag threads past your SLA.

  OTAs penalize slow replies; use this to triage which threads are about to breach SLA.

  hostex-pp-cli inbox-sla --breach 6h --agent

• automation-preview — List pending automated messages and reviews and flag any whose thread a human has already handled.

  Use to vet queued bot actions before they fire on a human-handled thread; for slow human threads use inbox-sla.

  hostex-pp-cli automation-preview --day tomorrow --agent

Channel parity and revenue (portfolio)

• price-parity — Flag property-dates where per-channel listing price or min-stay diverges across channels.

  Use to catch silent revenue loss from channel price drift; for availability mismatch use oversell-watch.

  hostex-pp-cli price-parity --property 12345 --days 30 --agent

• oversell-watch — Flag dates a channel still shows bookable on a property that is blocked or booked on the master calendar.

  Use to catch double-sell risk; for price or min-stay drift use price-parity.

  hostex-pp-cli oversell-watch --days 30 --agent

• revenue-rollup — Net income minus expense by property or month over a date range, from the live ledger.

  Use for the Monday portfolio revenue review in one command.

  hostex-pp-cli revenue-rollup --by property --month 2026-06 --agent

Command Reference

automation — Scheduled automation actions (e.g. automated guest messages and scheduled host reviews).

• hostex-pp-cli automation delete-action — Removes a waiting message or review automation plan without running it (same as deleting an upcoming action in the
• hostex-pp-cli automation execute-action — Dispatches a waiting message or review automation plan immediately (same behavior as executing an upcoming action
• hostex-pp-cli automation query-actions — Returns scheduled automation actions that are waiting to run: either automated messages (type=message

availabilities — Manage availabilities

• hostex-pp-cli availabilities query — By sending a request to this endpoint, you can retrieve the availabilities of the properties.
• hostex-pp-cli availabilities update — Use this endpoint to update property availabilities.

calendar-share-links — Public share links that expose a read-only calendar (and reservation list) of all or selected properties to anyone holding the link.

• hostex-pp-cli calendar-share-links create — Create a new public calendar share link.
• hostex-pp-cli calendar-share-links delete — Permanently invalidate a calendar share link.
• hostex-pp-cli calendar-share-links query — List the operator's public calendar share links.

channel-accounts — Manage channel accounts

• hostex-pp-cli channel-accounts — Query the third-party channel accounts (Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.) that the operator has connected.

conversations — Manage conversations

• hostex-pp-cli conversations get-details — This endpoint is used to retrieve the messages and details of a conversation.
• hostex-pp-cli conversations query — This endpoint is used to query the list of conversations regarding guest inquiries.
• hostex-pp-cli conversations send-message — Send a text or image message to the guest. **This endpoint is not idempotent and does not return a message ID.

custom-channels — Manage custom channels

• hostex-pp-cli custom-channels — Query custom channels created from the Custom Options Page.

expense-items — Manage expense items

• hostex-pp-cli expense-items — Query the dictionary of expense item categorizations available to the operator.

expense-methods — Manage expense methods

• hostex-pp-cli expense-methods — Query the dictionary of payment methods available to the operator for expense entries.

groups — Manage groups

• hostex-pp-cli groups create — Create a new property group. Optionally pre-attach properties at creation time via property_ids.
• hostex-pp-cli groups delete — Delete a property group.
• hostex-pp-cli groups query — You can query property groups by making a request to this endpoint.
• hostex-pp-cli groups update — Update a property group.

income-items — Manage income items

• hostex-pp-cli income-items — Query the dictionary of income item categorizations available to the operator.

income-methods — Manage income methods

• hostex-pp-cli income-methods — Query the dictionary of payment methods available to the operator for income entries.

knowledge-bases — AI knowledge base entries for the HostGPT automation assistant. Each entry defines content and the scope (properties/channels) where it applies.

