Google Search Console — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the

google-search-console-pp-cli

binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

Install via the Printing Press installer:

bash

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install google-search-console --cli-only

Verify:
```
google-search-console-pp-cli --version
```
Ensure
```
$GOPATH/bin
```
(or
```
$HOME/go/bin
```
) is on
```
$PATH
```
.

If the

npx

install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.3 or newer):

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/marketing/google-search-console/cmd/google-search-console-pp-cli@latest

--version

reports "command not found" after install, the install step did not put the binary on

$PATH

. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

A single binary covering search analytics, URL inspection, sitemaps, and site management -- with the agent-native JSON and CSV outputs, --dry-run, exit codes, and offline search every other GSC tool half-implements. The transcendence layer (compare, quick-wins, cannibalization, historical, decaying, outliers, cliff, roll-up, coverage-drift, sitemap-watch, new-queries) runs entirely from the local SQLite store, so the workflows the API can't answer in one call are answered in one command.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when an agent needs to answer SEO questions for a Google Search Console property without round-tripping to the web UI. It is the right choice for: pulling top queries and pages for any window; comparing periods; finding indexing or sitemap regressions; surfacing page-2 quick wins, decaying pages, or keyword cannibalization; and answering questions about data older than the API's 16-month window once a sync history exists. It is not the right choice for one-off ad-hoc lookups when a sync hasn't run -- start with

sync

first.

Unique Capabilities

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

SEO opportunities from local corpus

quick-wins
— Surface page-2 queries with high impressions and low CTR -- page-2-to-page-1 candidates ranked by upside, computed offline from your synced corpus.
Reach for this when an agent needs to recommend the top SEO opportunities for a property without re-fetching from the API.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli quick-wins sc-domain:example.com --position 8-20 --min-imps 100 --json
```
cannibalization
— Find queries where multiple pages compete, ranked by combined impressions -- the keyword-cannibalization audit the GSC web UI doesn't offer.
Use when an agent investigates why a query ranks worse than expected -- surfaces the competing pages on its own URL.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli cannibalization sc-domain:example.com --min-imps 50 --top 25 --json
```
outliers
— Queries or pages with click-through rates that deviate from the observed CTR-by-position curve in your own corpus.
Title-tag and snippet-rewrite candidates an agent can act on directly -- high impressions, low CTR for their position.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli outliers sc-domain:example.com --metric ctr --sigma 2 --top 50 --json
```

Time-series analysis

compare
— Period-over-period delta on clicks, impressions, CTR, and position for any dimension -- week-over-week, month-over-month, or arbitrary windows.
First-line investigation when a property's traffic shifts -- the agent gets the deltas without spelunking two raw queries.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli compare sc-domain:example.com --period 28d --vs prev-period --dim query --top 50 --agent --select rows.keys,rows.delta_clicks,rows.delta_position
```
cliff
— Find the day clicks or impressions cratered, with signature hints matching same-day sitemap regressions or indexing drops.
The first command an agent should run when a human says 'traffic dropped' -- points at the day and likely cause.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli cliff sc-domain:example.com --metric clicks --threshold -25% --window 7d
```
historical
— Search analytics for date ranges older than the API's 16-month rolling window -- answer 'is this March-2024 normal?' from cached history.
Forecasting and seasonality questions; a one-shot agent can answer 'compared to two years ago' without breaking out a backup file.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli historical sc-domain:example.com --start 2023-01-01 --end 2023-12-31 --dim query --top 100
```

Cross-property analysis

roll-up
— Aggregate top queries or pages across every verified property in one command -- the API forces N round-trips.
Agency workflows where the agent surfaces top performers across a portfolio without writing per-site loops.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli roll-up --metric clicks --group-by query --top 50 --last 28d --json
```

Indexing diagnostics

coverage-drift
— URLs whose inspection state flipped (indexed → not indexed, robots changed, canonical changed) within a window.
Catches indexing regressions an agent would otherwise miss because the API hides them once the state has flipped back.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli coverage-drift sc-domain:example.com --field indexingState --days 30 --json
```
sitemap-watch
— Diff sitemap state between snapshots -- surface new errors, new warnings, content-count drops, and stale lastDownloaded times.
Friday automation that catches sitemap regressions before the next Monday traffic dip -- runs from local data, no extra API spend.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli sitemap-watch sc-domain:example.com --since 7d --json
```

Content workflows

decaying
— Pages with monotonic click decline over a rolling window, ranked by total impressions × negative slope -- the content-refresh queue.
Content marketers' Thursday refresh queue -- the agent picks update candidates with concrete supporting numbers.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli decaying sc-domain:example.com --window 90d --min-imps 500 --top 50 --json
```
new-queries
— Queries that started showing up with impressions in the last N days but didn't exist in the corpus before -- emerging demand.
Content-ideas surface for marketers; the agent gets emerging-search trends scoped to this site rather than generic Trends data.
bash
```
google-search-console-pp-cli new-queries sc-domain:example.com --since 28d --min-imps 50 --top 100 --json
```

Command Reference

url-inspection — Inspect a URL's index status in Google Search

```
google-search-console-pp-cli url-inspection
```
— Returns Google's view of a single URL: index status, last crawl time, canonical URL (Google-selected vs...

