---
name: x-tweet-by-handle
description: Collects tweets from an X (Twitter) user profile timeline by handle, supporting tweets, replies, or media-only modes, and returns structured data with engagement metrics and pagination.
---

# X — Tweets by Handle

> X handle + timeline mode → normalized list of that user's tweets (or replies / media-only) with author, engagement, media, cursor.

## Language

All process output to user (progress updates, process notifications) follows the user's language.

## Objective

Collect tweets from one or more X user profile timelines, selectable between the default tweets tab, the tweets-and-replies tab, and the media-only tab, returning structured per-tweet data and pagination cursors.

## Prerequisites

- Active X session in the browser (left sidebar shows logged-in avatar / @handle).
- Network capture is enabled in the browser-act session.

## Pre-execution Checks

### 1. Tool Readiness

If browser-act has been confirmed available in the current session → skip this step.

Invoke `browser-act` via Skill tool to load usage. If installation or configuration issues arise, follow its guidance to resolve then retry.

### 2. Login Verification

If login status for X has been confirmed in the current session → skip this step.

Otherwise: open `https://x.com` and observe the left sidebar:
- User avatar or @handle visible → logged in, continue
- "Sign in" / "Log in" prompt visible → not logged in, inform the user and assist the login flow

User refuses or cannot log in → terminate execution.

## Capability Components

> This Skill's operational boundary = what the user can manually do in their browser. It only reads tweet data already shown to the user, never bypassing authentication. The browser's own JS signs the GraphQL request; the Skill triggers it via URL navigation and reads the response from network traffic. Python scripts under `scripts/` only build URLs and parse responses — they do not call X directly. Run them through the bash tool.

### Network Capture: profile timeline (tweets / replies / media)

Step 1 — build the profile URL for the desired mode:

`URL=$(python scripts/build-profile-url.py '{handle}' --mode {mode})`

Parameters:
- `handle` (positional): X handle without `@`, case-insensitive.
- `--mode`: one of `tweets` (default — triggers `UserTweets`), `replies` (triggers `UserTweetsAndReplies`), `media` (triggers `UserMedia`).

Step 2 — navigate and capture the first page:

1. `network requests --clear`
2. `navigate "$URL"`
3. `wait stable --timeout 25000` (timeout is normal on X; proceed even if it fires)
4. Determine the endpoint name to filter by — `UserTweets`, `UserTweetsAndReplies`, or `UserMedia` matching the chosen mode:
   - `network requests --type xhr,fetch --filter UserTweets` (when `--mode tweets`)
   - `network requests --type xhr,fetch --filter UserTweetsAndReplies` (when `--mode replies`)
   - `network requests --type xhr,fetch --filter UserMedia` (when `--mode media`)
5. Take the latest matching entry's `request_id`.
6. `network request <request_id>` → save full output to a file (e.g. `tmp/x-profile-page-1.txt`).
7. Parse with the matching `--source` flag:
   - `python scripts/parse-tweets.py --json-file tmp/x-profile-page-1.txt --source user_tweets` (for `tweets`)
   - `python scripts/parse-tweets.py --json-file tmp/x-profile-page-1.txt --source user_replies` (for `replies`)
   - `python scripts/parse-tweets.py --json-file tmp/x-profile-page-1.txt --source user_media` (for `media`)

Endpoint characteristic: URL contains `/i/api/graphql/<hash>/UserTweets` (or `UserTweetsAndReplies` / `UserMedia`). The query hash rotates; always filter by name.

Step 3 — paginate via scroll:

1. `network requests --clear`
2. `scroll down --amount 5000`
3. `wait stable --timeout 10000`
4. `network requests --type xhr,fetch --filter <EndpointName>` → take the newest entry's `request_id`
5. `network request <request_id>` → save to `tmp/x-profile-page-N.txt`
6. `python scripts/parse-tweets.py --json-file tmp/x-profile-page-N.txt --source <source>`

Repeat Step 3 until any termination condition is met:
- Accumulated unique tweet count reaches the user's target.
- `count == 0` on the current page.
- `cursor_bottom` is unchanged across two consecutive pages.

Error handling: if no matching request appears after a scroll, wait 3 s and retry once. If the page redirects to a "This account doesn't exist" or "Account suspended" view (visible in `state` output), terminate with an explanatory result. Pinned tweets appear at the top of the first page — they are normal tweets and are included in the output; de-duplicate by `id` when merging if a pinned tweet would also appear later in chronological order.