• hostex-pp-cli knowledge-bases create — Create a new knowledge base entry for the HostGPT automation assistant.
• hostex-pp-cli knowledge-bases delete — Delete a knowledge base entry by its ID.
• hostex-pp-cli knowledge-bases get — Retrieve the full details of a single knowledge base entry by its ID.
• hostex-pp-cli knowledge-bases query — You can query knowledge base entries by making a request to this endpoint.
• hostex-pp-cli knowledge-bases update — Replace an existing knowledge base entry.

listings — Manage listings

• hostex-pp-cli listings get-airbnb-price-and-rules — Fetch the current pricing, availability rules and booking settings of an Airbnb listing in real time from Airbnb.
• hostex-pp-cli listings get-vrbo-price-and-rules — Get the pricing and rules of a Vrbo listing as currently recorded by Hostex.
• hostex-pp-cli listings query — Query the listings (third-party properties) synced from the operator's connected channel accounts.
• hostex-pp-cli listings query-calendars — By sending a request to this endpoint, you can retrieve calendar information for multiple listings.
• hostex-pp-cli listings update-airbnb-price-and-rules — Update the listing-level pricing, fees, booking settings and availability rules of an Airbnb listing.
• hostex-pp-cli listings update-inventories — Update the inventories of channel listings.
• hostex-pp-cli listings update-prices — Update the prices of channel listings.
• hostex-pp-cli listings update-restrictions — Update the restrictions of channel listings.
• hostex-pp-cli listings update-vrbo-price-and-rules — Update the listing-level pricing, fees and booking rules of a Vrbo listing.

oauth — Manage oauth

• hostex-pp-cli oauth obtain-token — This endpoint is used to obtain a new access token using various OAuth 2.0 grant types or refresh an existing token.
• hostex-pp-cli oauth revoke-token — This endpoint allows clients to revoke an access or refresh token.

pricing-ratios — Manage pricing ratios

• hostex-pp-cli pricing-ratios — Return the per-channel pricing ratio of each OTA listing linked to a property (property_id)

properties — Manage properties

• hostex-pp-cli properties create-property — Create a new property (room) under the current operator.
• hostex-pp-cli properties query — You can query properties by making a request to this endpoint.

reservation-tags — Manage the operator's reservation tag dictionary (the tags that can be applied to reservations).

• hostex-pp-cli reservation-tags create — Create a new reservation tag in the operator's dictionary. Color is auto-assigned from the Hostex palette.
• hostex-pp-cli reservation-tags delete — Delete one of the operator's custom reservation tags.
• hostex-pp-cli reservation-tags query — List the operator's reservation tag dictionary.

reservations — Manage reservations

• hostex-pp-cli reservations cancel — Cancel a direct booking reservation in Hostex.
• hostex-pp-cli reservations create — Create a reservation (Direct Booking) in Hostex.
• hostex-pp-cli reservations query — You can query reservations by making a request to this endpoint.
• hostex-pp-cli reservations update-basic-info — Update basic information of a stay including guest details, dates, pricing, and other attributes.

reviews — Manage reviews

• hostex-pp-cli reviews create — Create review or reply for a reservation.
• hostex-pp-cli reviews query — Query reviews like the Reviews Page.

room-types — Manage room types

• hostex-pp-cli room-types create — Create a new room type under the current operator.
• hostex-pp-cli room-types query — You can query room types by making a request to this endpoint.

staffs — Manage staffs

• hostex-pp-cli staffs create — Create a schedule staff. The staff is created as active by default.
• hostex-pp-cli staffs delete — Delete a staff permanently along with their property assignments.
• hostex-pp-cli staffs query — You can query schedule staffs (cleaners / operators / receptionists, etc.) by making a request to this endpoint.
• hostex-pp-cli staffs update — Update an existing staff. All fields are optional; only the supplied fields are changed.

tags — Manage tags

• hostex-pp-cli tags create — Create a new property tag. Optionally pre-attach properties via property_ids and / or room types via room_type_ids.
• hostex-pp-cli tags delete — Delete a property tag.
• hostex-pp-cli tags query — You can query tags by making a request to this endpoint.
• hostex-pp-cli tags update — Update a property tag.

tasks — Schedule tasks such as cleaning, maintenance, reception, housekeeping and others.

