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Agent skill

Pp Vestaboard

by mvanhorn in mvanhorn/printing-press-library

Read, render Trigger phrases: what's on my vestaboard, show my vestaboard, send a message to my vestaboard, post to the vestaboard, use vestaboard, run vestaboard.

Apache-2.0Auto-check: notes

Install Pp Vestaboard

skills CLI
$ npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-vestaboard -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install mvanhorn/printing-press-library pp-vestaboard --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/cli-skills/pp-vestaboard .claude/skills/pp-vestaboard && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
pp-vestaboard
GitHub stars
2.1k
Token cost
~2.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,008 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
506
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Read, render Trigger phrases: what's on my vestaboard, show my vestaboard, send a message to my vestaboard, post to the vestaboard, use vestaboard, run vestaboard.

  • Works in 3 steps: Install via the Printing Press… → Verify: vestaboard-pp-cli --version → Ensure the reported install directory is…
  • Phrases: whats on my vestaboard
  • SKILL.md covers Prerequisites: Install the CLI, When to Use This CLI, Anti-triggers and Unique Capabilities, plus 11 more sections
  • Calls go, claude and npx

What it does

Pp Vestaboard is an agent skill from mvanhorn/printing-press-library. Read, render Trigger phrases: what's on my vestaboard, show my vestaboard, send a message to my vestaboard, post to the vestaboard, use vestaboard, run vestaboard.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: Official library of CLIs generated by the CLI Printing Press. Endorsed, tested, and community-contributed. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Phrases: whats on my vestaboard
  • Show my vestaboard
  • Send a message to my vestaboard
  • Post to the vestaboard

Example prompts

  • “/pp-vestaboard”

Requirements

  • Node.js
  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Bash

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and…
  2. Verify: vestaboard-pp-cli --version
  3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 76de244. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Bash

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • go
    • claude
    • npx

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use npx, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Pp Vestaboard loads about 2.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 47 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,008 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~47
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NotePre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: Bash)SKILL.md
    allowed-tools: Read, Bash

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mvanhorn/printing-press-library at commit 76de244, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© mvanhorn). 1,008 words, ~2,372 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/pp-vestaboard/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
pp-vestaboard
description
Read, render Trigger phrases: `what's on my vestaboard`, `show my vestaboard`, `send a message to my vestaboard`, `post to the vestaboard`, `use vestaboard`, `run vestaboard`.
allowed-tools
Read, Bash
author
Cathryn Lavery
license
Apache-2.0
argument-hint
<command> [args] | install cli|mcp
<!-- GENERATED FILE — DO NOT EDIT.
     This file is a verbatim mirror of library/devices/vestaboard/SKILL.md,
     regenerated post-merge by tools/generate-skills/. Hand-edits here are
     silently overwritten on the next regen. Edit the library/ source instead.
     See the repository agent guide, section "Generated artifacts: registry.json, cli-skills/". -->

Vestaboard — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the vestaboard-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:
    bash
    npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install vestaboard --cli-only
  2. Verify: vestaboard-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):

bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/devices/vestaboard/cmd/vestaboard-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

Use this CLI to read or change what is displayed on a Vestaboard split-flap display: check the current message, render it as text, format text into character codes, post a new message, or adjust the transition style. It is the right tool when an agent needs to observe or update a physical Vestaboard programmatically.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

  • Do not use this CLI for the Vestaboard Local (LAN) API or the Subscription API — it wraps the Cloud Read/Write API only.
  • Do not use it to manage multiple boards or board membership; a Cloud token maps to a single board.

Unique Capabilities

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

Make the board legible

  • message preview — See what's on your Vestaboard right now as readable text instead of a raw integer grid.

    Reach for this before composing or sending — it is the only way to know the board's current contents without decoding codes by hand.

    bash
    vestaboard-pp-cli message preview --json

  • characters — Print the full Vestaboard character-code table (code to glyph) for hand-building a character-array message.

    Use this when constructing a 'message send' character payload so you map glyphs to the right integer codes.

    bash
    vestaboard-pp-cli characters --json

Command Reference

message — The message currently shown on the Vestaboard.

  • vestaboard-pp-cli message get — Read the message currently displayed on the board.
  • vestaboard-pp-cli message send — Send a new message to the board.

transition — Transition animation settings for the board (Flagship and Note devices).

  • vestaboard-pp-cli transition get — Get the current transition style and speed.
  • vestaboard-pp-cli transition set — Set the transition style and speed. Both fields are required.

vbml — Vestaboard Markup Language (VBML) text formatting service.