Output example:
```json
{
  "tweets": [
    {
      "type": "tweet",
      "id": "2068333045510291908",
      "url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/2068333045510291908",
      "twitter_url": "https://twitter.com/NASA/status/2068333045510291908",
      "text": "The official FIFA World Cup ball went to space! ...",
      "created_at": "Thu Jun 20 18:30:11 +0000 2026",
      "lang": "en",
      "source": "Twitter Web App",
      "retweet_count": 4586,
      "reply_count": 1812,
      "like_count": 24499,
      "quote_count": 240,
      "bookmark_count": 1730,
      "view_count": 2098235,
      "is_reply": false,
      "is_retweet": false,
      "is_quote": false,
      "quote_id": null,
      "quote_url": null,
      "in_reply_to_id": null,
      "in_reply_to_user": null,
      "in_reply_to_user_id": null,
      "conversation_id": "2068333045510291908",
      "hashtags": ["FIFAWorldCup"],
      "mentions": [],
      "urls": [],
      "media": [
        {"type": "photo", "url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/abcd.jpg", "expanded_url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/2068333045510291908/photo/1", "alt_text": null}
      ],
      "card": null,
      "place": null,
      "author": {
        "id": "11348282",
        "user_name": "NASA",
        "name": "NASA",
        "url": "https://x.com/NASA",
        "is_verified": false,
        "is_blue_verified": true,
        "verified_type": "Government",
        "profile_picture": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/.../photo.jpg",
        "description": "Explore the universe ...",
        "location": "Pale Blue Dot",
        "followers": 92137231,
        "following": 305,
        "created_at": "Wed Dec 19 20:20:32 +0000 2007"
      }
    }
  ],
  "count": 20,
  "cursor_top": "DAAHCgABHLo27Q8__-s...",
  "cursor_bottom": "DAAHCgABHLo27Q8__-s..."
}
```

## Pagination

**Network Capture Pagination**: triggered by `scroll down`. X's page JS inserts the previous response's `cursor_bottom` into the next request's `variables.cursor`. Termination: `count == 0`, `cursor_bottom` does not advance across two consecutive pages, or user target reached.

## Success Criteria

`count >= 1 on the first page` (unless the account has zero tweets in the chosen mode) AND `every tweet has non-null id, text, created_at, author.user_name, like_count, retweet_count, reply_count` AND `each subsequent page's cursor_bottom differs from the previous page's until termination`.

## Known Limitations

- Protected (locked) accounts return zero tweets unless the logged-in session follows that account.
- Suspended or deleted accounts return an error page; the Skill will detect via empty `count` and a redirect to `/account_suspended` or `/account/access` and terminate the loop.
- `view_count` is `null` for very new or low-traffic tweets where X has not yet emitted `views.count`.
- `--mode media` returns tweets that contain native media only; pure-text or quote-only tweets are skipped by X server-side.
- Sustained polling triggers per-session throttling; stay under ~150 timeline calls per 15-minute window per session (`x-rate-limit-remaining` shows the live budget).
- The page may never reach `network-idle`; `wait stable` will frequently time out — proceed to read network anyway.

## Execution Efficiency

- **Batch orchestration**: write a bash script that iterates handles serially in one session; for parallelism, fan out across multiple stealth browsers each with its own login.
- **Test before batch execution**: run one handle end-to-end (page 1 + page 2) first.
- **Reduce redundant pre-operations**: keep the same session for many sequential handles — `navigate` reuses the SPA.
- **Error resumption**: persist `cursor_bottom` + accumulated tweet IDs to disk after every page; a crash mid-batch resumes from the last good cursor.
- **De-duplicate by `id`**: pinned tweets reappear when chronological order catches up; merge by `id`.

## Experience Notes

Path: `{working-directory}/browser-act-skill-forge-memories/x-tweet-scraper-x-tweet-by-handle.memory.md` (working directory is determined by the Agent running the Skill, typically the project root or current working directory)

**Before execution**: If the file exists, read it first — it records unexpected situations encountered during past executions (e.g., a strategy has become ineffective); adjust strategy order accordingly.

**After execution**: If an unexpected situation is encountered (strategy became ineffective, page redesigned, anti-scraping upgraded, better path discovered), append a line:
`{YYYY-MM-DD}: {what happened} → {conclusion}`

Normal execution does not write to the file. Do not record what handle was scraped or how many tweets were returned — those are task outputs, not experience.