twitter-cli — Twitter/X CLI Tool
Binary: twitter
Credentials: browser cookies (auto-extracted) or env vars
Setup
bash# Install (requires Python 3.8+) uv tool install twitter-cli # Or: pipx install twitter-cli # Upgrade to latest (recommended to avoid API errors) uv tool upgrade twitter-cli # Or: pipx upgrade twitter-cli
Authentication
IMPORTANT FOR AGENTS: Before executing ANY twitter-cli command, you MUST first check if credentials exist. If not, you MUST proactively guide the user through the authentication process. Do NOT assume credentials are configured.
CRITICAL: Write operations (posting tweets, replying, quoting) REQUIRE full browser cookies. Only providing auth_token + ct0 via env vars may result in 226 error ("looks like automated behavior"). For best results, use browser cookie extraction.
Step 0: Check if already authenticated
bashtwitter status --yaml >/dev/null && echo "AUTH_OK" || echo "AUTH_NEEDED"
If AUTH_OK, skip to Command Reference.
If AUTH_NEEDED, proceed to guide the user:
Step 1: Guide user to authenticate
Method A: Browser cookie extraction (recommended)
Ensure user is logged into x.com in one of: Arc, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave. twitter-cli auto-extracts cookies.
All Chrome profiles are scanned automatically. To specify a profile: TWITTER_CHROME_PROFILE="Profile 2" twitter feed.
To prioritize a specific browser: TWITTER_BROWSER=chrome twitter feed (supported: arc, chrome, edge, firefox, brave).
bashtwitter whoami
Method B: Environment variables
bashexport TWITTER_AUTH_TOKEN="<auth_token from browser>" export TWITTER_CT0="<ct0 from browser>" twitter whoami
Method C: Full cookie string (for cloud/remote agents)
Tell the user:
我需要你的 Twitter 登录凭证。请按以下步骤获取：
- 用 Chrome/Edge/Firefox 打开 https://x.com（确保已登录）
- 按
F12打开开发者工具 → Network 标签- 在页面上刷新，点击任意
x.com请求- 找到 Request Headers → Cookie: 这一行，右键 → 复制值
- 把完整 Cookie 字符串发给我
⚠️ Cookie 包含登录信息，请不要分享给其他人。
Then extract and set env vars:
bashFULL_COOKIE="<user's cookie string>" export TWITTER_AUTH_TOKEN=$(echo "$FULL_COOKIE" | grep -oE 'auth_token=[a-f0-9]+' | cut -d= -f2) export TWITTER_CT0=$(echo "$FULL_COOKIE" | grep -oE 'ct0=[a-f0-9]+' | cut -d= -f2) twitter whoami
Step 2: Handle common auth issues
| Symptom | Agent action |
|---|---|
No Twitter cookies found | Guide user to login to x.com in browser, or set env vars |
| Read works, write returns 226 | Full cookies missing — use browser cookie extraction instead of env vars |
Cookie expired (401/403) | Ask user to re-login to x.com and retry |
| User changed password | All old cookies invalidated — re-extract |
Output Format
Default: Rich table (human-readable)
bashtwitter feed # Pretty table output
YAML / JSON: structured output
Non-TTY stdout defaults to YAML automatically. Use OUTPUT=yaml|json|rich|auto to override.
bashtwitter feed --yaml twitter feed --json | jq '.[0].text'
All machine-readable output uses the envelope documented in SCHEMA.md.
Tweet and user payloads now live under .data.
Full text: --full-text flag (rich tables only)
Use --full-text when the user wants complete post bodies in terminal tables.
It affects rich table list views such as feed, bookmarks, search, user-posts, likes, list, and reply tables in tweet.
It does not change --json, --yaml, or -c compact output.
bashtwitter feed --full-text twitter search "AI agent" --full-text twitter user-posts elonmusk --max 20 --full-text twitter tweet 1234567890 --full-text
Compact: -c flag (minimal tokens for LLM)
bashtwitter -c feed --max 10 # Minimal fields, great for LLM context twitter -c search "AI" --max 20 # ~80% fewer tokens than --json
Compact fields (per tweet): id, author (@handle), text (truncated 140 chars), likes, rts, time (short format)
Command Reference
Read Operations
bashtwitter status # Quick auth check twitter status --yaml # Structured auth status twitter whoami # Current authenticated user twitter whoami --yaml # YAML output twitter whoami --json # JSON output twitter user elonmusk # User profile twitter user elonmusk --json # JSON output twitter feed # Home timeline (For You) twitter feed -t following # Following timeline twitter feed --max 50 # Limit count twitter feed --full-text # Show full post body in table twitter feed --filter # Enable ranking filter twitter feed --yaml > tweets.yaml # Export as YAML twitter feed --input tweets.json # Read from local JSON file twitter bookmarks # Bookmarked tweets twitter bookmarks --full-text # Full text in bookmarks table twitter bookmarks --max 30 --yaml twitter search "keyword" # Search tweets twitter search "AI agent" -t Latest --max 50 twitter search "AI agent" --full-text # Full text in search results twitter search "topic" -o results.json # Save to file twitter tweet 1234567890 # Tweet detail + replies twitter tweet 1234567890 --full-text # Full text in reply table twitter tweet https://x.com/user/status/12345 # Accepts URL twitter show 2 # Open tweet #2 from last feed/search list twitter show 2 --full-text # Full text in reply table twitter show 2 --json # Structured output twitter list 1539453138322673664 # List timeline twitter list 1539453138322673664 --cursor "<next-cursor>" twitter list 1539453138322673664 --full-text twitter user-posts elonmusk --max 20 # User's tweets twitter user-posts elonmusk --full-text twitter likes elonmusk --max 30 # User's likes (own only, see note) twitter likes elonmusk --full-text twitter followers elonmusk --max 50 # Followers twitter following elonmusk --max 50 # Following
