Techmeme — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the

techmeme-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 techmeme --cli-only

Verify:
```
techmeme-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 1.25+):

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/techmeme/cmd/techmeme-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.

The Techmeme CLI puts the tech industry's most trusted news curation into your terminal. Sync headlines to a local SQLite store, then search, filter by time, track topics, and analyze which stories and sources are dominating. The 'since' command answers the question every tech professional asks: 'what did I miss?'

When to Use This CLI

Use the Techmeme CLI when you need curated, authoritative tech news without opening a browser. Ideal for morning catch-up ('since 8h'), topic monitoring ('track add OpenAI'), source analysis ('sources'), and AI agents that need to answer 'what's happening in tech right now' with structured data.

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.

Unique Capabilities

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

Time intelligence

since
— See every tech headline from the last N hours — the perfect catch-up when you've been away
When an agent needs to brief a user on what happened in tech while they were in meetings, this is the single command that answers it
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli since 4h --agent
```
digest
— Get a day's tech news grouped by topic — the briefing you'd write if you had time
When an agent needs to produce a tech news briefing for a specific date, this structures raw headlines into a readable summary
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli digest --date 2026-05-08 --agent
```

Persistent monitoring

track
— Save topics and get alerts when they hit Techmeme — persistent monitoring without browser tabs
Agents monitoring specific companies or technologies can subscribe to exactly what matters without polling the full feed
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli track add 'OpenAI' && techmeme-pp-cli track check --agent
```

News intelligence

sources
— See which publications dominate Techmeme and track source frequency over time
When analyzing media landscape or choosing which publications to prioritize, this gives hard data on source influence
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli sources --top 20 --agent
```
trending
— Extract the hottest topics from recent headlines using frequency analysis on cached data
When an agent needs to answer 'what's hot in tech right now' with data instead of vibes
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli trending --hours 24 --agent
```
velocity
— Find stories that are blowing up — multiple sources covering the same topic in a short window
When an agent needs to identify breaking news vs steady coverage, velocity shows what's accelerating now
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli velocity --agent
```
author
— Find all Techmeme headlines by a specific journalist across the cached archive
When tracking a specific journalist's coverage or building a media contact list, this surfaces their Techmeme footprint
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli author 'Kara Swisher' --agent
```

Command Reference

feed-xml — Manage feed xml

```
techmeme-pp-cli feed-xml
```
— Top 15 headlines currently on Techmeme. RSS 2.0 format. Each item has title, link (to Techmeme permalink),...

lb-opml — Manage lb opml

```
techmeme-pp-cli lb-opml
```
— OPML file listing Techmeme's top 51 sources with source name, website URL, and RSS feed URL. Updated regularly based...

river — Manage river

```
techmeme-pp-cli river
```
— 5-day rolling archive of all Techmeme headlines in reverse chronological order. 150+ headlines with timestamp,...

techmeme-search — Manage techmeme search

```
techmeme-pp-cli techmeme-search headlines
```
— Search Techmeme headlines. Supports quoted phrases, wildcards, +/-, AND/OR/NOT, parentheses. Can filter by url,...
```
techmeme-pp-cli techmeme-search rss
```
— RSS feed of search results. Same query syntax as /search/query. Subscribe in any RSS reader for alerts on specific...

Finding the right command

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

bash

techmeme-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

means at least one match; exit code

means no confident match — fall back to

--help

or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Morning briefing

bash

techmeme-pp-cli since 12h --agent --select title,source,time

Catch up on overnight tech news with just the essentials — title, source, and timestamp

Track a company

bash

techmeme-pp-cli search 'Apple' --agent --select title,source,link

Find all recent Techmeme headlines about Apple

Media landscape

bash

techmeme-pp-cli sources --top 20 --agent

See which 20 publications dominate Techmeme's curated feed

Breaking news detection

bash

techmeme-pp-cli velocity --agent

Find stories gaining momentum — multiple sources in a short window

Daily summary

bash

techmeme-pp-cli digest --agent

Today's tech news grouped by topic for a quick read

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run

techmeme-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:
bash
```
techmeme-pp-cli river --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

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

json

{
  "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 — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally at

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

. They are never POSTed unless

TECHMEME_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT

is set AND either

--send

is passed or

TECHMEME_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:

Sink	Effect
`stdout`	Default; 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.

techmeme-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
techmeme-pp-cli --profile briefing river
techmeme-pp-cli profile list --json
techmeme-pp-cli profile show briefing
techmeme-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

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

Argument Parsing

Parse

$ARGUMENTS

Empty,
help
, or
--help
→ show
```
techmeme-pp-cli --help
```
output
Starts with
install
→ ends with
```
mcp
```
→ MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with
```
--agent
```
)

MCP Server Installation

Install the MCP server:

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/techmeme/cmd/techmeme-pp-mcp@latest

bash

claude mcp add techmeme-pp-mcp -- techmeme-pp-mcp

Verify:
```
claude mcp list
```

Direct Use

Check if installed:
```
which techmeme-pp-cli
```
If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.

Execute with the

--agent

flag:

bash

techmeme-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent

If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:
```
techmeme-pp-cli <command> --help
```
.

pp-techmeme

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Techmeme — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

When to Use This CLI

When Not to Use This CLI

Unique Capabilities

Time intelligence

Persistent monitoring

News intelligence

Command Reference

Finding the right command

Recipes

Morning briefing

Track a company

Media landscape

Breaking news detection

Daily summary

Auth Setup

Agent Mode

Response envelope

Agent Feedback

Output Delivery

Named Profiles

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

MCP Server Installation

Direct Use