/printing-press-score

name: printing-press-score
description: Score a generated CLI against the Steinberger bar, compare two CLIs side-by-side
version: 0.1.0
min-binary-version: "4.0.0"
allowed-tools:
  - Bash
  - Read
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - AskUserQuestion
created_by: user

/printing-press-score

Score generated CLIs against the Steinberger bar. Supports rescoring, scoring by name/path, and comparing two CLIs.

Quick Start

/printing-press-score                              # rescore current CLI
/printing-press-score notion-pp-cli-4              # score by name
/printing-press-score ~/my-cli                     # score by path
/printing-press-score notion-pp-cli-4 vs notion-pp-cli-2  # compare two

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26.6 or newer installed
• `cli-printing-press` binary on PATH (install with `go install github.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/v4/cmd/cli-printing-press@latest`)

Step 0: Setup

Before any other commands, run the setup contract to verify the cli-printing-press binary is on PATH and initialize scope variables:

<!-- PRESS_SETUP_CONTRACT_START -->

# min-binary-version: 4.0.0

# Derive scope first — needed for local build detection
_scope_dir="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || echo "$PWD")"
_scope_dir="$(cd "$_scope_dir" && pwd -P)"

# Prefer local build when running from inside the printing-press repo.
_press_repo=false
if [ -x "$_scope_dir/cli-printing-press" ] && [ -d "$_scope_dir/cmd/cli-printing-press" ]; then
  _press_repo=true
  export PATH="$_scope_dir:$PATH"
  echo "Using local build: $_scope_dir/cli-printing-press"
elif ! command -v cli-printing-press >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  if [ -x "$HOME/go/bin/cli-printing-press" ]; then
    echo "cli-printing-press found at ~/go/bin/cli-printing-press but not on PATH."
    echo "Add GOPATH/bin to your PATH:  export PATH=\"\$HOME/go/bin:\$PATH\""
  else
    echo "cli-printing-press binary not found."
    echo "Install with:  go install github.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/v4/cmd/cli-printing-press@latest"
  fi
  return 1 2>/dev/null || exit 1
fi

# Resolve and emit the absolute path the agent must use for every later
# `cli-printing-press` invocation. `export PATH` above only affects this one
# Bash tool call; subsequent calls open a fresh shell and resolve bare
# `cli-printing-press` against the user's default PATH, where a stale global
# can silently shadow the local build. The agent captures this marker and
# substitutes the absolute path into every later invocation.
if [ "$_press_repo" = "true" ]; then
  PRINTING_PRESS_BIN="$_scope_dir/cli-printing-press"
else
  PRINTING_PRESS_BIN="$(command -v cli-printing-press 2>/dev/null || true)"
fi
echo "PRINTING_PRESS_BIN=$PRINTING_PRESS_BIN"

PRESS_BASE="$(basename "$_scope_dir" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed -E 's/[^a-z0-9_-]/-/g; s/^-+//; s/-+$//')"
if [ -z "$PRESS_BASE" ]; then
  PRESS_BASE="workspace"
fi

PRESS_SCOPE="$PRESS_BASE-$(printf '%s' "$_scope_dir" | shasum -a 256 | cut -c1-8)"
PRESS_HOME="${PRINTING_PRESS_HOME:-$HOME/printing-press}"
PRESS_RUNSTATE="$PRESS_HOME/.runstate/$PRESS_SCOPE"
PRESS_LIBRARY="$PRESS_HOME/library"
PRESS_MANUSCRIPTS="$PRESS_HOME/manuscripts"
PRESS_CURRENT="$PRESS_RUNSTATE/current"

mkdir -p "$PRESS_RUNSTATE" "$PRESS_LIBRARY" "$PRESS_MANUSCRIPTS" "$PRESS_CURRENT"

<!-- PRESS_SETUP_CONTRACT_END -->

After running the setup contract, capture the `PRINTING_PRESS_BIN=<abs-path>` line from stdout. **Every subsequent `cli-printing-press ...` invocation in this skill must use that absolute path** (substitute the value, not the literal `$PRINTING_PRESS_BIN` token) — `export PATH` above only affects the single Bash tool call it runs in, so later calls open a fresh shell where bare `cli-printing-press` resolves against the user's default `PATH` and a stale global can shadow the local build.

After capturing the binary path, check binary version compatibility. Read the `min-binary-version` field from this skill's YAML frontmatter. Run `<PRINTING_PRESS_BIN> version --json` and parse the version from the output. Compare it to `min-binary-version` using semver rules. If the installed binary is older than the minimum, stop immediately and tell the user: "cli-printing-press binary vX.Y.Z is older than the minimum required vA.B.C. Run `go install github.com/mvanhorn/cli-printing-press/v4/cmd/cli-printing-press@latest` to update."

Current-run state is resolved from `$PRESS_RUNSTATE`. Published CLIs are resolved from `$PRESS_LIBRARY`. Archived manuscripts are resolved from `$PRESS_MANUSCRIPTS`.

Step 1: Parse Arguments

Read the user's input after `/printing-press-score`. The input is **free-form** — interpret intent, don't enforce syntax.

**Noise words to strip:** `compare`, `vs`, `versus`, `and`, `against`, `with`, `to`

After stripping noise words, count the remaining tokens:

• **0 tokens** → Rescore Current mode
• **1 token** → Score Single mode
• **2 tokens** → Compare mode

Step 2: Resolve CLI Directories

For each CLI identifier, resolve it to a directory path:

If the token contains `/` or `.`

Treat it as a path (absolute or relative). Verify the directory exists.

If the token is a plain name

Try these locations in order: 1. `$PRESS_LIBRARY/<name>/` — exact match 2. `$PRESS_LIBRARY/<name>-pp-cli/` — with -pp-cli suffix 3. If neither exists, Glob `$PRESS_LIBRARY/<name>-pp-cli*` 4. If exactly one glob match exists and is a directory, use it 5. If multiple glob matches exist, present a numbered menu using AskUserQuestion

If neither exists, scan current-run and archived state: 6. Use Glob to find `$PRESS_RUNSTATE/runs/*/state.json` files 7. Read each, look for an `output_dir` or `working_dir` value whose basename contains the name 8. If found and the directory exists, use it

If nothing resolves, report the error: "Could not find CLI '<name>'. Provide a path or check the name."

Rescore Current (0 tokens)

1. Use Glob to find all `$PRESS_CURRENT/*.json` files 2. Read each to get `api_name`, `state_path`, and