pp-bird

Bird — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the bird-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:

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

2. Verify: bird-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 1.26.5 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/social-and-messaging/bird/cmd/bird-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.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for bird-pp-cli when an AI agent or operator needs to interact with a Bird workspace from a terminal: sending one-off transactional SMS, batching reminders with reconcile, triaging open conversations, auditing message delivery, or maintaining the workspace allow/block list. Prefer this over raw curl when you want offline search, agent-shaped JSON, or a single command that folds multiple Bird endpoints into one answer.

Unique Capabilities

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

Local state that compounds

• messages audit — Fold a message and its interactions into a chronological delivery timeline; exit non-zero on terminal failure.

  Use this when an agent needs a one-shot answer to 'did this SMS land?' with a non-zero exit on failure for pipeline gating.

  bird-pp-cli messages audit msg_123 --json
  

• messages failures — Aggregate recent message-interaction failures grouped by reason code.

  Reach for this before paging humans about an SMS outage — it tells you whether the failures are clustered (one bad number, one carrier) or spread.

  bird-pp-cli messages failures --since 24h --group-by reason --json
  

• sms search — Full-text search over message bodies, optionally filtered by sender or recipient phone number.

  Use when an agent needs to find a specific outbound SMS without scrolling pages of console output.

  bird-pp-cli sms search "order confirmation" --to +31612345678 --json
  

Send + reconcile

• sms send-batch — Send a batch of SMS messages from a CSV with per-row idempotency keys, persisting the batch in the local store for later reconcile.

  Use this for any batch larger than a handful of recipients where you need to know which ones failed afterward.

  bird-pp-cli sms send-batch --csv recipients.csv --body-template "Hi {{name}}, your code is {{code}}" --dry-run
  

• sms reconcile — Re-fetch delivery interactions for every message in a batch, group failures by reason, and optionally retry.

  Reach for this after every send-batch run — it answers 'how many landed?' and gives you a retry plan in one shot.

  bird-pp-cli sms reconcile batch_2026_05_10_a --retry-failed --json
  

Triage and reach

• conversations timeline — Render a conversation's messages, participants, and delivery interactions in canonical chronological order.

  Use when triaging a customer thread — one command shows the full back-and-forth plus per-outbound delivery state.

  bird-pp-cli conversations timeline conv_42 --json
  

• messages from — List every message exchanged with one phone number across all conversations.

  Use when an agent needs the complete back-and-forth with one customer regardless of which conversation it lived in.

  bird-pp-cli messages from +31612345678 --json
  

Compliance and onboarding

• tenant doctor — Run an SMS-tenant readiness checklist across channels, channel-config, anti-spam, compliance keywords, and messageability with a single exit code.

  Use during onboarding for a new workspace or when an existing tenant's outbound SMS suddenly drops to zero.

  bird-pp-cli tenant doctor --test-contact contact_42 --json
  

• compliance auto-block — Scan local inbound messages for STOP-keyword fires within a time window; emit a CSV ready for bulk-add (or apply directly).

  Use weekly to keep the workspace block list synchronized with customer opt-outs without writing a Python script.

  bird-pp-cli compliance auto-block --since 7d --json
  

Command Reference

channel-config — Per-channel Conversations API configuration

• bird-pp-cli channel-config get — Get the Conversations configuration for a channel
• bird-pp-cli channel-config update — Update Conversations configuration for a channel

channel-media — Channel-specific pre-signed media uploads

• bird-pp-cli channel-media <channel_id> — Create a channel-scoped pre-signed media upload URL

channels — SMS channels available in the workspace

• bird-pp-cli channels get — Get one channel by ID
• bird-pp-cli channels list — List channels in the workspace (filter --kind sms)
• bird-pp-cli channels messageability — Check whether a channel can message a given contact (the customer-service window probe)

compliance — Channel compliance keyword routing (HELP/STOP/START)

conversations — Manage Bird conversation threads (cross-channel customer interactions)

• bird-pp-cli conversations create — Start a new conversation
• bird-pp-cli conversations delete — Delete a conversation
• bird-pp-cli conversations get — Get one conversation by ID
• bird-pp-cli conversations list — List conversations across the workspace
• bird-pp-cli conversations update — Update a conversation (status, name, etc.)

media — Pre-signed media uploads for messages with attachments

• bird-pp-cli media — Create a workspace-wide pre-signed media upload URL

messages — Channel-level messages (the SMS send/receive layer)

• bird-pp-cli messages get — Get one message by ID
• bird-pp-cli messages interactions — List delivery-event interactions for a message (sent, delivered, read, failed)
• bird-pp-cli messages list — List messages on a channel (chronological)
• bird-pp-cli messages list-all — List messages across the workspace

participants — Workspace-wide participant lookup

• bird-pp-cli participants conversations — List conversations a participant belongs to (by participant ID)
• bird-pp-cli participants conversations-by-identifier — List conversations a participant belongs to (by identifier key and value)

sms — Programmable SMS send (the headline command)

• bird-pp-cli sms — Send an SMS message

workspace — Workspace-level configuration: anti-spam and allow/block rules

Finding the right command

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

bird-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.

Recipes

Bulk-send an OTP campaign with reconcile

bird-pp-cli sms send-batch --csv recipients.csv --body-template "Your code is {{code}}" --apply --json

Sends one SMS per CSV row with a deterministic idempotency key and persists the batch in the local store. The returned JSON includes the batchId; pass it to 'bird-pp-cli sms reconcile --json' afterward to re-fetch delivery interactions and group failures by reason.

Audit one message

bird-pp-cli messages audit msg_abc --channel-id ch_sms_1 --json --select status,events

Audit folds the message + interactions into a single timeline with a non-zero exit on terminal failure so it works as a CI gate or a Slackbot trigger.

Find an OTP we sent yesterday to one customer

bird-pp-cli sms search "code" --to +31612345678 --json --select id,createdAt,body

Runs FTS5 over the local store; works offline once sync has run, no Bird API call. The --select narrows the response so an agent doesn't burn context on full message envelopes.

Onboard a new SMS tenant

bird-pp-cli tenant doctor --test-contact contact_42 --json

Runs the five-endpoint readiness checklist (channel exists, channel-config enabled, anti-spam on, compliance keywords configured, messageability green) and exits non-zero with the failing check.

Sync compliance opt-outs into the block list

bird-pp-cli compliance auto-block --since 7d --apply --json

auto-block scans local inbound messages for STOP/HELP/UNSUBSCRIBE and emits a structured candidate list. With --apply it calls workspace rules bulk-add internally to write the block rules in one shot. Drop --apply for a print-only dry run.

Auth Setup

Authentication uses Bird's Authorization: AccessKey <key> header. Set BIRD_API_KEY plus BIRD_WORKSPACE_ID (every Bird endpoint is workspace-scoped) before calling any command. An optional BIRD_CHANNEL_ID provides a default for SMS commands so you don't have to pass --channel-id every time.

Run bird-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:

  bird-pp-cli channel-config get mock-value --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

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success, and --ignore-missing only when a missing delete target should count as success

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 — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally at ~/.bird-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless BIRD_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or BIRD_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:

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.

bird-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
bird-pp-cli --profile briefing channel-config get mock-value
bird-pp-cli profile list --json
bird-pp-cli profile show briefing
bird-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

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

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

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/social-and-messaging/bird/cmd/bird-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add bird-pp-mcp -- bird-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which bird-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
3. Execute with the --agent flag:

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

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: bird-pp-cli <command> --help.