Agent skill · software engineering · mvanhorn
pp-apartments
The apartment-hunt CLI that actually works in 2026 — Surf-cleared bot protection plus a local SQLite store the website itself doesn't have. Trigger phrases: `find apartments in <city>`, `watch apartment listings for <area>`, `rank rentals by price per square foot`, `compare these apartments`, `use apartments-pp-cli`, `run apartments`.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a CLI tool with unique commands for structured apartment data retrieval and analysis that aren't available elsewhere.
What it needs
Requires go, npx installed locally. About 10k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-06. 1,890 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Apartments.com — Printing Press CLI Prerequisites: Install the CLI This skill drives the apartments-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: 2. Verify: apartments-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): 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 when an agent or human needs structured Apartments.com data and needs the workflows the website itself doesn't expose: cross-search diffs over time, $/sqft and total-cost-of-occupancy rankings, multi-slug union queries, side-by-side comparison, and digest-style summaries. Reach for it for relocation tracking, value-per-dollar screens across shortlists, leasing-agent weekly digests, and any rental-search scenario that needs JSON + offline composition. Skip it for one-off browsing — the apartments.com website is fine for that. 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-series intelligence watch — Re-run a stored search and surface what's NEW, REMOVED, or PRICE-CHANGED since the last sync. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills mvanhorn/pp-apartments--9832ba