Build source-attributed vehicle safety dossiers, honest comparisons, and recall-change reports from NHTSA data.
Query NHTSA recalls, complaints, ratings, product catalogs, and VIN decoding, then preserve observations locally. Compound commands distinguish raw reports from rates and model-wide campaigns from VIN-specific open recalls.
Quick Start
# Verify local configuration and data-source reachability.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli doctor
# Inspect source recall records with narrowed agent output.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli recalls list-by-vehicle --make Honda --model Civic --model-year 2020 --agent --select results.NHTSACampaignNumber,results.Component
# Build the complete model-year dossier.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli dossier --year 2020 --make Honda --model Civic --agent
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Evidence-first vehicle research
-
dossier — See identity, recall and complaint summaries, and available crash ratings in one source-attributed report; add --include-records for complete source records.
Use this instead of stitching several NHTSA responses together manually.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli dossier --year 2020 --make Honda --model Civic --agent
-
signals — Place complaint and recall events on one normalized timeline and identify the official flat-file sources required for investigations and communications.
Use this to inspect structured precursor signals without causal or rate claims.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli signals --year 2020 --make Honda --model Civic --agent
-
compare — Compare two model years while keeping raw complaint counts and missing denominators explicit.
Use this for a defensible comparison rather than a synthetic risk score.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli compare '2020 Honda Civic' '2020 Toyota Corolla' --agent
-
recall-coverage — Decode one VIN, list matching model-level campaigns, and keep VIN eligibility and repair status explicitly unverified with a link to NHTSA's official lookup.
Use this when model recall eligibility and VIN open-recall status must not be conflated.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli recall-coverage 1HGCV1F34LA000001 --agent
Local history that compounds
-
watch — Report newly observed recall campaigns and remedy changes for saved vehicles.
Use this for finite, auditable fleet change detection.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli watch --garage vehicles.csv --agent
-
bulletin-bridge — Show structured complaint and manufacturer-communication co-occurrence candidates.
Use this for auditable overlap without semantic or causal inference.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli bulletin-bridge --year 2020 --make Honda --model Civic --communications-file communications.tsv --agent
Recipes
Narrow a recall response
vehicle-safety-pp-cli recalls list-by-vehicle --make Honda --model Civic --model-year 2020 --agent --select results.NHTSACampaignNumber,results.Component,results.Remedy
Return only campaign, component, and remedy evidence.
Compare two model years
vehicle-safety-pp-cli compare '2020 Honda Civic' '2020 Toyota Corolla' --agent
Compare source records without inventing a risk score.
Reconcile recall coverage
vehicle-safety-pp-cli recall-coverage 1HGCV1F34LA000001 --agent
Decode the VIN and list model-level campaigns while linking to the official lookup for unverified VIN repair status.
Usage
Run vehicle-safety-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 such as data.db |
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:
VEHICLE_SAFETY_CONFIG_DIR, VEHICLE_SAFETY_DATA_DIR, VEHICLE_SAFETY_STATE_DIR, or VEHICLE_SAFETY_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationVEHICLE_SAFETY_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 VEHICLE_SAFETY_HOME=/srv/vehicle-safety
vehicle-safety-pp-cli doctor
Under VEHICLE_SAFETY_HOME=/srv/vehicle-safety, the four dirs resolve to /srv/vehicle-safety/config, /srv/vehicle-safety/data, /srv/vehicle-safety/state, and /srv/vehicle-safety/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"vehicle-safety": {
"command": "vehicle-safety-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"VEHICLE_SAFETY_HOME": "/srv/vehicle-safety"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as VEHICLE_SAFETY_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use VEHICLE_SAFETY_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting VEHICLE_SAFETY_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find files 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. Run vehicle-safety-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path warnings in automation.
Commands
complaints
Manage complaints
vehicle-safety-pp-cli complaints - List owner complaints for a model year, make, and model
products
Manage products
vehicle-safety-pp-cli products list-vehicle-makes - List makes for a model year and issue typevehicle-safety-pp-cli products list-vehicle-model-years - List vehicle model years for an issue typevehicle-safety-pp-cli products list-vehicle-models - List models for a make, model year, and issue type
recalls
Manage recalls
vehicle-safety-pp-cli recalls get-campaign - Get a recall by NHTSA campaign numbervehicle-safety-pp-cli recalls list-by-vehicle - List recalls for a model year, make, and model
safety-ratings
Manage safety ratings
vehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings get - Get crash ratings for a NHTSA vehicle IDvehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings list-by-vehicle - List crash-rating vehicle variants
vehicles
Manage vehicles
vehicle-safety-pp-cli vehicles <vin> - Decode a VIN into normalized vehicle attributes
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.
vehicle-safety-pp-cli recall <query> - Look up cached resources for a query before running discoveryvehicle-safety-pp-cli teach - Record a query -> resource mapping (silent on success, safe to background with &)vehicle-safety-pp-cli learnings list - Inspect taught rowsvehicle-safety-pp-cli learnings forget <query> - Undo a teachvehicle-safety-pp-cli learnings candidates - List auto-captured candidates awaiting confirm/rejectvehicle-safety-pp-cli learnings stats - Local loop metrics: recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution, candidate countsvehicle-safety-pp-cli teach-pattern - Install a query/resource template up frontvehicle-safety-pp-cli teach-lookup - Add an entity mapping (e.g. country code, team alias) for pattern substitution
Pass --no-learn or set VEHICLE_SAFETY_NO_LEARN=true to disable the loop for deterministic flows.
The local store's schema version stamp is one-way: once this version of vehicle-safety-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)
vehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings get mock-value
# JSON for scripting and agents
vehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings get mock-value --json
# Filter to specific fields
vehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings get mock-value --json --select id,name,status
# Dry run — show the request without sending
vehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings get mock-value --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
vehicle-safety-pp-cli safety-ratings get 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, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
vehicle-safety-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run vehicle-safety-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/vehicle-safety-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, VEHICLE_SAFETY_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Troubleshooting
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
API-specific
- VIN lookup is throttled — Retry later and keep garage checks small; NHTSA prohibits bulk VIN lookup through this API.
- Complaint totals differ between vehicles — Treat totals as raw published reports, not incidence rates; NHTSA does not provide an exposure denominator here.