Prerequisites: Install the CLI
This skill drives the fooda-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. It defaults binaries to
$HOME/.local/binon macOS/Linux and%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\binon Windows:npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install fooda --cli-only - Verify:
fooda-pp-cli --version - Ensure the reported install directory is on
$PATHfor 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/food-and-dining/fooda/cmd/fooda-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.
Fooda has no public API. This CLI reads the logged-in web app with your Chrome session, syncs your order history locally, and answers questions like what you ate, where you keep ordering, and how much subsidy you have left today.
Unique Capabilities
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Local history that compounds
-
served-history— See every lunch you were actually served, with date, vendor, items and price.Use when an agent needs a longitudinal record of what a person ate rather than today's menu.
fooda-pp-cli served-history --since 90d --agent -
venue-rotation— Rank vendors by how often and how recently you ordered from them.Use to spot vendor fatigue or under-used favorites before choosing lunch.
fooda-pp-cli venue-rotation --since 120d --agent -
spend-trends— Spend per month or week, split into subsidy-covered and out-of-pocket.Use for budget or subsidy-utilization reporting.
fooda-pp-cli spend-trends --since 6mo --group-by month --agent
Lunch planning
-
week-ahead— One-line-per-day digest of upcoming events and restaurants at your building.Use for a quick morning check of what is being served this week.
fooda-pp-cli week-ahead --agent -
subsidy-status— Remaining dollars of today's subsidy and when it is valid.Use before ordering to know how much of the meal is covered.
fooda-pp-cli subsidy-status --agent -
menu-search— Search menu items across all of today's events.Use for dietary or craving lookups without opening each vendor page.
fooda-pp-cli menu-search vegan --agent
Anti-Triggers & Limitations
- Ordering Support: Ordering is supported via
order addandorder placewhen using--confirm. Automated agents must never pass--confirmwithout explicit user intent. - Cancellation Limitation: The
order cancelcommand is not supported (please cancel manually in the Fooda app). whoamiCloudflare Constraints: Thewhoamicommand is heavily limited by Cloudflare challenges. It fallbacks to greeting pages; account and building IDs are extracted from the home page.- Catering / Billing: Do not use this CLI for Fooda Catering orders or billing.
Cookbook / Recipes
- Budget-Optimized Lunch Planning: Plan an add-on item, add both to cart, and place order:
fooda-pp-cli order plan --event S609348 --budget 20 --anchor "Beef Bulgogi Bowl" fooda-pp-cli order add 589968 --event S609348 --confirm fooda-pp-cli order add 589973 --event S609348 --confirm fooda-pp-cli order place --event S609348 --confirm - Vendor Fatigue Check:
fooda-pp-cli venue-rotation --since 120d --agent --select vendor,order_count,last_ordered - Monthly Subsidy Report:
fooda-pp-cli spend-trends --since 6mo --group-by month - Vegan Options Today:
fooda-pp-cli menu-search vegan
Recipes
Budget-optimized lunch planning
fooda-pp-cli order plan --event S609348 --budget 20 --anchor "Beef Bulgogi Bowl"
Suggests a budget-optimized add-on item from the event menu.
Vendor fatigue check
fooda-pp-cli venue-rotation --since 120d --agent --select vendor,order_count,last_ordered
Shows only the fields needed to see repeat vendors.
Monthly subsidy report
fooda-pp-cli spend-trends --since 6mo --group-by month
Splits covered and out-of-pocket spend per month.
Vegan options today
fooda-pp-cli menu-search vegan
Searches every event menu for the term.
Command Reference
cards —
fooda-pp-cli cards balances— Outstanding Fooda Card balances.fooda-pp-cli cards list— Saved payment cards for a user id (variables: {userId}).
events —
fooda-pp-cli events— Search public events (popup, cafe, delivery, catering) for an account/building and date range.
recommendations —
fooda-pp-cli recommendations— Personalized recommendations for a select event (variables.input.targetId).
subsidies —
fooda-pp-cli subsidies— List your subsidies with coverage, validity, state, and remaining balance (qrInfo).
served-history —
fooda-pp-cli served-history— Show food history based on synced orders.
venue-rotation —
fooda-pp-cli venue-rotation— Analyze vendor order frequency and last ordered date.
spend-trends —
fooda-pp-cli spend-trends— Generate time-series spend reports showing subsidy and out-of-pocket costs.
week-ahead —
fooda-pp-cli week-ahead— View live events for the next 7 days in a daily one-line digest.
subsidy-status —
fooda-pp-cli subsidy-status— Display today's remaining dollar subsidy and validity details.
menu-search —
fooda-pp-cli menu-search <keyword>— Filter and search menu items across today's events.
