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blacklane

README.md

Blacklane CLI

Upfront chauffeur quotes from the terminal — transfer and hourly, with a local price history no other tool has.

Quote Blacklane's fixed all-inclusive chauffeur fares (airport transfers and by-the-hour) by address, compare vehicle classes, and keep a searchable local log of every quote. Addresses resolve via OpenStreetMap — no API key, no login, no booking.

Created by @omarshahine (Omar Shahine).

Install

The recommended path installs both the blacklane-pp-cli binary and the pp-blacklane agent skill (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and other agents supported by the upstream skills CLI) in one shot:

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane

For CLI only (no skill):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane --cli-only

For skill only — installs the skill into the same agents as the default command above, but skips the CLI binary (use this to update or reinstall just the skill):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane --skill-only

To constrain the skill install to one or more specific agents (repeatable — agent names match the skills CLI):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane --agent claude-code
npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane --agent claude-code --agent codex

Without Node (Go fallback)

If npx isn't available (no Node, offline), install the CLI directly via Go (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/commerce/blacklane/cmd/blacklane-pp-cli@latest

This installs the CLI only — no skill.

Pre-built binary

Download a pre-built binary for your platform from the latest release. On macOS, clear the Gatekeeper quarantine: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine <binary>. On Unix, mark it executable: chmod +x <binary>.

Install for Hermes

Install the CLI binary first. The installer writes binaries to a per-user managed bin directory by default: $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows.

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane --cli-only

Then install the focused Hermes skill.

From the Hermes CLI:

hermes skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-blacklane --force

Inside a Hermes chat session:

/skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-blacklane --force

Restart the Hermes session or gateway if the newly installed skill is not visible immediately.

Install for OpenClaw

Install both the CLI binary and the focused OpenClaw skill. The installer defaults binaries to a per-user bin directory ($HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows):

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install blacklane --agent openclaw

Restart the OpenClaw session or gateway if the newly installed skill is not visible immediately.

Use with Claude Desktop

This CLI ships an MCPB bundle — Claude Desktop's standard format for one-click MCP extension installs (no JSON config required).

To install:

  1. Download the .mcpb for your platform from the latest release.
  2. Double-click the .mcpb file. Claude Desktop opens and walks you through the install.

Requires Claude Desktop 1.0.0 or later. Pre-built bundles ship for macOS Apple Silicon (darwin-arm64) and Windows (amd64, arm64); for other platforms, use the manual config below.

Manual JSON config (advanced)

If you can't use the MCPB bundle (older Claude Desktop, unsupported platform), install the MCP binary and configure it manually.

Install the MCP binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release.

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "blacklane": {
      "command": "blacklane-pp-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Quick Start

# Point-to-point transfer quote across vehicle classes.
blacklane-pp-cli quote "San Francisco Airport" "Union Square San Francisco" --at 2026-06-25T15:00

# By-the-hour chauffeur quote (3 hours).
blacklane-pp-cli quote "Union Square San Francisco" --hourly 3 --at 2026-06-25T15:00

# Inspect a vehicle class's models, capacity, and features.
blacklane-pp-cli catalog business

Unique Features

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

Local state that compounds

  • watch — Track a saved route's price over time and flag drops.

    Reach for this to catch chauffeur price drops before a trip.

    blacklane-pp-cli watch "San Francisco Airport" "Union Square San Francisco" --at 2026-06-25T15:00 --agent

  • compare — Quote one route across many departure times to find the cheapest.

    Use when the pickup time is flexible and price matters.

    blacklane-pp-cli compare "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --dates 2026-06-20T15:00,2026-06-21T15:00 --agent

  • log — Every quote saved to SQLite, full-text searchable and SQL-queryable.

    Use to recall and compare past quotes offline.

    blacklane-pp-cli search "Times Square" --agent

Trip planning

  • trip — Quote a sequence of legs and total the fares.

