Official AMC showtimes and movie-night planning from an agent-ready CLI.
Query every documented AMC Showtime API v2 read operation or get a ranked movie plan by theatre or location, with explicit production and sandbox support.
Created by @Avanderheyde (Alderik).
Authentication
Create an AMC developer application, set its vendor key, optionally set a user authorization token, and choose production or sandbox.
Quick Start
# Rank evening showtimes at one AMC theatre.
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --theatre 1234 --date 2026-07-24 --after 18:00 --agent
# Find nearby IMAX screenings and rank them by distance and start time.
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --latitude 40.7128 --longitude -74.0060 --format IMAX --agent
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Movie planning
-
movie-plan — Find, filter, and rank AMC showtimes by theatre or current location without purchasing tickets.
Agents can return a short ranked set of relevant screenings without inventing purchase capabilities.
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --latitude 40.7128 --longitude -74.0060 --after 18:00 --format IMAX --agent
Recipes
Plan a movie at one theatre
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --theatre 1234 --date 2026-07-24 --after 18:00 --agent
Queries dated theatre showtimes, filters the movie and earliest time, and ranks matching screenings.
Find nearby premium-format showtimes
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --latitude 40.7128 --longitude -74.0060 --format IMAX --agent
Queries AMC's current-location view and ranks matching premium-format screenings by distance and time.
Usage
Run amc-theatres-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.
Paths & environment variables
This CLI separates local files into four path kinds:
| Kind | Contents |
|---|
config | User-editable settings such as config.toml and saved profiles |
data | Durable local data: credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, browser-session proof files, and other auth sidecars |
state | Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log |
cache | Regenerable HTTP/cache files |
Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:
- Per-kind env var:
AMC_THEATRES_CONFIG_DIR, AMC_THEATRES_DATA_DIR, AMC_THEATRES_STATE_DIR, or AMC_THEATRES_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationAMC_THEATRES_HOME for a flat relocated root- XDG env vars:
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Platform defaults matching existing installs
For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:
export AMC_THEATRES_HOME=/srv/amc-theatres
amc-theatres-pp-cli doctor
Under AMC_THEATRES_HOME=/srv/amc-theatres, the four dirs resolve to /srv/amc-theatres/config, /srv/amc-theatres/data, /srv/amc-theatres/state, and /srv/amc-theatres/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"amc-theatres": {
"command": "amc-theatres-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"AMC_THEATRES_HOME": "/srv/amc-theatres"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as AMC_THEATRES_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use AMC_THEATRES_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting AMC_THEATRES_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find credentials left under a former root. Move the files manually before unsetting relocation variables.
Existing installs keep working because the platform-default rung matches the legacy layout. On the first auth write, stored secrets leave config.toml and are consolidated into credentials.toml under the data directory. Run amc-theatres-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path and credential-location warnings in automation.
Commands
movie-plan
Find, filter, and rank AMC showtimes without purchasing tickets. Choose exactly one location mode: --theatre <number>, or both --latitude and --longitude. Optional --date, --after, and --format filters narrow the results.
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --theatre 1234 --date 2026-07-24 --after 18:00
amc-theatres-pp-cli movie-plan "Dune" --latitude 40.7128 --longitude -74.0060 --format IMAX --agent
This workflow is deliberately read-only: it does not buy tickets, choose seats, or submit payment.
showtimes
Manage showtimes
amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes get-by-id - Retrieves showtime details for the provided ID.amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes search-by-lat-long - Retrieves a paged list of showtimes for a date and coordinates.
theatres
Manage theatres
amc-theatres-pp-cli theatres movies get-earliest-showtime-by-theatre - Retrieves the earliest showtime for a movie at an AMC theatre.amc-theatres-pp-cli theatres showtimes get-by-theatre - Retrieves paged showtimes for an AMC theatre.amc-theatres-pp-cli theatres showtimes search - Retrieves paged showtimes for an AMC theatre on a specified date.
Self-learning loop
This CLI caches per-question discovery so repeat queries skip the walk and structurally similar queries get answered via entity substitution. The loop also self-captures: every invocation is journaled locally, and failed-flag corrections plus fresh teaches surface as candidates on the next recall for confirm/reject judgment. Agents call recall before discovery and fire teach & after answering. See the ## Automatic learning section in SKILL.md for the full protocol.
amc-theatres-pp-cli recall <query> - Look up cached resources for a query before running discoveryamc-theatres-pp-cli teach - Record a query -> resource mapping (silent on success, safe to background with &)amc-theatres-pp-cli learnings list - Inspect taught rowsamc-theatres-pp-cli learnings forget <query> - Undo a teachamc-theatres-pp-cli learnings candidates - List auto-captured candidates awaiting confirm/rejectamc-theatres-pp-cli learnings stats - Local loop metrics: recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution, candidate countsamc-theatres-pp-cli teach-pattern - Install a query/resource template up frontamc-theatres-pp-cli teach-lookup - Add an entity mapping (e.g. country code, team alias) for pattern substitution
Pass --no-learn or set AMC_THEATRES_NO_LEARN=true to disable the loop for deterministic flows.
The local store's schema version stamp is one-way: once this version of amc-theatres-pp-cli opens the database, older binaries refuse it with a version error — upgrade the binary rather than downgrading.
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes get-by-id mock-value
# JSON for scripting and agents
amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes get-by-id mock-value --json
# Filter to specific fields
amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes get-by-id mock-value --json --select id,name,status
# Dry run — show the request without sending
amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes get-by-id mock-value --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
amc-theatres-pp-cli showtimes get-by-id mock-value --agent
Agent Usage
This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:
- Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
- Pipeable -
--json output to stdout, errors to stderr
- Filterable -
--select id,name returns only fields you need
- Previewable -
--dry-run shows the request without sending
- Read-only by default - this CLI does not create, update, delete, publish, send, or mutate remote resources
- Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
- Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless
--human-friendly is set
Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 4 auth error, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
amc-theatres-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run amc-theatres-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/amc-theatres-showtime-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, AMC_THEATRES_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Environment variables:
| Name | Kind | Required | Description |
|---|
AMC_THEATRES_VENDOR_KEY | per_call | Yes | Set to your API credential. |
AMC_THEATRES_AUTH_TOKEN | per_call | No | Optional user-scoped authorization token sent as X-AMC-Auth-Token. |
AMC_THEATRES_ENV | config | No | production (default) or sandbox; switches only the official AMC host. |
agentcookie (optional)
If you use agentcookie to sync secrets across machines, this CLI auto-adopts agentcookie-managed credentials with no extra setup. When the daemon writes to this CLI's config, amc-theatres-pp-cli doctor reports agentcookie: detected and auth-status labels the source as agentcookie. Skip this section if you don't use agentcookie - the CLI works the same as any other.
Troubleshooting
Authentication errors (exit code 4)
- Run
amc-theatres-pp-cli doctor to check credentials
- Verify the environment variable is set:
echo $AMC_THEATRES_VENDOR_KEY
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
Generated by CLI Printing Press
API-specific
- The API reports that the vendor key is missing or invalid. — Run auth setup and export AMC_THEATRES_VENDOR_KEY from the official AMC developer portal.
- A sandbox credential is being sent to production. — Set AMC_THEATRES_ENV=sandbox; explicit custom base URLs remain unchanged for tests and controlled deployments.