• hostex-pp-cli tasks create — Create a schedule task.
• hostex-pp-cli tasks delete — Delete a task permanently. Returns 404 if the task does not exist or is not accessible to the current operator.
• hostex-pp-cli tasks query — You can query schedule tasks (cleaning / maintain / reception / housekeeping / others)
• hostex-pp-cli tasks update — Update an existing task. All fields are optional; only the supplied fields are changed.

transactions — Manage transactions

• hostex-pp-cli transactions create — Record a new income or expense entry.
• hostex-pp-cli transactions delete — Delete a transaction entry. The operation is irreversible.
• hostex-pp-cli transactions query — Query income and expense entries (also known as transactions) recorded against the operator
• hostex-pp-cli transactions update — Update an existing transaction entry. Only the fields listed below can be modified.

webhooks — Manage webhooks

• hostex-pp-cli webhooks create — Create a webhook.
• hostex-pp-cli webhooks delete — You can only delete webhooks created by your own app if they are manageable.
• hostex-pp-cli webhooks query — Query Webhooks like the Webhooks Page.
• hostex-pp-cli webhooks update — Update the url or event subscriptions for a webhook. You can only update webhooks created by your own app.

Finding the right command

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

hostex-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

Project only what you need from a verbose reservation list

hostex-pp-cli reservations query --start-check-in-date 2026-11-01 --end-check-in-date 2026-11-30 --agent --select data.reservations.stay_code,data.reservations.guest_name,data.reservations.check_in_date,data.reservations.status

Reservation payloads are large and deeply nested; --select narrows to the fields an agent needs so it doesn't burn context. The API returns HTTP 400 unless both check-in dates are given.

Dry-run a price push before sending it

hostex-pp-cli listings update-prices --channel-type airbnb --listing-id 1234567890 --prices '[{"start_date":"2026-11-01","end_date":"2026-11-30","price":180}]' --dry-run

Shows the request body that would be sent to the async price endpoint without mutating any channel. Prices are integers in the listing currency; confirm the applied result in the Host Portal afterwards.

Offline search across synced guest threads

hostex-pp-cli search "refund" --type conversations --db ./hostex.db

After sync, full-text search runs locally with no API call and no rate-limit cost.

Read channel calendars before repricing

hostex-pp-cli listings query-calendars --start-date 2026-11-01 --end-date 2026-11-30 --listings '[{"listing_id":"1234567890","channel_type":"airbnb"}]' --agent

A read that happens to use POST, so it is safe to run live. Compare the current per-day prices with pricing-ratios (per-channel percentage over the lead channel) before pushing changes; the property base price itself can only be edited in the Host Portal.

Auth Setup

Hostex authenticates with a Hostex-Access-Token header. Create one in the Host Portal (OpenAPI Settings) with read-only or writable scope; tokens do not expire. Run echo "$TOKEN" | hostex-pp-cli auth set-token (the token is read from stdin) or export HOSTEX_ACCESS_TOKEN. The server also accepts Authorization: Bearer, but prefer the dedicated header. A read-only token rejects every write with error_code 401.

Run hostex-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:

  hostex-pp-cli availabilities query --property-ids example-value --start-date 2026-01-15 --end-date 2026-01-15 --agent --select data,error_code,error_msg

• 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 confirmation — --agent does not imply --yes; pass --yes separately only after the target, arguments, and side effects are clear

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success, and use --ignore-missing only when a missing delete target 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.

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 HOSTEX_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.

• Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: HOSTEX_CONFIG_DIR, HOSTEX_DATA_DIR, HOSTEX_STATE_DIR, HOSTEX_CACHE_DIR.

• Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, HOSTEX_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 hostex-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location 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": {
      "hostex": {
        "command": "hostex-pp-mcp",
        "env": {
          "HOSTEX_HOME": "/srv/hostex"
        }
      }
    }
  }

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use HOSTEX_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 HOSTEX_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=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
hostex-pp-cli recall "$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>", "hostex-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.