ESPN — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the

espn-pp-cli

binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

Install via the Printing Press installer:

bash

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install espn --cli-only

Verify:
```
espn-pp-cli --version
```
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 1.23+):

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/espn/cmd/espn-pp-cli@latest

--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 this when a user wants a quick sports lookup - current score, standings, upcoming schedule, head-to-head record, or a rich per-game summary (box score, leaders, scoring plays, odds, win probability). Also good for cross-league discovery (

today

) and offline search across synced data.

Don't reach for this if the user has a paid feed like Stats Perform or Sportradar that provides cleaner data, or if they need real-time websocket updates (ESPN's endpoints are polling-only). For betting odds in isolation, the per-game

summary

payload includes them but there is no league-wide odds command.

Unique Capabilities

Commands that only work because of local sync + cross-league tooling.

Cross-league discovery

today
— Today's scores across all major sports in one call. The fastest "what's on tonight" answer without picking a sport first.
trending
— Most-followed athletes and teams across all leagues, ranked by current popularity. Good for "who is hot right now" without naming a sport.
dashboard
— Reads
```
[favorites]
```
from
```
~/.config/espn-pp-cli/config.toml
```
and shows scores for each favorited team across leagues, in one call.
watch <sport> <league> --event <game_id>
— Live score updates for a specific game (polls every 30s). Use
```
scores
```
or
```
today
```
to find the game, then
```
watch
```
to follow it live.

Game-state intelligence

summary <sport> <league> --event <game_id>
— Detailed game summary including box score, leaders, scoring plays, odds, and win probability. The single richest payload per game.
boxscore <event_id>
— Just the per-player box score for an event id, with sport+league inferred from a recent scoreboard cache hit. Pass
```
--sport
```
/
```
--league
```
to skip inference.
plays <sport> <league> --event <id>
— Play-by-play feed for a specific event. Optional
```
--limit
```
(default 200).
recap <sport> <league>
— Post-game recap with box score and leaders for the most recent completed game in a league.
scoreboard <sport> <league>
— Live scoreboard with date filtering, week/group selectors, and competition metadata.
odds <sport> <league>
— Spread, over/under, and moneyline lines for tonight's slate, derived from the scoreboard payload (no per-game summary calls).

Standings and rankings

standings <sport> <league>
— Conference/division standings.
rankings <sport> <league>
— Current AP, Coaches, and CFP poll rankings (NCAAF/NCAAM).
streak <sport> <league>
— Current win/loss streaks across teams in a league, computed from synced data.
rivals <sport> <league>
— Head-to-head records between teams in a league from synced data.
h2h <team1> <team2> --sport <s> --league <l>
— Deeper head-to-head detail for one specific pair, including average score and recent meetings list.
sos <sport> <league>
— Strength-of-schedule per team, derived from the standings payload, sorted descending.

People

leaders <sport> <league> [--category <name>]
— Statistical leaders across categories with optional filter.
compare <athlete1> <athlete2> --sport <s> --league <l>
— Side-by-side season stats for two athletes. Ambiguous names list candidates and exit 2.
injuries <sport> <league>
— Active injury report across the league, grouped by team.
transactions <sport> <league>
— Recent trades, signings, and waivers.

Local store

sync
— Pull a sport+league dataset into local SQLite for offline analysis.
search "<query>"
— Full-text search across synced events and news.
sql <query>
— Run read-only SQL queries against the local database.

Command Reference

Live action:

```
espn-pp-cli scores <sport> <league>
```
— Current scores
```
espn-pp-cli today
```
— Today's scores across all major sports
```
espn-pp-cli scoreboard <sport> <league>
```
— Scoreboard with optional date filtering

espn-pp-cli watch <sport> <league> --event <game_id>

— Live score polling for one game

```
espn-pp-cli standings <sport> <league>
```
— League standings
```
espn-pp-cli trending
```
— Most-followed athletes and teams across leagues

espn-pp-cli dashboard

— Favorites snapshot from

~/.config/espn-pp-cli/config.toml

Team detail:

espn-pp-cli teams <sport> <league> <team_id>

— Schedule for one team (past + upcoming)

espn-pp-cli teams get <sport> <league> <team_id>

— Team record, links, and logos

```
espn-pp-cli teams list <sport> <league>
```
— All teams in a league
```
espn-pp-cli streak <sport> <league>
```
— Current win/loss streaks from synced data
```
espn-pp-cli rivals <sport> <league>
```
— Head-to-head records between teams from synced data
```
espn-pp-cli h2h <team1> <team2> --sport <s> --league <l>
```
— Deeper detail for one team pair (avg score, meetings)
```
espn-pp-cli sos <sport> <league>
```
— Strength-of-schedule, sorted descending