Finding the right command
When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:
fooda-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. --json (and other machine formats) keep that exit-2 contract and write {"matches":[]} on stdout so agents can inspect the envelope without treating a miss as success.
Auth Setup
Fooda sits behind Cloudflare and has no API key. Log in to app.fooda.com in Chrome, then run auth login --chrome to import your session cookies, or use auth login --cookies-file <file> to import cookies from a JSON file. The CLI never logs in itself.
Run fooda-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.
Agent Mode
Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color.
Global format flags share one contract on promoted, novel, sync, and --deliver paths:
-
--json— one JSON document on stdout (sync progress events go to stderr) -
--compact— keep identity/status/timestamp fields; does not change the document vs stream shape -
--csv/--plain— tabular rows (collection envelopes unwrap to the row array) -
--quiet— one identity value per row, no envelope -
Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
-
Filterable —
--selectkeeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:fooda-pp-cli card --agent -
Previewable —
--dry-runshows 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
-
Explicit confirmation —
--agentdoes not imply--yes; pass--yesseparately only after the target, arguments, and side effects are clear
Response envelope
Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:
{
"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 AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.
Paths and state
Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:
-
Use
--home <dir>for one invocation, or setFOODA_HOME=<dir>to relocate all four path kinds under one root. -
Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge:
FOODA_CONFIG_DIR,FOODA_DATA_DIR,FOODA_STATE_DIR,FOODA_CACHE_DIR. -
Resolution order is per-kind env var,
--home,FOODA_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME,XDG_DATA_HOME,XDG_STATE_HOME,XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults. -
configcontains settings likeconfig.tomland profiles.datacontainscredentials.toml,data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars.statecontains persisted queries, jobs, andteach.log.cachecontains regenerable HTTP/cache files. -
Stored secrets live in
credentials.tomlunder the data dir. Existing legacyconfig.tomlsecrets are read for compatibility and leaveconfig.tomlon the first auth write. -
Run
fooda-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warnto surface path and credential-location warnings.agent-contextexposes a schema v4pathsblock for agents that need the resolved dirs. -
For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:
{ "mcpServers": { "fooda": { "command": "fooda-pp-mcp", "env": { "FOODA_HOME": "/srv/fooda" } } } }
Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use FOODA_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing FOODA_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.
Automatic learning
This CLI ships a self-capturing learning loop. The CLI does its own bookkeeping: every invocation is journaled locally, a failed flag followed by a corrected retry auto-derives a flag_alias candidate, and a teach on a query family without a playbook auto-synthesizes a playbook_candidate from the session's journal. Your job is judgment only: recall first, act on surfaced candidates, teach the final answer, playbook amend when you observe a correction. You never record failures by hand.
Step 1: recall before any discovery
Before list/search/drill commands on a new user question, pass the question as an argv or MCP tool argument to recall --agent. Do not interpolate user-controlled text into a shell command line.
Quoted recall "<question>" breaks on an apostrophe, which is ordinary English. A quoted heredoc breaks when a body line equals the delimiter, and that delimiter is published in these docs. Write the question with a non-shell file-writing tool, then read it back as data:
# Write the question verbatim with your file-writing tool (no shell involved).
# Command substitution on a file only ever yields data — the shell never
# parses the file's bytes as syntax.
QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
fooda-pp-cli recall "$QUERY" --agent
Prefer MCP: pass the question as the tool's query argument. "$QUERY" after a file read is argv-safe; putting the question itself in the command text is not.
