name

programmapper

description

Every California Community College's program maps - degrees, courses, transfer paths, and careers - in one scriptable CLI with an offline SQLite catalog and term-by-term planning no other ProgramMapper tool has. Trigger phrases: `map out a degree at a community college`, `what courses do I need for nursing at LA Mission`, `compare two community college programs`, `which programs require this course`, `plan my CSU transfer pathway`, `use programmapper`, `run programmapper`.

author

johnnyrobot

license

Apache-2.0

argument-hint

<command> [args] | install cli|mcp

allowed-tools

Read Bash

metadata

openclaw

requires

install

bins

programmapper-cli

kind

bins

module

programmapper-cli

github.com/johnnyrobot/programmapper-cli/cmd/programmapper-cli

Program Pathways Mapper — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the programmapper-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer).

go install github.com/johnnyrobot/programmapper-cli/cmd/programmapper-cli@latest

This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin); make sure that directory is on $PATH.

If Go is unavailable, download a pre-built binary from the latest release and put it on $PATH.

Verify either way: programmapper-cli --version. If it reports "command not found", the install directory is not on $PATH for the agent/runtime — fix that before proceeding.

Program Pathways Mapper publishes the official 'how to finish your degree' roadmaps for hundreds of California community colleges, but only through a click-heavy, one-college-at-a-time web app with no API key and no export. This CLI mirrors a college's full catalog into local SQLite, then lets you - or an AI advisor - search across colleges, build a term-by-term plan with units rollups, compare two programs, find every program that requires a course, and diff catalog years. Offline, scriptable, and agent-native.

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI to query California Community College academic catalogs programmatically: resolve a college, mirror its programs/courses/maps offline, search across colleges, build term-by-term degree plans with unit totals, compare programs, find which programs require a course, diff catalog years, and pull CSU/UC transfer and career data. It is the right tool when an agent or script needs structured, joinable academic-pathway data that the ProgramMapper web app only exposes one click at a time.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

Do not use this CLI to register for classes or submit enrollment - it is read-only public catalog data, not a student information system.
Do not use it to fetch official transcripts, grades, or any protected student records - ProgramMapper carries no student data.
Do not use it for colleges outside California or outside the ProgramMapper network - it only covers CA community colleges in the registry.
Do not treat course requisite text as a structured prerequisite graph - requisites are free-text descriptions, not machine edges.

Unique Capabilities

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

Plan & compare from a local catalog

plan — Build a program's full semester-by-semester plan with per-term and cumulative units, expanding required courses and 'choose one of' options.

When an agent is asked to build a 2-year academic plan, this returns the whole term structure with units in one structured call instead of paging a UI.
```
programmapper-cli plan 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 --agent
```
compare — Show two programs side by side: shared courses, unique courses, and per-program units totals.

Lets a student or agent decide between two programs by the actual course overlap and unit cost, not prose.
```
programmapper-cli compare 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 7b7428c7-ab0e-4e00-b9eb-08091c31b34c --json
```
diff-years — Diff a program's current map against a prior catalog year (2019-2025) and report added, removed, and changed courses plus unit deltas.

Answers 'did my program's requirements change since the catalog year I started under?' without manual side-by-side reading.
```
programmapper-cli diff-years 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 --from-year 2023 --json
```

Reverse-lookups the website can't do

course-programs — List every program and map at the synced college whose term plan includes a given course.

Answers a counselor's 'which programs require this course?' in one call instead of opening every map.
```
programmapper-cli course-programs "NURSING 090" --json
```
bottlenecks — Rank courses across the synced college by how many program maps require them and by units, surfacing high-leverage and high-load courses.

Shows advisors which courses unlock the most programs so scheduling and tutoring effort goes where it matters.
```
programmapper-cli bottlenecks --limit 20 --json
```

Cross-college & transfer

search — Full-text search programs and courses across every synced college at once, offline.

Finds a program or course by keyword across many colleges in one query instead of visiting each college's site.
```
programmapper-cli search nursing --type programs --data-source local --limit 10
```
transfer-options — Combine a program's CSU/UC linked transfer colleges and linked program maps into one view.

Gives an agent the full set of transfer destinations for a program in one structured response.
```
programmapper-cli transfer-options 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 --json
```

HTTP Transport

This CLI uses Chrome-compatible HTTP transport for browser-facing endpoints. It does not require a resident browser process for normal API calls.

