Xitter Φ X/Twitter via x-cli

Use x-cli for official X/Twitter API interactions from the terminal.

This skill is for:

• posting tweets, replies, and quote tweets
• searching tweets and reading timelines
• looking up users, followers, and following
• liking and retweeting
• checking mentions and bookmarks

This skill intentionally does not vendor a separate CLI implementation into IO. Install and use upstream x-cli instead.

Important Cost / Access Note

X API access is not meaningfully free for most real usage. Expect to need paid or prepaid X developer access. If commands fail with permissions or quota errors, check your X developer plan first.

Install

Install upstream x-cli with uv:

bash
1uv tool install git+https://github.com/Infatoshi/x-cli.git

Upgrade later with:

bash
1uv tool upgrade x-cli

Verify:

bash
1x-cli --help

Credentials

You need these five values from the X Developer Portal:

• X_API_KEY
• X_API_SECRET
• X_BEARER_TOKEN
• X_ACCESS_TOKEN
• X_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET

Get them from:

• https://developer.x.com/en/portal/dashboard

Why does X need 5 secrets?

Unfortunately, the official X API splits auth across both app-level and user-level credentials:

• X_API_KEY + X_API_SECRET identify your app
• X_BEARER_TOKEN is used for app-level read access
• X_ACCESS_TOKEN + X_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET let the CLI act as your user account for writes and authenticated actions

So yes Φ it is a lot of secrets for one integration, but this is the stable official API path and is still preferable to cookie/session scraping.

Setup requirements in the portal:

1. Create or open your app
2. In user authentication settings, set permissions to Read and write
3. Generate or regenerate the access token + access token secret after enabling write permissions
4. Save all five values carefully Φ missing any one of them will usually produce confusing auth or permission errors

Note: upstream x-cli expects the full credential set to be present, so even if you mostly care about read-only commands, it is simplest to configure all five.

Cost / Friction Reality Check

If this setup feels heavier than it should be, that is because it is. XΦs official developer flow is high-friction and often paid. This skill chooses the official API path because it is more stable and maintainable than browser-cookie/session approaches.

If the user wants the least brittle long-term setup, use this skill. If they want a zero-setup or unofficial path, that is a different trade-off and not what this skill is for.

Where to Store Credentials

x-cli looks for credentials in ~/.config/x-cli/.env.

If you already keep your X credentials in ~/.io/.env, the cleanest setup is:

bash
1mkdir -p ~/.config/x-cli
2ln -sf ~/.io/.env ~/.config/x-cli/.env

Or create a dedicated file:

bash
1mkdir -p ~/.config/x-cli
2cat > ~/.config/x-cli/.env <<'EOF'
3X_API_KEY=your_consumer_key
4X_API_SECRET=your_secret_key
5X_BEARER_TOKEN=your_bearer_token
6X_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_access_token
7X_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=your_access_token_secret
8EOF
9chmod 600 ~/.config/x-cli/.env

Quick Verification

bash
1x-cli user get openai
2x-cli tweet search "from:NousResearch" --max 3
3x-cli me mentions --max 5

If reads work but writes fail, regenerate the access token after confirming Read and write permissions.

Common Commands

Tweets

bash
1x-cli tweet post "hello world"
2x-cli tweet get https://x.com/user/status/1234567890
3x-cli tweet delete 1234567890
4x-cli tweet reply 1234567890 "nice post"
5x-cli tweet quote 1234567890 "worth reading"
6x-cli tweet search "AI agents" --max 20
7x-cli tweet metrics 1234567890

Users

bash
1x-cli user get openai
2x-cli user timeline openai --max 10
3x-cli user followers openai --max 50
4x-cli user following openai --max 50

Self / Authenticated User

bash
1x-cli me mentions --max 20
2x-cli me bookmarks --max 20
3x-cli me bookmark 1234567890
4x-cli me unbookmark 1234567890

Quick Actions

bash
1x-cli like 1234567890
2x-cli retweet 1234567890

Output Modes

Use structured output when the agent needs to inspect fields programmatically:

bash
1x-cli -j tweet search "AI agents" --max 5
2x-cli -p user get openai
3x-cli -md tweet get 1234567890
4x-cli -v -j tweet get 1234567890

Recommended defaults:

• -j for machine-readable output
• -v when you need timestamps, metrics, or metadata
• plain/default mode for quick human inspection

Agent Workflow

1. Confirm x-cli is installed
2. Confirm credentials are present
3. Start with a read command (user get, tweet search, me mentions)
4. Use -j when extracting fields for later steps
5. Only perform write actions after confirming the target tweet/user and the user's intent

Pitfalls

• Paid API access: many failures are plan/permission problems, not code problems.
• 403 oauth1-permissions: regenerate the access token after enabling Read and write.
• Reply restrictions: X restricts many programmatic replies. tweet quote is often more reliable than tweet reply.
• Rate limits: expect per-endpoint limits and cooldown windows.
• Credential drift: if you rotate tokens in ~/.io/.env, make sure ~/.config/x-cli/.env still points at the current file.

Notes

• Prefer official API workflows over cookie/session scraping.
• Use tweet URLs or IDs interchangeably Φ x-cli accepts both.
• If bookmark behavior changes upstream, check the upstream README first: https://github.com/Infatoshi/x-cli