The response envelope:
{
"query": "...",
"normalized": "<normalized form>",
"query_entities": ["..."],
"found": true | false,
"match_score": 0.0,
"results": [
{ "resource_id": "...", "resource_type": "...", "venue": "...",
"confidence": 2, "entity_match": "exact|partial|unknown",
"source": "taught|preseed|pattern", "warnings": ["..."] }
],
"mismatches": [ /* only when --debug-mismatches */ ],
"warnings": [ /* top-level */ ],
"candidates": [
{ "id": 12, "class": "flag_alias | playbook_candidate",
"summary": "...", "sightings": 3, "last_seen": "...",
"rationale": "...",
"next_action": ["<trial command>", "fooda-pp-cli learnings confirm 12"] }
],
"playbook": {
"query_family": "...",
"playbook": {
"steps": [ { "cmd": "<command with {slot} substitution>", "purpose": "..." } ],
"entity_slots": ["$ENTITY"],
"expected_tool_calls": 3
},
"slots_resolved": { "$ENTITY": { "token": "<live token>", "canonical": "<canonical>" } },
"notes": "<workarounds + gotchas for this query family>"
},
"notes": "<duplicate surface for non-playbook callers>"
}
Empty-store short-circuit: if the store has no learnings, playbooks, or candidates yet (recall finds nothing and learnings list and learnings candidates are both empty), skip recall for the rest of this session instead of taxing every query; resume recall-first once something has been taught.
Step 2: decision tree
Read candidates, playbook, notes, results[0], and warnings in that order:
if Candidates present (warnings include "candidates_present"):
-> candidates are try-then-confirm, never facts. Follow each candidate's
two-step next_action verbatim: run the trial command first, then run
`learnings confirm <id>` only after the trial verified the behavior.
Reject a wrong candidate with `learnings reject <id>`.
-> NEVER re-teach something recall surfaced as a candidate; confirm or
reject that candidate instead of teaching a duplicate.
-> candidates ride alongside playbooks and resource hits, not instead of
them; continue with the branches below after acting on them.
if Playbook present:
-> READ Playbook.notes verbatim FIRST (workarounds + gotchas the CLI surface doesn't expose)
-> replay Playbook.steps in order, substituting Playbook.slots_resolved entries
for the entity slot tokens. If a step's slot is unresolved, fall back to
discovery for that step only.
-> the Playbook's expected_tool_calls is a budget; if you find yourself running
materially more, record the divergence via `fooda-pp-cli playbook amend`
at end-of-session.
elif Notes present (no Playbook):
-> read Notes verbatim before any discovery step; they carry known gotchas
for this query family even when no structured choreography exists yet.
elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "exact" AND Results[0].Confidence >= 2:
-> skip discovery; fetch live data for Results[*].ResourceID in parallel
elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "partial":
-> candidate hint, NOT a hit; read the resource title to validate before trusting
elif (any row in Mismatches[] when --debug-mismatches was passed):
-> treat as cold start; the stored learning is for a different entity
(different canonical resolved from query_entities)
else: // Found == false, no playbook, no notes
-> cold start; run discovery normally; teach the answer afterward (Step 4).
If the family has no playbook yet, that teach auto-synthesizes a
playbook candidate from this session's journal - you do not need to
record one by hand.
Playbook and Notes are orthogonal to the per-resource path. A recall response can carry both a Playbook AND a Results[] hit - use both: the Playbook tells you which choreography to run; the resource hits short-circuit specific steps. Default to skipping mismatches; pass --debug-mismatches only when investigating cold-start surprises.
Candidate judgment details: learnings confirm <id> prints the candidate's full payload before materializing it - check that the printed payload matches the behavior you verified. learnings reject <id> tombstones the derivation signature so the same candidate does not resurface. The envelope carries only the few candidates worth acting on now; fooda-pp-cli learnings candidates lists the full open set.
Graceful degradation: if learnings confirm is an unknown command, you are driving an older binary - ignore the candidates guidance and follow the rest of the protocol.