Write Operations
bashtwitter post "Hello from twitter-cli!" # Post tweet twitter post "Hello!" --image photo.jpg # Post with image twitter post "Gallery" -i a.png -i b.jpg # Up to 4 images twitter reply 1234567890 "Great tweet!" # Reply (standalone) twitter reply 1234567890 "Nice!" -i pic.png # Reply with image twitter post "reply text" --reply-to 1234567890 # Reply (via post) twitter quote 1234567890 "Interesting take" # Quote-tweet twitter quote 1234567890 "Look" -i chart.png # Quote with image twitter delete 1234567890 # Delete tweet twitter like 1234567890 # Like twitter unlike 1234567890 # Unlike twitter retweet 1234567890 # Retweet twitter unretweet 1234567890 # Unretweet twitter bookmark 1234567890 # Bookmark twitter unbookmark 1234567890 # Unbookmark twitter follow elonmusk # Follow user twitter unfollow elonmusk # Unfollow user
Image upload notes:
- Supported formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP
- Max file size: 5 MB per image
- Max 4 images per tweet
- Use
--image/-i(repeatable)
Agent Workflows
Post and verify
bashtwitter post "My tweet text" 2>/dev/null # Output includes tweet URL: 🔗 https://x.com/i/status/<id>
Post with images
bash# Single image twitter post "Check this out!" --image /path/to/photo.jpg # Multiple images twitter post "Photo gallery" -i img1.png -i img2.jpg -i img3.webp
Reply to someone's latest tweet
bashTWEET_ID=$(twitter user-posts targetuser --max 1 --json | jq -r '.data[0].id') twitter reply "$TWEET_ID" "Nice post!"
Create a thread
bash# Post first tweet, capture output for tweet ID twitter post "Thread 1/3: First point" # Note the tweet ID from output, then: twitter reply <first_tweet_id> "2/3: Second point" twitter reply <second_tweet_id> "3/3: Final point"
Quote-tweet with commentary
bashTWEET_ID=$(twitter search "interesting topic" --max 1 --json | jq -r '.data[0].id') twitter quote "$TWEET_ID" "This is a great insight!"
Like all search results
bashtwitter search "interesting topic" --max 5 --json | jq -r '.data[].id' | while read id; do twitter like "$id" done
Get user info then follow
bashtwitter user targethandle --json | jq '.data | {username, followers, bio}' twitter follow targethandle
Find most popular tweets from a user
bashtwitter user-posts elonmusk --max 20 --json | jq '.data | sort_by(.metrics.likes) | reverse | .[:3] | .[] | {id, text: .text[:80], likes: .metrics.likes}'
Check follower relationship
bashMY_NAME=$(twitter whoami --json | jq -r '.data.user.username') twitter followers "$MY_NAME" --max 200 --json | jq -r '.data[].username' | grep -q "targetuser" && echo "Yes" || echo "No"
Daily reading workflow
bash# Compact mode for token-efficient LLM context twitter -c feed -t following --max 30 twitter -c bookmarks --max 20 # Rich table with complete post bodies twitter feed -t following --max 20 --full-text twitter search "AI agent" --max 20 --full-text # Full JSON for analysis twitter feed -t following --max 30 -o following.json twitter bookmarks --max 20 -o bookmarks.json
Search with jq filtering
bash# Tweets with > 100 likes twitter search "AI safety" --max 20 --json | jq '[.data[] | select(.metrics.likes > 100)]' # Extract just text and author twitter search "rust lang" --max 10 --json | jq '.data[] | {author: .author.screenName, text: .text[:100]}' # Most engaged tweets twitter search "topic" --max 20 --json | jq '.data | sort_by(.metrics.likes) | reverse | .[:5] | .[].id'
Ranking Filter
Filtering is opt-in. Enable with --filter:
bashtwitter feed --filter twitter bookmarks --filter
Error Reference
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
No Twitter cookies found | Not authenticated | Login to x.com in browser, or set env vars |
| HTTP 226 | Automated detection | Use browser cookie extraction (not env vars) |
| HTTP 401/403 | Cookie expired | Re-login to x.com and retry |
| HTTP 404 | QueryId rotation | Retry (auto-fallback built in) |
| HTTP 429 | Rate limited | Wait 15+ minutes, then retry |
| Error 187 | Duplicate tweet | Change text content |
| Error 186 | Tweet too long | Keep under 280 chars |
Limitations
- Images only — video/GIF animation upload not yet supported (image upload supports JPEG/PNG/GIF/WebP)
- No DMs — no direct messaging
- No notifications — can't read notifications
- No polls — can't create polls
- Single account — one set of credentials at a time
- Likes are private — Twitter/X made all likes private since June 2024.
twitter likesonly works for your own account
Safety Notes
- Write operations have built-in random delays (1.5–4s) to avoid rate limits.
- TLS fingerprint and User-Agent are automatically matched to the Chrome version used.
- Do not ask users to share raw cookie values in chat logs.
- Prefer local browser cookie extraction over manual secret copy/paste.
- Agent should treat cookie values as secrets (do not echo to stdout unnecessarily).