Command Reference

colleges — California Community Colleges in the ProgramMapper registry

programmapper-cli colleges get — Get one college by its registry id (e.g. la_mission)
programmapper-cli colleges list — List every college in the registry (id, active site-content id, prior-year ids)
programmapper-cli colleges resolve — Resolve the college(s) for a ProgramMapper vanity URL

courses — Individual courses referenced by program maps

programmapper-cli courses get — Get a course's detail (units, description, requisites)
programmapper-cli courses high-schools — List high schools offering this course for dual enrollment

interest-clusters — Guided Pathways 'Areas of Interest' grouping programs (program-groups)

programmapper-cli interest-clusters <site_content_id> <cluster_id> — Get an interest cluster (program group) and the programs grouped under it

meta — API version and health

programmapper-cli meta — Get the ProgramMapper API version

occupations — Career and salary outcomes keyed by SOC code

programmapper-cli occupations — Batch-fetch career data (salary, job growth) for SOC codes

program-maps — Semester-by-semester course plans for a program pathway

programmapper-cli program-maps get — Get a program map: terms -> course/choice opportunities with units
programmapper-cli program-maps linked — Get a linked (transfer-partner) program map

programs — Degrees and certificates offered at a college

programmapper-cli programs get — Get a program's full detail (description, award, pathways, map refs)
programmapper-cli programs linked — Get a linked (transfer-partner) program
programmapper-cli programs newer-year-link — Get link data to the same program in a newer catalog year
programmapper-cli programs pathways — List a program's pathway summaries (each pathway is an alternate route)
programmapper-cli programs prior-years — List prior catalog years (2019+) that still have a published map for this program
programmapper-cli programs search — Full-text search programs by title and description

site-contents — Per-college, per-year catalog config (one site-content per college-year)

programmapper-cli site-contents get — Get a college-year's config (name, year, theme, titles)
programmapper-cli site-contents home — Get the home page: interest clusters (Areas of Interest), title, about

transfer — CSU/UC transfer pathways and 'choose one of' opportunities

programmapper-cli transfer choice-opportunity — Get a 'choose one of' opportunity (idealized program-pathway choice) detail
programmapper-cli transfer linked-college — Get a CSU/UC transfer college's detail for a transfer pathway

Finding the right command

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

programmapper-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

Mirror a college, then plan a degree

programmapper-cli mirror la_mission --maps

Cache L.A. Mission programs, maps, and courses locally, then run plan/compare/course-programs offline.

Narrow a deeply nested plan for an agent

programmapper-cli plan 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 --agent --select terms.term_number,terms.items.code,terms.items.name,terms.items.min_units

Program maps are deeply nested; --select pulls only the term, course title, and units so an agent isn't flooded with the full map payload.

Find which programs require a course

programmapper-cli course-programs "NURSING 090" --json

Reverse-lookup every program at the mirrored college whose plan includes the course - impossible in the web UI.

See what changed since your start year

programmapper-cli diff-years 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 --from-year 2023

Diff the current Vocational Nursing map against the 2023 catalog to spot added, removed, or changed courses.

Compare two programs head to head

programmapper-cli compare 4a0cb2c2-b22f-324d-834e-80cbc2bde5f4 7b7428c7-ab0e-4e00-b9eb-08091c31b34c --json

Show shared vs. unique courses and total units for two programs side by side.

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run programmapper-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:
```
programmapper-cli colleges list --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

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.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set PROGRAMMAPPER_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.
Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: PROGRAMMAPPER_CONFIG_DIR, PROGRAMMAPPER_DATA_DIR, PROGRAMMAPPER_STATE_DIR, PROGRAMMAPPER_CACHE_DIR.
Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, PROGRAMMAPPER_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.
config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.
Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.
Run programmapper-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "programmapper": {
      "command": "programmapper-mcp",
      "env": {
        "PROGRAMMAPPER_HOME": "/srv/programmapper"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use PROGRAMMAPPER_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing PROGRAMMAPPER_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally as feedback.jsonl under the resolved data dir. They are never POSTed unless PROGRAMMAPPER_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or PROGRAMMAPPER_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.

programmapper-cli profile save briefing --json
programmapper-cli --profile briefing colleges list
programmapper-cli profile list --json
programmapper-cli profile show briefing
programmapper-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:

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

MCP Server Installation

Install the MCP server:

go install github.com/johnnyrobot/programmapper-cli/cmd/programmapper-mcp@latest

claude mcp add programmapper-mcp -- programmapper-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

Check if installed: which programmapper-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.

Execute with the --agent flag:

programmapper-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent

If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: programmapper-cli <command> --help.

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