Step 3: always read warnings
low_confidence: row exists atconfidence<2. Treat as a hint, not a skip-discovery hit.resource_not_in_store: the local store doesn't have the resource the learning points at. The match validator couldn't classify entities — direct-fetch and re-evaluate.cross_alias_match(per-result): the row was taught under a different alias and matched the live query's canonical viaentity_lookups(e.g., a "USA" teach satisfying a "United States" recall). Trust the resource_id.similar_shape_different_entity:<canonical>(top-level): a structurally matching row exists but its canonical entity differs from the live query's. Treated as cold start; the warning carries the conflicting canonical as a hint, but the row is NOT promoted into Results.ambiguous_alias(top-level): a single query entity resolved to multiple canonicals (e.g., "Cards" → Arizona Cardinals + St. Louis Cardinals). Surface the ambiguity from context before committing to a resource.candidates_present(top-level): the envelope carries acandidatessection. Handle it via the candidates branch in Step 2 before anything else.- Top-level
no_learnings_for_query_family: the table had no rows above the Jaccard floor. Pure cold start.
Step 4: teach & after finalizing your response - always
Teaching is unconditional. After resolving a query the store could not answer, background-teach the final resource mapping - no call-count threshold, no judging whether it was "worth" learning. The teach is the anchor of the loop: it triggers playbook synthesis for a family without a playbook, and same-referent phrasings fold into one family so near-duplicate teaches do not fragment the store. Fire it after assembling your user-facing response but BEFORE emitting it, with a shell & so the call returns immediately. Pass the query the same way as recall — argv/MCP, or file-then-$QUERY. Do not splice the question into the command text:
QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
fooda-pp-cli teach --query "$QUERY" --resource-type <type> --resource <id1> --resource <id2>
# (append shell `&` to background it)
Silent on success. Errors only land in teach.log under the resolved state dir. Teach the most specific resource - if the user asked a broad question and you walked through parent records to find the specific answer, teach the leaf id, not the parent. The CLI uses seeded entity_lookups for cross-alias resolution at recall time, so a teach under one alias (e.g., "Niners") satisfies future queries under another alias (e.g., "49ers", "San Francisco") automatically.
PII rule: teach the structural question with identifiers stripped - never include names, emails, phone numbers, account ids, or other personal identifiers in taught queries or notes. The CLI scans teach queries for obvious email/phone shapes and warns, but does not block; strip before teaching rather than relying on the warning.
Step 5: playbooks - optional flags, automatic synthesis
You do not need to decide whether a session "deserves" a playbook: a teach on a family without one auto-synthesizes a playbook_candidate from the session's journal, and the next session judges it via confirm/reject. Attach explicit playbook flags only when you already hold choreography worth recording verbatim - workarounds the CLI didn't surface (silently-dropped flags, undocumented params, pagination tricks, payload gotchas). Prefer the integrated one-call form - record the resource learning and the playbook in the same teach invocation:
# Common case: record both the resource learning AND the playbook in one call.
QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
fooda-pp-cli teach \
--query "$QUERY" \
--resource <id> \
--playbook-file ~/playbooks/<shape>.json \
--playbook-notes-file ~/playbooks/<shape>-notes.md
# (append shell `&` to background it)
# Alternate: playbook-only (no resource to record alongside).
QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
fooda-pp-cli teach-playbook \
--query "$QUERY" \
--playbook-file ~/playbooks/<shape>.json \
--notes-file ~/playbooks/<shape>-notes.md
Playbook files are JSON with steps, entity_slots, expected_tool_calls. Notes files are markdown carrying the gotchas verbatim. File-free callers (MCP-only agents) pass the same content inline: --playbook-json and --playbook-notes on the integrated teach form, --playbook-json and --notes on teach-playbook. On the integrated teach form, the playbook flags are optional - omit them entirely for a resource-only teach. On the standalone teach-playbook form, at least one of the playbook and notes flags must be set; both empty is rejected. Playbooks are keyed on the structural query family (entities stripped) so a recipe taught from one entity-shaped query applies to every other query of the same shape, with slots_resolved binding the live query's canonical at recall time.
When you DO find a playbook on a future recall, treat it as ground truth: replay the steps with slots_resolved substitutions, skip the discovery that the choreography already documents, and read notes before any step.
