proofpoint

Proofpoint TAP - Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

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

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install proofpoint --cli-only
   

2. Verify: proofpoint-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/monitoring/proofpoint/cmd/proofpoint-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Existing TAP tools are thin per-endpoint wrappers or one-way SIEM shovels. This CLI syncs clicks, messages, campaigns, VAPs, and clickers into SQLite, then answers joined questions locally - incident briefs, flat IOC tables, risk overlaps, per-user timelines - without re-spending the 1800-per-day SIEM quota or the 50-per-day campaign-ids quota.

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI when an agent needs Proofpoint TAP threat data: pulling SIEM click/message events, identifying Very Attacked People and top clickers, investigating a threatId or campaign, extracting IOCs for blocking, or decoding urldefense-rewritten links. It shines when questions repeat or cross endpoints - the local store answers joins and re-queries without burning daily API quota.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI for Proofpoint Essentials administration (orgs, users, licensing) - that is a different API with different credentials
• Do not use this CLI to stream PoD message logs - the PoD Log API is a WebSocket service not covered here
• Do not use this CLI to release or manage quarantined messages - quarantine actions live in the PPS admin interface, not the TAP API
• Do not use this CLI to send or simulate phishing tests - TAP is read-only threat intelligence

Unique Capabilities

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

Quota-aware threat ops

• backfill - Reconstruct up to 7 days of SIEM threat events in one command - the CLI auto-loops the API's mandatory 1-hour windows and persists every page locally.

  Reach for this when an agent needs more than the last hour of click/message events; single API calls cannot exceed a 1-hour window.

  proofpoint-cli backfill --since 48h --agent
  

• campaign-threats - Expand one campaign into the threats inside it, enriched with severity and family from the local threat store.

  Use this to pivot from a campaign to its member threats when quota is tight - campaign detail is the one unlimited TAP endpoint.

  proofpoint-cli campaign-threats "campaign-xyz789" --agent
  

Incident response

• incident - Turn a threatId into a single incident brief: severity, actors, malware, techniques, forensic evidence, and every local event that touched it.

  Use this for alert triage when you have a threatId and need the full picture in one shot instead of three separate calls.

  proofpoint-cli incident "threat-abc123" --agent
  

• iocs - Flatten TAP's nested forensic evidence tree into a paste-ready indicator table: hashes, URLs, domains, IPs, files, registry keys, processes.

  Use this when the goal is indicators for blocking or hunting, not a narrative brief - output pipes straight into an EDR or blocklist.

  proofpoint-cli iocs --threat-id "threat-abc123" --csv
  

People risk

• risk-overlap - List the people who are both Very Attacked AND top clickers - attack index beside click count - your highest-risk humans.

  The single best list for security-awareness targeting: highly attacked people who also click.

  proofpoint-cli risk-overlap --window 30 --agent
  

• user - Everything the local store knows about one person: clicks, threat messages, VAP status, and clicker status in one view.

  Use this during investigations to answer 'show me every event touching this user' without burning SIEM quota on re-queries.

  proofpoint-cli user "jane.doe@example.com" --agent
  

Command Reference

campaign - Campaign intelligence (actors, malware, families, techniques)

• proofpoint-cli campaign get - Get campaign detail (actors, malware, techniques, members)
• proofpoint-cli campaign list-ids - Heavily rate limited (50 requests per rolling 24 hours). Prefer the local synced store for repeated queries.

forensics - Forensic evidence (IOCs) for threats and campaigns

• proofpoint-cli forensics - Provide exactly one of threatId or campaignId.

people - Very Attacked People and top clickers

• proofpoint-cli people list-top-clickers - List users who clicked the most malicious links in a window
• proofpoint-cli people list-vap - List Very Attacked People (highest attack index) for a window

siem - Time-windowed threat event feeds (clicks and messages)

• proofpoint-cli siem list-all-events - Fetch all click and message threat events in the window
• proofpoint-cli siem list-clicks-blocked - Fetch clicks to malicious URLs that were blocked in the window
• proofpoint-cli siem list-clicks-permitted - Fetch clicks to malicious URLs that were permitted in the window
• proofpoint-cli siem list-issues - Events for clicks to malicious URLs permitted and messages delivered containing a known threat within the window - the
• proofpoint-cli siem list-messages-blocked - Fetch blocked messages that contained a known threat
• proofpoint-cli siem list-messages-delivered - Fetch delivered messages that contained a known threat

threat - Per-threat summaries

• proofpoint-cli threat <threatId> - Get a threat summary (severity, spread, actors, malware, techniques)

url - Decode TAP-rewritten (urldefense) URLs

• proofpoint-cli url - Decode TAP-rewritten (urldefense) URLs to their original targets

Finding the right command

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

proofpoint-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

Morning triage: what got through overnight

proofpoint-cli backfill --since 12h

Backfill loops the 1-hour windows for you; afterwards search and user answer questions offline.

One-shot incident brief from an alert

proofpoint-cli incident "threat-abc123" --agent --select summary.severity,summary.malware,iocs

Severity, attribution, and evidence for a threatId in a single agent-shaped payload.

Blocklist-ready indicators for a campaign

proofpoint-cli iocs --campaign-id "campaign-xyz789" --csv

Flat CSV of hashes, URLs, and IPs ready for an EDR import.

Awareness-training cohort

proofpoint-cli risk-overlap --window 90 --csv

The people who are both heavily attacked and clicking, with both metrics side by side.

Decode a batch of urldefense links

proofpoint-cli url --urls "https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://example.com__;!!abc" --agent --select urls.decodedUrl,urls.success

Returns the real target URLs; works even without credentials.

Auth Setup

TAP uses HTTP Basic auth with a service principal and secret. In the TAP Dashboard go to Settings, then Connected Applications, and create a new credential pair. Export PROOFPOINT_SERVICE_PRINCIPAL and PROOFPOINT_API_SECRET in your shell. The url decode command works without credentials; everything else requires them.

Run proofpoint-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:

  proofpoint-cli campaign get <id> --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.

Agent Feedback

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

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

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/proofpoint-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless PROOFPOINT_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or PROOFPOINT_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:

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.

proofpoint-cli profile save briefing --json
proofpoint-cli --profile briefing campaign get <id>
proofpoint-cli profile list --json
proofpoint-cli profile show briefing
proofpoint-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

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

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

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/monitoring/proofpoint/cmd/proofpoint-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add proofpoint-mcp -- proofpoint-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

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

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

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