# Twitter > Unified Twitter/X skill for all operations. Use when the user asks to search Twitter/X, browse timelines, read replies or comments, find quote tweets, post tweets, build digests, monitor topics, or interact with any Twitter content. Primary method is twitter-cli (authenticated, structured data). Falls back to Nitter via browserless (anonymous, read-only) when auth is unavailable or anonymous access is preferred. Covers any request involving X/Twitter content, including cron-based digests, topic monitoring, thread reading, posting, and user lookups. - Skill: `phattbeats/twitter` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add phattbeats/twitter` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/phattbeats/twitter/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: phattbeats (https://skillmd.com/u/phattbeats) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/phattbeats/twitter --- # Twitter/X — Unified Skill Two paths to Twitter data, one skill. Use twitter-cli when authenticated access is available (structured data, write access, engagement metrics). Fall back to Nitter via browserless for anonymous read-only access when cookies are expired or unavailable. ## Routing 1. **twitter-cli** (primary) — Check auth first: `twitter status --yaml >/dev/null 2>&1`. If it works, use twitter-cli for everything. Structured data, engagement counts, reply chains, write capability. 2. **Nitter via browserless** (fallback) — If twitter-cli auth is broken or anonymous access is needed. Read-only, no engagement metrics, but no account required. 3. **web_search** (last resort) — `web_search query="site:x.com "`. Gives snippets, not full tweets. Enough for a basic digest. --- ## twitter-cli **Binary:** `/root/.openclaw/utilities/twitter-cli.sh` **Source:** [github.com/public-clis/twitter-cli](https://github.com/public-clis/twitter-cli) **Auth:** Browser cookies via env vars (configured in wrapper script's `~/.env`) ### Auth Check Before any twitter-cli command, verify credentials: ```bash /root/.openclaw/utilities/twitter-cli.sh status --yaml >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "AUTH_OK" || echo "AUTH_NEEDED" ``` If `AUTH_NEEDED`, either ask Brandon for fresh cookies or switch to the Nitter fallback. **Cookie refresh:** If cookies expire (401/403), Brandon needs to: 1. Open x.com in a browser (logged in) 2. Dev Tools → Application → Cookies → x.com 3. Copy `auth_token` and `ct0` values 4. Update `~/.env` in the skill folder **226 error on writes:** Write operations (post, reply, quote) require full browser cookies, not just auth_token + ct0. If getting 226 "automated behavior" errors, need full cookie extraction. ### Output Formats ```bash twitter-cli.sh feed # Rich table (human-readable) twitter-cli.sh feed --yaml # YAML (recommended for agents) twitter-cli.sh feed --json | jq '.[0].text' # JSON twitter-cli.sh -c feed --max 10 # Compact (~80% fewer tokens than --json) twitter-cli.sh feed --full-text # Untruncated tweet text in table ``` **For cron/digest jobs, use `-c` (compact) to minimize token burn.** Compact fields: id, author, text (140 chars), likes, rts, time. ### Read Commands ```bash # Auth & identity twitter-cli.sh status # Auth check twitter-cli.sh whoami # Current user # Timelines twitter-cli.sh feed # For You timeline twitter-cli.sh feed -t following # Following timeline twitter-cli.sh feed --max 50 # Limit results # Search twitter-cli.sh search "keyword" # Search tweets twitter-cli.sh search "AI" -t Latest --max 50 # Latest, limited twitter-cli.sh search "topic" -o results.json # Save to file # Users twitter-cli.sh user elonmusk # Profile info twitter-cli.sh user-posts elonmusk --max 20 # User's tweets twitter-cli.sh likes elonmusk --max 30 # User's likes (own account only) twitter-cli.sh followers elonmusk --max 50 # Followers twitter-cli.sh following elonmusk --max 50 # Following # Single tweet + replies twitter-cli.sh tweet 1234567890 # Tweet detail with reply chain twitter-cli.sh tweet https://x.com/user/status/12345 # Accepts URL twitter-cli.sh show 2 # Open tweet #2 from last list output # Other twitter-cli.sh bookmarks # Saved tweets twitter-cli.sh list 1539453138322673664 # List timeline ``` ### Write Commands ```bash # Post twitter-cli.sh post "Hello from OpenClaw!" # New tweet twitter-cli.sh post "With image" --image photo.jpg # With image (up to 4) twitter-cli.sh post "Gallery" -i a.png -i b.jpg # Multiple images # Reply twitter-cli.sh reply 1234567890 "Great tweet!" # Reply twitter-cli.sh reply 1234567890 "Nice!" -i pic.png # Reply with image # Quote tweet twitter-cli.sh quote 1234567890 "Interesting take" # Quote-tweet twitter-cli.sh quote 1234567890 "Look" -i chart.png # Quote with image # Engagement twitter-cli.sh like 1234567890 # Like twitter-cli.sh unlike 1234567890 # Unlike twitter-cli.sh retweet 1234567890 # Retweet twitter-cli.sh unretweet 1234567890 # Unretweet twitter-cli.sh bookmark 1234567890 # Bookmark twitter-cli.sh unbookmark 1234567890 # Unbookmark # Account twitter-cli.sh follow username # Follow twitter-cli.sh unfollow username # Unfollow twitter-cli.sh delete 1234567890 # Delete own tweet ``` ### Agent Workflows **Daily digest (token-efficient):** ```bash twitter-cli.sh -c feed -t following --max 30 twitter-cli.sh -c bookmarks --max 20 ``` **Reply to someone's latest:** ```bash TWEET_ID=$(twitter-cli.sh user-posts targetuser --max 1 --json | jq -r '.data[0].id') twitter-cli.sh reply "$TWEET_ID" "Nice post!" ``` **Thread creation:** ```bash twitter-cli.sh post "Thread 1/3: First point" # Capture tweet ID from output, then: twitter-cli.sh reply "2/3: Second point" twitter-cli.sh reply "3/3: Final point" ``` **Search + filter with jq:** ```bash # Tweets with > 100 likes twitter-cli.sh search "AI safety" --max 20 --json | jq '[.data[] | select(.metrics.likes > 100)]' # Most engaged tweets twitter-cli.sh search "topic" --max 20 --json | jq '.data | sort_by(.metrics.likes) | reverse | .[:5]' ``` ### Error Reference | Error | Cause | Fix | |-------|-------|-----| | No Twitter cookies found | Not authenticated | Set env vars or refresh cookies | | HTTP 226 | Automated detection | Need full browser cookies, not just auth_token + ct0 | | HTTP 401/403 | Cookie expired | Re-login to x.com, extract fresh cookies | | HTTP 404 | QueryId rotation | Retry (auto-fallback built in) | | HTTP 429 | Rate limited | Wait 15+ minutes | | Error 187 | Duplicate tweet | Change text | ### Limitations - No video/GIF upload (images only: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, max 5MB each) - No DMs, notifications, or polls - Single account at a time - Likes are private since June 2024; `likes` command only works for your own account --- ## Nitter Fallback (Anonymous, Read-Only) When twitter-cli auth is unavailable, or you need anonymous access without logging activity to an account. ### Before First Use Refresh the instance list: ```bash bash /scripts/check-instances.sh /references/instances.md ``` If the script fails, fall back to whatever's already in `references/instances.md`. ### URL Patterns ``` # Search https:///search?q=&f=tweets # User timeline https:/// # Single tweet + replies https:////status/ # Quote tweets of a specific tweet https:///search?q=https://x.com//status/&f=tweets ``` ### Fetching via Browserless Browserless solves the Anubis proof-of-work challenge that blocks direct HTTP fetches on most Nitter instances. ``` browser action=open profile="browserless" url="https:///search?q=&f=tweets" ``` Snapshot the page to read the aria tree. If you see the Anubis bot check, wait 3-5 seconds and snapshot again. If browserless times out, retry once. If it fails twice, try the next instance from `references/instances.md`. ### Without Browserless Some instances serve content without Anubis. Try `web_fetch` on the URL. If you get a bot challenge page, switch instances. ### Instance Selection Read `references/instances.md` for the ranked list. Start from the top, move down on failure. Common failures: - "Making sure you're not a bot!" → Anubis. Wait with browserless, or switch instances without it. - Empty results → guest token exhausted. Switch instances. - Timeout → overloaded. Switch instances. --- ## Last Resort: web_search If both twitter-cli and Nitter fail: ``` web_search query="site:x.com " ``` Returns tweet snippets indexed by search engines. No engagement data, no reply chains, but enough for a basic digest. --- ## Safety Notes - Write operations have built-in random delays (1.5-4s) to avoid rate limits - Treat cookie values as secrets; don't echo them to stdout or messaging surfaces - TLS fingerprint automatically matches Chrome - Proxy support available via `TWITTER_PROXY` env var