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pp-wikipedia — Claude Code skill: Wikipedia articles from the terminal

This skill hands your agent a working command set for the Wikipedia REST API: article summaries, search, media and on-this-day events.

Install into Claude Code · Skills CLI (Vercel) All methods and platforms ↓
npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-wikipedia -a claude-code
Open on GitHub

What pp-wikipedia does

The skill does not call Wikipedia itself. It tells the agent which binary to drive — wikipedia-pp-cli — and maps plain-language requests onto commands. Four of them live under page: a summary with title, extract, thumbnail and coordinates; the article body as styled HTML; attached images and video; a random page. A fifth, feed <day>, returns the events, births, deaths and holidays tied to a date.

Make sure the binary exists and sits on $PATH before the agent runs anything, otherwise every command fails. If --version prints “command not found”, install it with npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install wikipedia --cli-only, or use go install when npx is not around — that route needs Go 1.26.6 or newer.

No API key is involved; Wikipedia answers anonymously. Agents get --agent, which switches to compact JSON and drops every prompt, plus --select for trimming fields — worth using on long articles because it keeps the context small. When the agent cannot recall a command name, which takes a description of the task and returns the closest match. Writes are out of scope: this CLI reads.

What it helps with

  • pull a short summary of an article by its title
  • search for a topic and follow related pages
  • grab images and media attached to an article
  • list what happened on a particular calendar day
  • check a fact against article text without a browser

Example prompts for the agent

  • Summarise the Wikipedia article on Lake Baikal with wikipedia-pp-cli page get-summary
  • Run wikipedia-pp-cli feed for April 12 and tell me what events it lists
  • Find the command for a random article using wikipedia-pp-cli which

How to install pp-wikipedia

1Skills CLI (Vercel)

npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-wikipedia -a claude-code

2Manually: put the files in place

~/.claude/skills/pp-wikipedia/SKILL.md

Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/pp-wikipedia/

Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways

Questions about pp-wikipedia

How do I install pp-wikipedia in Claude Code?

Run npx skills add mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-wikipedia -a claude-code; the skill lands at ~/.claude/skills/pp-wikipedia/SKILL.md. Then install the CLI itself with npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install wikipedia --cli-only and confirm with wikipedia-pp-cli --version.

What does pp-wikipedia do?

It gives the agent a command reference for wikipedia-pp-cli: article summaries, HTML bodies, media, a random page, search and date-based events.

Does it need an API key?

No authentication is required. wikipedia-pp-cli doctor checks that the setup works.

Source text

SKILL.md · Apache-2.0
---
name: pp-wikipedia
description: "Printing Press CLI for Wikipedia. Wikipedia REST API. Get article summaries, search, browse related topics, and access on-this-day events. No..."
author: "Hiten Shah"
license: "Apache-2.0"
argument-hint: "<command> [args] | install cli|mcp"
allowed-tools: "Read Bash"
metadata:
  openclaw:
    requires:
      bins:
        - wikipedia-pp-cli
    install:
      - kind: go
        bins: [wikipedia-pp-cli]
        module: github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/wikipedia/cmd/wikipedia-pp-cli
---
<!-- GENERATED FILE — DO NOT EDIT.
     This file is a verbatim mirror of library/media-and-entertainment/wikipedia/SKILL.md,
     regenerated post-merge by tools/generate-skills/. Hand-edits here are
     silently overwritten on the next regen. Edit the library/ source instead.
     See the repository agent guide, section "Generated artifacts: registry.json, cli-skills/". -->

# Wikipedia — Printing Press CLI

## Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the `wikipedia-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 `$HOME/.local/bin` on macOS/Linux and `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin` on Windows:
   ```bash
   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install wikipedia --cli-only
   ```
2. Verify: `wikipedia-pp-cli --version`
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on `$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):

```bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/wikipedia/cmd/wikipedia-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 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.

## Command Reference

**feed** — Manage feed

- `wikipedia-pp-cli feed <day>` — Returns events, births, deaths, or holidays that occurred on a given date.

**page** — Article content and metadata

- `wikipedia-pp-cli page get-html` — Returns the full article body as styled HTML.
- `wikipedia-pp-cli page get-media` — Returns images, videos, and other media files associated with an article.
- `wikipedia-pp-cli page get-random` — Returns a random Wikipedia article summary.
- `wikipedia-pp-cli page get-summary` — Returns a page summary including title, extract text, thumbnail, and coordinates.


### Finding the right command

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

```bash
wikipedia-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.

## Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run `wikipedia-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:

  ```bash
  wikipedia-pp-cli feed 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:

```json
{
  "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:

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

Entries are stored locally at `~/.wikipedia-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl`. They are never POSTed unless `WIKIPEDIA_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT` is set AND either `--send` is passed or `WIKIPEDIA_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) |
| `webhook:<url>` | POST the output body to the URL (`application/json` or `application/x-ndjson` when `--compact`) |

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.

```
wikipedia-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
wikipedia-pp-cli --profile briefing feed mock-value
wikipedia-pp-cli profile list --json
wikipedia-pp-cli profile show briefing
wikipedia-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 |
| 5 | API error (upstream issue) |
| 7 | Rate limited (wait and retry) |
| 10 | Config error |

## Argument Parsing

Parse `$ARGUMENTS`:

1. **Empty, `help`, or `--help`** → show `wikipedia-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:
   ```bash
   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/other/wikipedia-pp-cli/cmd/wikipedia-pp-mcp@latest
   ```
2. Register with Claude Code:
   ```bash
   claude mcp add wikipedia-pp-mcp -- wikipedia-pp-mcp
   ```
3. Verify: `claude mcp list`

## Direct Use

1. Check if installed: `which wikipedia-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:
   ```bash
   wikipedia-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   ```
4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: `wikipedia-pp-cli <command> --help`.

© Hiten Shah · Apache-2.0 · mvanhorn/printing-press-library

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