webmasters — Manage webmasters

```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters add-site
```
— Adds a site to the set of the user's sites in Search Console. The site must still be verified separately (via DNS,...
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters delete-site
```
— Removes a site from the set of the user's Search Console sites. Does not delete data Google has collected.
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters delete-sitemap
```
— Deletes a sitemap from the Sitemaps report. Does not stop Google from crawling the sitemap if it's still...
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters get-site
```
— Retrieves information about a specific verified site, including the user's permission level.
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters get-sitemap
```
— Retrieves information about a specific sitemap, including warnings, errors, last submitted/downloaded times, and...
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters list-sitemaps
```
— Lists the sitemaps submitted for this site, or included in the sitemap index file (if
```
sitemapIndex
```
is provided in...
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters list-sites
```
— Returns every site (domain property or URL-prefix property) the authenticated user has access to in Search Console,...
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters query-search-analytics
```
— Returns clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position grouped by the dimensions you specify (query, page, country,...
```
google-search-console-pp-cli webmasters submit-sitemap
```
— Submits a sitemap for a site. The sitemap URL must be an absolute URL on the same site as
```
siteUrl
```
. Submission is...

Finding the right command

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

bash

google-search-console-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

means at least one match; exit code

means no confident match — fall back to

--help

or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Top queries with low CTR -- title-tag rewrite candidates

bash

google-search-console-pp-cli outliers sc-domain:example.com --metric ctr --sigma 2 --top 50 --agent --select rows.keys,rows.position,rows.ctr,rows.expected_ctr

Pairs --agent (compact NDJSON) with --select to narrow the response so the agent doesn't have to wade through full ApiDataRow objects. Outputs only the dimensions and the CTR delta vs the bucket mean for the position.

Why did traffic drop yesterday?

bash

google-search-console-pp-cli cliff sc-domain:example.com --metric clicks --threshold -20% --window 14d --json

Returns the days clicks dropped more than 20% versus the prior day, plus same-day signals from sitemaps (new errors) and url_inspections (indexing-state flips). Single command answers the most common SEO post-mortem question.

Cross-property weekly summary

bash

google-search-console-pp-cli roll-up --metric clicks --group-by query --last 7d --top 25 --csv > weekly.csv

Aggregates top 25 queries by clicks across every verified property, last 7 days. CSV pipes straight into a spreadsheet or data tool.

Bulk URL inspection from a file

bash

google-search-console-pp-cli url-inspection inspect-batch --file urls.txt --site sc-domain:example.com --max-per-day 2000 --json

Streams NDJSON one inspection per line. Respects the per-property daily quota. Pipe to

jq 'select(.indexStatusResult.coverageState != "Submitted and indexed")'

to surface only problems.

Cannibalization audit before publishing a new page

bash

google-search-console-pp-cli cannibalization sc-domain:example.com --min-imps 50 --top 20 --json

Surfaces existing queries where multiple pages on the site already compete. Run before publishing a new piece on the same topic -- pick the strongest existing page or consolidate.

Auth Setup

Google Search Console uses OAuth 2.0. The CLI reads a pre-fetched access token from the GSC_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable. Generate one from the Google OAuth Playground (https://developers.google.com/oauthplayground/) using scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/webmasters.readonly for read-only operations or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/webmasters for full read-write (sitemap submit/delete, sites add/delete). Tokens expire after one hour; refresh from the same Playground UI. There is no

auth login

flow in this CLI by design -- pre-fetched tokens keep the install path simple and match the google-ads house pattern.

Run

google-search-console-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
```
google-search-console-pp-cli url-inspection --inspection-url https://example.com/resource --agent --select id,name,status
```
Previewable —
```
--dry-run
```
shows the request without sending
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

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally at

~/.google-search-console-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl

. They are never POSTed unless

GOOGLE_SEARCH_CONSOLE_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT

is set AND either

--send

is passed or

GOOGLE_SEARCH_CONSOLE_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.

google-search-console-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
google-search-console-pp-cli --profile briefing url-inspection --inspection-url https://example.com/resource
google-search-console-pp-cli profile list --json
google-search-console-pp-cli profile show briefing
google-search-console-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
4	Authentication required
5	API error (upstream issue)
7	Rate limited (wait and retry)
10	Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse

$ARGUMENTS

Empty,
help
, or
--help
→ show

google-search-console-pp-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 binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release, then register it:

bash

claude mcp add google-search-console-pp-mcp -- google-search-console-pp-mcp

Verify:

claude mcp list

Direct Use

Check if installed:
```
which google-search-console-pp-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:

bash

google-search-console-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent

If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:

google-search-console-pp-cli <command> --help

pp-google-search-console

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Google Search Console — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

When to Use This CLI

Unique Capabilities

SEO opportunities from local corpus

Time-series analysis

Cross-property analysis

Indexing diagnostics

Content workflows

Command Reference

Finding the right command

Recipes

Top queries with low CTR -- title-tag rewrite candidates

Why did traffic drop yesterday?

Cross-property weekly summary

Bulk URL inspection from a file

Cannibalization audit before publishing a new page

Auth Setup

Agent Mode

Agent Feedback

Output Delivery

Named Profiles

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

MCP Server Installation

Direct Use