    Use to budget a full day of ground transport.

    blacklane-pp-cli trip --leg "JFK Airport>Times Square New York" --at 2026-06-20T09:00 --agent

  • fit — Recommend the cheapest vehicle class that fits the party.

    Use to avoid overpaying for more car than you need.

    blacklane-pp-cli fit "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --pax 3 --bags 4 --at 2026-06-20T15:00 --agent

Authenticated account

  • bookings — List your upcoming and past Blacklane rides (requires auth login).

    Pull your ride history/status without opening the site.

    blacklane-pp-cli bookings --when upcoming --agent

  • me — Show your Blacklane profile (requires auth login).

    Confirm which account the CLI is acting as.

    blacklane-pp-cli me --agent

  • wallet — Show wallet credits and vouchers (requires auth login).

    Check available credits before booking.

    blacklane-pp-cli wallet --agent

Booking

  • book — Quote and assemble a booking, then open browser checkout for payment under --confirm. Never charges.

    Assemble and price a ride in the terminal, confirm payment yourself in the browser.

    blacklane-pp-cli book 'JFK Airport' 'Times Square New York' --at 2026-06-25T15:00 --class business

Recipes

Quote and keep only class + price

blacklane-pp-cli quote "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --at 2026-06-20T15:00 --agent --select packages.title,packages.grossAmount,packages.currency

Narrow a verbose quote to just the class and total.

Find the cheapest departure

blacklane-pp-cli compare "JFK Airport" "Times Square New York" --dates 2026-06-20T15:00,2026-06-21T09:00,2026-06-22T09:00 --agent

Fan out quotes across times and rank by price.

Usage

Run blacklane-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.

Commands

catalog

Vehicle-class service catalog (models, capacity, features)

  • blacklane-pp-cli catalog <slug> - Get a vehicle class by slug (business, first, van)

prices

Raw pricing quotes (prefer the top-level 'quote' command)

  • blacklane-pp-cli prices - Request prices for a journey (raw body; see 'quote' for a friendly interface)

Output Formats

# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
blacklane-pp-cli catalog mock-value

# JSON for scripting and agents
blacklane-pp-cli catalog mock-value --json

# Filter to specific fields
blacklane-pp-cli catalog mock-value --json --select id,name,status

# Dry run — show the request without sending
blacklane-pp-cli catalog mock-value --dry-run

# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
blacklane-pp-cli catalog mock-value --agent

Agent Usage

This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:

  • Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
  • Pipeable - --json output to stdout, errors to stderr
  • Filterable - --select id,name returns only fields you need
  • Previewable - --dry-run shows the request without sending
  • Explicit retries - add --idempotent to create retries when a no-op success is acceptable
  • Confirmable - --yes for explicit confirmation of destructive actions
  • Piped input - write commands can accept structured input when their help lists --stdin
  • Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
  • Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless --human-friendly is set

Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.

Health Check

blacklane-pp-cli doctor

Verifies configuration and connectivity to the API.

Authentication

Quotes, catalog, and geocoding need no auth. The account commands and book use your own Blacklane login — easiest via Chrome:

blacklane-pp-cli auth login --chrome    # imports your 24h access token from Chrome (non-invasive)
# durable alternative: pbpaste | blacklane-pp-cli auth login   (refresh token from DevTools)

Credentials are stored owner-only at ~/.config/blacklane-pp-cli/auth.json. book never charges — payment (Braintree + 3-D Secure) is completed by you in the browser.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/blacklane-pp-cli/config.toml

Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.

Troubleshooting

Not found errors (exit code 3)

  • Check the resource ID is correct
  • Run the list command to see available items

API-specific

  • Quote returns no vehicle classes — The route may be outside Blacklane's service area, or the date is in the past — try a major city/airport and a future time.
  • Address resolves to the wrong place — Pass more specific text or use --pickup-lat/--pickup-lng (and --dropoff-lat/lng) to set coordinates directly.