pp-1688

1688 — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the 1688-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 1688 --cli-only
   

2. Verify: 1688-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 1.26.4 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/commerce/1688/cmd/1688-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.

Search 1688.com's China-domestic wholesale catalog and get structured offers (tiered price, MOQ, supplier, region, transaction volume) for free, with no paid scraper API and no API key. Every search persists to a local SQLite store, so drift shows how prices and reorder rates moved since last week, factory-find ranks real manufacturers above resellers, and supplier-report rolls up a shop's full reliability footprint. Read-only sourcing research.

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI for read-only sourcing research on 1688.com: searching the China-domestic wholesale catalog, comparing offers on price/MOQ/reliability, distinguishing factories from resellers, and tracking how prices and reorder rates change over time. It is the right tool when an agent needs structured, scriptable wholesale data without a paid scraper subscription.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI for Alibaba.com international listings; that is a different site and API
• Do not use it to place orders, add to cart, or contact suppliers; it is strictly read-only
• Do not use it for Taobao/Tmall consumer retail listings
• Do not use it expecting rich results from English keywords; 1688 is a Mandarin marketplace, translate first

Unique Capabilities

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

Sourcing signals competitors don't rank

• factory-find — Rank wholesale offers by how likely the seller is the real factory, not a reseller, and label each trader / likely-factory / verified-factory.

  Reach for this when an agent must pick a manufacturer over a middleman among dozens of near-identical listings.

  1688-pp-cli factory-find 蓝牙耳机 --top 10 --json
  

• repurchase-top — Rank synced offers and suppliers by 回头率 (buyer reorder rate), with a minimum-transaction floor to suppress low-volume noise.

  Use it to surface suppliers buyers actually come back to, instead of trusting a one-off star rating.

  1688-pp-cli repurchase-top 手机壳 --min-tx 100 --json
  

• region-spread — Group stored offers for a keyword by Chinese province and report min, median, and max price plus transaction count per region.

  Reach for this to spot whether a product is meaningfully cheaper out of one manufacturing cluster before narrowing suppliers.

  1688-pp-cli region-spread 手机壳 --json
  

Local state that compounds

• drift — Show how an offer's price, reorder rate, and 30-day transaction count moved across your stored snapshots.

  Reach for this before a reorder to see whether a 'limited-time' price actually dropped or a supplier's reliability is trending down.

  1688-pp-cli drift 手机壳 --json
  

• compare — Render a side-by-side table of price, MOQ, tier, reorder rate, transactions, factory flags, and trade scores for several offers of the same product.

  Use it to make the final buy decision between a handful of shortlisted suppliers in one view.

  1688-pp-cli compare 927875250705 836112681124 --json
  

• supplier-report — Aggregate one shop across all its stored offers: trade-service scores, average reorder rate, total transactions, verification badges, offer count, and price range.

  Reach for this to vet or audit a supplier before committing volume, instead of judging from one listing.

  1688-pp-cli supplier-report b2b-2850655109d72ea --json
  

• watch — Re-run a saved search, store a fresh snapshot, and print only what changed since last run: price and reorder-rate moves plus newly appeared offers and suppliers.

  Use it on a schedule to catch new entrants and price moves in a category without re-reading the whole result set.

  1688-pp-cli watch 手机壳 --json
  

Command Reference

offers — Inspect 1688 wholesale offer detail pages

• 1688-pp-cli offers <offer_id> — Fetch a 1688 offer's public detail page by offer ID

Finding the right command

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

1688-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

Find verified factories for a product

1688-pp-cli factory-find 蓝牙耳机 --top 10 --json

Ranks likely manufacturers above traders using factory flags, reorder rate, and trade scores.

Narrow a verbose search payload for an agent

1688-pp-cli search 手机壳 --agent --select offers.title,offers.price_cny,offers.repurchase_rate,offers.supplier_name

Search responses are large and nested; --select pulls only the fields an agent needs so it does not burn context.

Compare shortlisted suppliers head to head

1688-pp-cli compare 927875250705 836112681124 --json

Side-by-side price/MOQ/reorder/factory signals for specific offers you already synced.

Check price and reorder-rate drift before a reorder

1688-pp-cli drift 手机壳 --json

Diffs the latest stored snapshot against prior ones so you see real movement, not marketing 'limited-time' labels.

Rank suppliers by buyer reorder rate

1688-pp-cli repurchase-top 手机壳 --min-tx 100 --json

Surfaces shops buyers actually come back to, ignoring low-volume noise.

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run 1688-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:

  1688-pp-cli offers 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

• Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

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.

Agent Feedback

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

1688-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
1688-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
1688-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/1688-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless API_1688_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or API_1688_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.

1688-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
1688-pp-cli --profile briefing offers mock-value
1688-pp-cli profile list --json
1688-pp-cli profile show briefing
1688-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 1688-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/commerce/1688/cmd/1688-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add 1688-pp-mcp -- 1688-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which 1688-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:

   1688-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: 1688-pp-cli <command> --help.