Step 6: playbook amend & when your debug response identifies a correction
If your debug-protocol response identifies a concrete correction the notes or playbook should know — a workaround, an undocumented endpoint shape, a stale field name, observed schema drift, an empty-payload fallback — fire playbook amend BEFORE emitting your user-facing response. Same fire-and-forget posture as teach. Pass the query and note as argv/MCP arguments, or write each with a non-shell file tool and read them back (QUERY=$(cat ...), NOTE=$(cat ...)). Do not interpolate either string into the command text:
QUERY=$(cat /path/to/question.txt)
NOTE=$(cat /path/to/note.txt)
fooda-pp-cli playbook amend \
--query "$QUERY" \
--add-note "$NOTE"
# (append shell `&` to background it)
What counts as worth amending: a behavior you OBSERVED this session that future-you would benefit from knowing. Examples worth amending:
- A workaround for a CLI surface that silently drops or misorders a flag.
- An undocumented endpoint shape (response wrapped in
{meta, results}, payload nested two levels deeper than the docs claim). - Observed schema drift (a field renamed, an index that shifted between seasons, a category label that the API now returns lower-cased).
What does NOT belong in notes:
- The year-specific or entity-specific answer to the user's question. That's the response, not a learning.
- Per-team / per-athlete / per-row data the playbook already retrieves at runtime.
- Statements that paraphrase what the existing notes already say.
The amend command appends to the family's existing notes with a timestamped marker ([amend YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MMZ]: <text>). Multiple amends accumulate; the audit trail is visible. If no playbook exists yet for the family, amend creates a notes-only one (so cold-start corrections still land).
PII discipline for amend notes
playbook amend notes are designed to potentially flow upstream as shared knowledge in future versions of the Printing Press. Keep them clean of user-identifying content so the upstream-contribution path stays open without retroactive scrubbing:
- Do NOT embed paths to user filesystems, personal API keys or tokens, user email addresses, user GitHub handles, or specific query histories tied to a single user.
- Acceptable: endpoint shapes, undocumented field names, API gotchas, observed schema drift, workarounds for CLI surfaces, generalizable pagination or retry tactics.
If a correction is only meaningful with user-specific context, it belongs in a personal note, not in the playbook amend.
Measuring the loop
fooda-pp-cli learnings stats reports recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution rate, and candidate confirm/reject counts from the local learn_events table. Rates are null until they have a denominator; everything stays on this machine. Use it to check whether the loop is earning its keep for this CLI.
Disabling learning
--no-learnon a single command short-circuits bothrecalland theteachwrite path. Use for deterministic agent flows or tests that must not be affected by accumulated learnings.FOODA_NO_LEARN=truein the environment globally disables the pipeline.
Agent Feedback
When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:
fooda-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
fooda-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
fooda-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10
Entries are stored locally as feedback.jsonl under the resolved data dir. They are never POSTed unless FOODA_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or FOODA_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). Binary-response commands write decoded payload bytes (not the base64 JSON envelope) and print a small JSON receipt on stdout; --json/--csv do not refuse when this sink is set. |
webhook:<url> |
POST the output body to the URL (application/json) |
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 or recurring agent reuses the same saved flags while providing different input each run.
fooda-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
fooda-pp-cli --profile briefing card
fooda-pp-cli profile list --json
fooda-pp-cli profile show briefing
fooda-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 |
| 4 | Authentication required |
| 5 | API error (upstream issue) |
| 6 | Partial failure |
| 7 | Rate limited (wait and retry) |
| 10 | Config error |
Argument Parsing
Parse $ARGUMENTS:
- Empty,
help, or--help→ showfooda-pp-cli --helpoutput - Starts with
install→ ends withmcp→ MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above - Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with
--agent)
MCP Server Installation
- Install the MCP server:
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/food-and-dining/fooda/cmd/fooda-pp-mcp@latest - Register with Claude Code:
claude mcp add fooda-pp-mcp -- fooda-pp-mcp - Verify:
claude mcp list
Direct Use
- Check if installed:
which fooda-pp-cliIf 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
--agentflag:fooda-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent - If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:
fooda-pp-cli <command> --help.