ta

A command line for TripAdvisor.

ta is a single pure-Go binary. It reads public TripAdvisor data over plain HTTPS, shapes it into clean records, and prints output that pipes into the rest of your tools.

It reads two planes that share one location id and one record shape:

• The web plane reads www.tripadvisor.com and is the default. It is fronted by DataDome, so from a datacenter it is best-effort and a wall returns exit 4. From a residential or mobile connection it reads.
• The Content API plane reads api.content.tripadvisor.com reliably from anywhere. It turns on when TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY is set in the environment. The key is free from TripAdvisor and is read from the environment only, never a flag.

Because both planes carry the same location_id and the same record fields, a web read and an API read address the same record. Set the key and the same commands get reliable, or leave it unset and they still work from a residential connection.

The same package is also a resource-URI driver, so a host program like ant can address TripAdvisor as tripadvisor:// URIs.

Install

go install github.com/tamnd/tripadvisor-cli/cmd/ta@latest

Or grab a prebuilt binary from the releases, or run the container image:

docker run --rm ghcr.io/tamnd/ta:latest --help

Usage

export TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY=...        # free key, optional, makes reads reliable

ta search "eiffel tower"              # find a location by name
ta location 188757                    # one location as a record
ta location 188757 -o json           # as JSON, ready for jq
ta reviews 188757                     # its reviews, one per line
ta photos 188757                      # its photos, with image URLs
ta nearby --lat-long 48.85,2.29      # locations near a point (API plane)
ta sitemap attractions -n 50         # enumerate pages from the crawl backbone
ta ref id <url>                       # resolve any TripAdvisor URL to its id
ta --help                             # the whole command tree

Every command shares one output contract: -o table|markdown|json|jsonl|csv|tsv|url|raw, --fields to pick columns, --template for a custom line, and -n to limit. The default adapts to where output goes (a color-aware table on a terminal, JSONL in a pipe), so the same command reads well by hand and parses cleanly downstream.

Pick a plane with --plane web|api|auto (default auto: the API when a key is set, the web otherwise). The ref commands are offline and resolve URLs to ids and back with no network at all.

Serve it

The same operations are available over HTTP and as an MCP tool set for agents, with no extra code:

ta serve --addr :7777    # GET /v1/location/188757  returns NDJSON
ta mcp                   # speak MCP over stdio

Use it as a resource-URI driver

ta registers a tripadvisor domain the way a program registers a database driver with database/sql. A host enables it with one blank import:

import _ "github.com/tamnd/tripadvisor-cli/tripadvisor"

Then ant (or any program that links the package) dereferences tripadvisor:// URIs without knowing anything about TripAdvisor:

ant get tripadvisor://location/188757   # fetch the record
ant cat tripadvisor://location/188757   # just the description body
ant ls  tripadvisor://location/188757   # the edges (reviews, photos, parent)
ant url tripadvisor://location/188757   # the addressable URL

Attribution

TripAdvisor's terms ask that displays of its content carry the source link and the rating image. Every record keeps its web_url and rating_image_url, so a downstream view can comply. ta reads public, read-only data only. It does not log in, store credentials, or solve anti-bot challenges, and it is honest about a walled surface rather than working around it.

Development

cmd/ta/       thin main: hands cli.NewApp to kit.Run
cli/          assembles the kit App from the tripadvisor domain
tripadvisor/  the library: HTTP client, two-plane readers, data models, and domain.go (the driver)
docs/         tago documentation site

make build      # ./bin/ta
make test       # go test ./...
make vet        # go vet ./...

Releasing

Push a version tag and GitHub Actions runs GoReleaser, which builds the archives, Linux packages, the multi-arch GHCR image, checksums, SBOMs, and a cosign signature:

git tag v0.1.0
git push --tags

The Homebrew and Scoop steps self-disable until their tokens exist, so the first release works with no extra secrets.

License

ta is an independent tool and is not affiliated with TripAdvisor. Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.