Pp Metacritic

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Metacritic — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the metacritic-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 metacritic --cli-only

2. Verify: metacritic-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/media-and-entertainment/metacritic/cmd/metacritic-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.

Undocumented internal JSON API powering metacritic.com (a Fandom property). Reverse-engineered from the site's public web client. Every request carries a shared public apiKey that the site embeds in its own JavaScript bundle, so no user credentials are required for read access.

One backend (backend.metacritic.com) serves every media type. The mcoTypeId query parameter selects the medium on the browse endpoint: 1 = TV shows, 2 = movies, 13 = games. The {mediaType} path segment (games, movies, shows) selects the medium on the title-detail, filters, and review endpoints.

The non-obvious insight: Metacritic is not just a review aggregator, it is a cross-media taste graph. Every gap between a title's Metascore (critics) and user score is a signal about critic-audience divergence.

Scope: this spec covers games, movies, and TV shows plus search, filters, title detail, and critic/user reviews. Music (albums) is served through a separate query shape and is intentionally left as a follow-up.

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.

Command Reference

composer — Manage composer

• metacritic-pp-cli composer <slug> — Returns the full composed detail payload for a title, including Metascore, user score, summary, release data

finder — Manage finder

• metacritic-pp-cli finder browse-titles — Paginated, sortable list of titles for one medium.
• metacritic-pp-cli finder list-filters — Returns the filter facets (genres, platforms, streaming networks, product types) valid for the given medium.
• metacritic-pp-cli finder search-titles — Full-text search spanning games, movies, TV, and people.

reviews — Critic and user reviews for a title

• metacritic-pp-cli reviews list-critic — List critic reviews for a title
• metacritic-pp-cli reviews list-user — List user reviews for a title

Finding the right command

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

metacritic-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.

Auth Setup

Run metacritic-pp-cli auth setup to print the URL and steps for getting a key (add --launch to open the URL). Then set:

export METACRITIC_API_KEY="<your-key>"

Or persist it in ~/.config/metacritic-pp-cli/config.toml.

Run metacritic-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:

  metacritic-pp-cli composer mock-value --media-type games --api-key your-token-here --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