Game detail:

```
espn-pp-cli summary <sport> <league> --event <game_id>
```
— Full game summary (box score, leaders, scoring plays, odds, win probability)
```
espn-pp-cli boxscore <event_id>
```
— Just the box score subtree (sport/league inferred from cache)

espn-pp-cli plays <sport> <league> --event <id>

— Play-by-play feed (optional

--limit

, default 200)

```
espn-pp-cli recap <sport> <league>
```
— Most recent completed game recap
```
espn-pp-cli odds <sport> <league>
```
— Spread, over/under, moneyline for tonight's slate

People:

espn-pp-cli leaders <sport> <league> [--category <name>]

— Statistical leaders by category

espn-pp-cli compare <athlete1> <athlete2> --sport <s> --league <l>

— Side-by-side athlete stats

```
espn-pp-cli injuries <sport> <league>
```
— Active injury report

espn-pp-cli transactions <sport> <league>

— Recent trades, signings, waivers

Polls and rankings:

```
espn-pp-cli rankings <sport> <league>
```
— AP, Coaches, and CFP polls

Info:

```
espn-pp-cli news <sport> <league>
```
— Latest news

Discovery and local:

```
espn-pp-cli search "<query>"
```
— Full-text search across synced events and news
```
espn-pp-cli sync
```
— Sync a sport+league into local SQLite
```
espn-pp-cli sql "<query>"
```
— Run read-only SQL against the local store
```
espn-pp-cli load
```
— Show workload distribution per assignee (synced data)
```
espn-pp-cli orphans
```
/
```
stale
```
— Maintenance views over the local store
```
espn-pp-cli doctor
```
— Verify connectivity and configuration

Sport values:

football

basketball

baseball

hockey

soccer

. League values:

nfl

nba

mlb

nhl

ncaaf

ncaam

ncaaw

mls

eng.1

(EPL),

wnba

Recipes

Morning sports scan

bash

espn-pp-cli today --agent --select events.shortName,events.status
espn-pp-cli scores football nfl --agent --select events.shortName,events.competitions.competitors.team.displayName,events.status.type.detail
espn-pp-cli standings football nfl --agent

One

today

call covers cross-league activity, one

scores

for the league you care about, one

standings

for context. The nested

--select

paths cut a scoreboard payload from tens of KB down to the fields that actually matter — essential for keeping agent context small.

Pre-game research from synced data

bash

espn-pp-cli sync --sport football --league nfl
espn-pp-cli rivals football nfl --agent         # historical records from synced data
espn-pp-cli streak football nfl --agent         # current streaks
espn-pp-cli summary football nfl --event <id> --agent   # full game payload incl. odds and box score

Run

sync

once, then

rivals

and

streak

answer instantly from the local store.

summary

is the richest single payload for a specific game (box score, leaders, scoring plays, odds, win probability).

Offline search after sync

bash

espn-pp-cli sync --sport football --league nfl
espn-pp-cli search "Mahomes"                    # finds in local store

Useful for repeated lookups in poor-connectivity environments or when batch-analyzing historical data.

Favorites dashboard

Add a

[favorites]

block to

~/.config/espn-pp-cli/config.toml

[favorites]
nfl = ["KC", "BAL"]
nba = ["LAL"]

Then:

bash

espn-pp-cli dashboard --agent

One call surfaces tonight's matchup status for every favorited team, grouped by league. Per-league fetches run in parallel and partial failures are reported alongside successful results.