  • vestaboard-pp-cli vbml — Convert a text string into a 2D array of Vestaboard character codes.
Finding the right command

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

bash
vestaboard-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

Read the board as text
bash
vestaboard-pp-cli message preview

Decodes the live layout into a bordered block of glyphs you can read.

Inspect the raw layout with field selection
bash
vestaboard-pp-cli message get --agent --select currentMessage.id,currentMessage.layout

Pulls just the id and raw character grid for an agent without the surrounding envelope.

Format then send a message
bash
vestaboard-pp-cli vbml --message "GM" --json

Convert text to a character-code grid on the VBML host, then pass it to 'message send --body-json'.

Set a transition
bash
vestaboard-pp-cli transition set --transition wave --transition-speed gentle

Change the flip animation style and speed.

Auth Setup

Create a Cloud API token in the API tab on web.vestaboard.com (or the mobile app under Settings → Advanced Settings), then run 'vestaboard-pp-cli auth set-token <token>'. The token is sent only to cloud.vestaboard.com; the VBML formatter on vbml.vestaboard.com takes no credentials.

Run vestaboard-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Show full SKILL.md (441 more words)Show less

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:

    bash
    vestaboard-pp-cli message get --agent --select id,name,status

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

  • Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

  • Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

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

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

SinkEffect
stdoutDefault; 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.

vestaboard-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
vestaboard-pp-cli --profile briefing message get
vestaboard-pp-cli profile list --json
vestaboard-pp-cli profile show briefing
vestaboard-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

CodeMeaning
0Success
2Usage error (wrong arguments)
3Resource not found
4Authentication required
5API error (upstream issue)
7Rate limited (wait and retry)
10Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

  1. Empty, help, or --help → show vestaboard-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

  1. Install the MCP server:
    bash
    go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/devices/vestaboard/cmd/vestaboard-pp-mcp@latest
  2. Register with Claude Code:
    bash
    claude mcp add vestaboard-pp-mcp -- vestaboard-pp-mcp
  3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

  1. Check if installed: which vestaboard-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:
    bash
    vestaboard-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
  4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: vestaboard-pp-cli <command> --help.

© mvanhorn, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in cli-skills/pp-vestaboard of mvanhorn/printing-press-library.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 76de244

Compare with similar skills

Pp Vestaboard next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Pp Vestaboard compared with similar skills
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Pp Vestaboard this skillmvanhorn/printing-press-library2.1k—~2.4kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Render Blockingthedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist74k—~430Automated safety check: PassMIT
RenderLeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills2.2k—~4.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Vestaboard AutomationComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills77k3 repos~742Automated safety check: PassNone
Markdown Renderingsickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k1 repos~751Automated safety check: PassMIT
RenderAnil-matcha/awesome-muse-connectors1.3k—~433Automated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Pp Vestaboard

What does Pp Vestaboard do?

Read, render Trigger phrases: what's on my vestaboard, show my vestaboard, send a message to my vestaboard, post to the vestaboard, use vestaboard, run vestaboard. Pp Vestaboard is an agent skill from mvanhorn/printing-press-library. Read, render Trigger phrases: what's on my vestaboard, show my vestaboard, send a message to my vestaboard, post to the vestaboard, use vestaboard, run vestaboard.

When should I use Pp Vestaboard?

Pp Vestaboard fits situations like: phrases: whats on my vestaboard; show my vestaboard; send a message to my vestaboard; post to the vestaboard.

How do I install Pp Vestaboard in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-vestaboard -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (cli-skills/pp-vestaboard in mvanhorn/printing-press-library) into .claude/skills/pp-vestaboard in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Pp Vestaboard in Codex?

Run `npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-vestaboard -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (cli-skills/pp-vestaboard in mvanhorn/printing-press-library) into .agents/skills/pp-vestaboard in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Pp Vestaboard in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-vestaboard -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/pp-vestaboard, .gemini/skills/pp-vestaboard, .github/skills/pp-vestaboard and .opencode/skills/pp-vestaboard in your project.

What does Pp Vestaboard need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Pp Vestaboard needs the command-line tools its instructions call (go, claude and npx). Our summary lists: Node.js. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Bash.

Does Pp Vestaboard access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use npx, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Pp Vestaboard safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (pre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: bash)), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Pp Vestaboard use?

Pp Vestaboard is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Pp Vestaboard use?

About 2.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 9.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Pp Vestaboard?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Pp Vestaboard: Render Blocking (thedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist, 74k stars), Render (LeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills, 2.2k stars), Vestaboard Automation (ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills, 77k stars) and Markdown Rendering (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Pp Vestaboard?

mvanhorn (a GitHub user) maintains it in mvanhorn/printing-press-library, which has 2,056 GitHub stars. The repository holds 506 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: mvanhorn/printing-press-library on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.