TripIt Skill

Add travel plans to TripIt by sending structured confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com. No API keys required — just email sending capability.

How It Works

TripIt parses specially formatted emails ("TripIt Approved" format) into travel objects. This skill generates those emails; you send them with whatever email tool you have (MS Graph, Himalaya, gog, etc.).

Flow:

1. User says "add my flight to TripIt"
2. You construct JSON from their details
3. tripit-email.py generates the formatted email body
4. You send it to plans@tripit.com
5. TripIt creates the trip object within seconds

Setup

The sender email must be associated with the user's TripIt account. Either:

• The email is the one they signed up with, OR
• They've added it at TripIt → Settings → Connected Email Addresses

No other configuration needed.

Usage

Generate a flight confirmation

echo '{"airline":"United Airlines","flight_number":"1234","class":"Economy",
  "departure_city":"San Francisco","departure_airport":"SFO",
  "departure_date":"2025-06-15","departure_time":"08:30",
  "arrival_city":"New York","arrival_airport":"JFK",
  "arrival_date":"2025-06-15","arrival_time":"17:05",
  "passenger":"Jane Smith","confirmation":"UA1234X",
  "booking_site_url":"https://www.united.com"}' \
| python3 scripts/tripit-email.py flight

Generate a hotel confirmation

echo '{"hotel_name":"Hotel & Spa Napa Valley","checkin_date":"2025-06-15",
  "checkout_date":"2025-06-18","city":"Napa","state":"CA","country":"US",
  "street_address":"123 Vineyard Lane","confirmation":"NV8842",
  "number_of_guests":"2","rate":"189.00","currency":"USD"}' \
| python3 scripts/tripit-email.py hotel

Generate an activity

echo '{"activity_name":"Wine Tasting Tour","location":"Sonoma Valley Vineyards",
  "start_date":"2025-06-16","start_time":"10:00",
  "end_date":"2025-06-16","end_time":"14:00",
  "city":"Sonoma","state":"CA","country":"US"}' \
| python3 scripts/tripit-email.py activity

Generate a multi-item email

echo '{"items":[
  {"type":"flight","airline":"United Airlines","flight_number":"1234",
   "departure_city":"San Francisco","departure_airport":"SFO",
   "departure_date":"2025-06-15","departure_time":"08:30",
   "arrival_city":"New York","arrival_airport":"JFK",
   "arrival_date":"2025-06-15","arrival_time":"17:05",
   "passenger":"Jane Smith","confirmation":"UA1234X"},
  {"type":"hotel","hotel_name":"The Manhattan Grand","checkin_date":"2025-06-15",
   "checkout_date":"2025-06-18","city":"New York","state":"NY","country":"US",
   "confirmation":"MG7890"}
]}' \
| python3 scripts/tripit-email.py multi

Include a subject line

Add --subject to any command to get a suggested email subject:

echo '...' | python3 scripts/tripit-email.py --subject flight

Sending the Email

The script outputs the email body. You send it using whatever email tool is available.

MS Graph (Microsoft 365 users)

BODY=$(echo '...' | python3 scripts/tripit-email.py flight)
# Use your MS Graph email sending tool to send:
#   To: plans@tripit.com
#   Subject: United Airlines SFO-JFK 2025-06-15
#   Body: $BODY (plain text)

Himalaya

echo '...' | python3 scripts/tripit-email.py --subject flight > /tmp/tripit-email.txt
himalaya send --to plans@tripit.com \
  --subject "$(head -1 /tmp/tripit-email.txt | sed 's/Subject: //')" \
  --body "$(tail -n +3 /tmp/tripit-email.txt)"

gog (Google OAuth)

BODY=$(echo '...' | python3 scripts/tripit-email.py flight)
gog send --to plans@tripit.com --subject "Flight confirmation" --body "$BODY"

Field Reference

See references/template-format.md for the complete field list for each object type, including required vs optional fields and formatting rules.

Supported Object Types

Verifying Items Landed

After sending an email, confirm TripIt processed it by fetching the user's iCal feed:

1. The user provides their TripIt iCal URL (found at TripIt → Settings → Calendar Feed), e.g.: https://www.tripit.com/feed/ical/private/<hash>/tripit.ics
2. Fetch the feed and look for the newly added item (match on confirmation number, dates, or summary text)
3. If the item doesn't appear after ~60 seconds, check:
   • Was the sender email linked to the TripIt account?
   • Was the email sent as plain text (not HTML)?
   • Were all required fields present?

# Fetch and search the feed for a confirmation number
curl -s "https://www.tripit.com/feed/ical/private/<hash>/tripit.ics" \
  | grep -A5 "UA1234X"

Tip: Store the user's iCal feed URL so you can verify future sends without asking again. The URL is stable — it doesn't change unless the user regenerates it.

Gotchas

• Date format consistency: Use one format per email (ISO 8601 recommended: 2026-03-15)
• Sender email must be linked: TripIt ignores emails from unrecognized addresses
• Plain text only: Send as plain text, not HTML
• Multi-line fields: End with *** on its own line (e.g., long notes or cancellation policies)
• Processing time: TripIt usually processes within seconds, occasionally up to a few minutes
• Duplicates: TripIt deduplicates by confirmation number — re-sending updates the existing entry
• Field labels matter: TripIt's parser is strict about label names. This script uses the exact labels from TripIt's official vendor templates. Don't hand-craft emails with different labels (e.g., "Confirmation Number" won't work — it must be "Booking confirmation #")