Pre-game odds and player digging

bash

espn-pp-cli odds basketball nba --agent          # tonight's spreads / totals / moneylines
espn-pp-cli leaders basketball nba --category points --agent
espn-pp-cli compare "LeBron James" "Stephen Curry" --sport basketball --league nba --agent
espn-pp-cli boxscore <event_id> --agent          # post-game player stats
espn-pp-cli plays basketball nba --event <id> --limit 50 --agent

odds

reads the scoreboard's per-event lines (no per-game summary calls).

leaders --category

filters to one stat category.

compare

resolves athlete ids by name, listing candidates and exiting 2 on ambiguity.

boxscore

infers sport+league from the most recent cache hit; pass

--sport

--league

to skip inference.

Auth Setup

None required. ESPN's public endpoints don't require an API key. The

auth

command exists for consistency but is a no-op.

Optional config:

```
ESPN_CONFIG
```
— override config file path
```
ESPN_BASE_URL
```
— override base URL (for proxies or mirrors)
```
NO_COLOR
```
— standard no-color env var

Agent Mode

Add

--agent

to any command. Expands to

--json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes

. Use

--select

for field cherry-picking,

--dry-run

to preview requests,

--no-cache

to bypass GET cache.

Filtering output

--select

accepts dotted paths to descend into nested responses; arrays traverse element-wise:

bash

espn-pp-cli <command> --agent --select id,name
espn-pp-cli <command> --agent --select items.id,items.owner.name

Use this to narrow huge payloads to the fields you actually need — critical for deeply nested API responses.

Response envelope

Data-layer commands wrap output in

{"meta": {...}, "results": <data>}

. Parse

.results

for data and

.meta.source

to know whether it's

live

or local. The

N results (live)

summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a TTY; piped/agent consumers see pure JSON on stdout.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error
3	Not found (team, game, athlete)
5	API error
7	Rate limited

Installation

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/espn/cmd/espn-pp-cli@latest
espn-pp-cli doctor

MCP Server

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/espn/cmd/espn-pp-mcp@latest
claude mcp add espn-pp-mcp -- espn-pp-mcp

Argument Parsing

Given

$ARGUMENTS

Empty,
help
, or
--help
→ run
```
espn-pp-cli --help
```
install
→ CLI; install mcp
→ MCP
Anything else → resolve
```
<sport> <league>
```
from user intent (e.g., "Lakers" →
```
basketball nba
```
), check
```
which espn-pp-cli
```
(offer install if missing), run with
```
--agent
```
.

Agent Workflow Features

This CLI exposes three shared agent-workflow capabilities patched in from cli-printing-press PR #218.

Named profiles

Persist a set of flags under a name and reuse them across invocations.

bash

# Save the current non-default flags as a named profile
espn-pp-cli profile save <name>

# Use a profile — overlays its values onto any flag you don't set explicitly
espn-pp-cli --profile <name> <command>

# List / inspect / remove
espn-pp-cli profile list
espn-pp-cli profile show <name>
espn-pp-cli profile delete <name> --yes

Flag precedence: explicit flag > env var > profile > default.

--deliver

Route command output to a sink other than stdout. Useful when an agent needs to hand a result to a file, a webhook, or another process without plumbing.

bash

espn-pp-cli <command> --deliver file:/path/to/out.json
espn-pp-cli <command> --deliver webhook:https://hooks.example/in

File sinks write atomically (tmp + rename). Webhook sinks POST

application/json

(or

application/x-ndjson

when

--compact

is set). Unknown schemes produce a structured refusal listing the supported set.

feedback

Record in-band feedback about this CLI from the agent side of the loop. Local-only by default; safe to call without configuration.

bash

espn-pp-cli feedback "what surprised you or tripped you up"
espn-pp-cli feedback list         # show local entries
espn-pp-cli feedback clear --yes  # wipe

Entries append to

~/.espn-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl

as JSON lines. When

ESPN_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT

is set and either

--send

is passed or

ESPN_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true

, the entry is also POSTed upstream (non-blocking — local write always succeeds).

pp-espn

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

ESPN — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

When to Use This CLI

Unique Capabilities

Cross-league discovery

Game-state intelligence

Standings and rankings

People

Local store

Command Reference

Recipes

Morning sports scan

Pre-game research from synced data

Offline search after sync

Favorites dashboard

Pre-game odds and player digging

Auth Setup

Agent Mode

Filtering output

Response envelope

Exit Codes

Installation

MCP Server

Argument Parsing

Agent Workflow Features

Named profiles

--deliver

feedback