X API Skill

Overview

This skill orchestrates OAuth-authenticated, rate-limit-aware X/Twitter API interactions through a deterministic Python script (scripts/x-api-poster.py). The workflow implements a 4-phase pipeline with an explicit confirmation gate (Phase 2) to prevent accidental public posts.

Core principles:

• Always validate credentials and content before any network call
• The confirm gate is mechanically enforced by the script (refuses write ops without --confirmed)
• Credentials flow from environment variables only; the operator never configures auth mode
• Rate limits are surfaced immediately if remaining capacity drops below 10

Instructions

Phase 1: VALIDATE

Goal: Confirm credentials, content, and dependencies before any network call.

Step 1: Check credentials

Test credential presence by running a dry-run credential check:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py post --dry-run --text "ping"

This confirms all required environment variables are set: X_API_KEY, X_API_SECRET, X_ACCESS_TOKEN, X_ACCESS_SECRET, X_BEARER_TOKEN.

• For read-only operations (timeline, search), only X_BEARER_TOKEN is required
• For write operations (post, thread), all five are required
• If any required variables are missing, the script exits with a clear error; surface it to the user and stop
• Important: Never pass credentials as command arguments or store in files — always read from environment

Step 2: Validate content length

The script enforces a 280-character limit per tweet. Before posting, validate your content length:

For a single tweet:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py post --dry-run --text "your tweet text here"

For a thread:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py thread --dry-run --texts "part 1" "part 2" "part 3"

If --dry-run reports a length error, ask the user to shorten the text or approve auto-segmentation into a thread.

Gate: Dry run exits 0, content length validates, credentials confirmed present. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 2: CONFIRM

Goal: Show the user exactly what will be posted and require explicit approval before writing.

This gate is mandatory because X posts are public and irreversible. Present a content preview in this format:

CONTENT PREVIEW
================
Tweet 1/1:
  "Your tweet text here"
  Characters: 42/280

Action: POST single tweet

Approve? [yes/no]

For a thread:

CONTENT PREVIEW
================
Tweet 1/3:
  "First part text"
Tweet 2/3:
  "Second part text"
Tweet 3/3:
  "Third part text"

Action: POST thread (3 tweets, chained replies)

Approve? [yes/no]

Wait for explicit user approval. The words "yes", "approve", "go ahead", "post it", or equivalent typed in the current conversation turn constitute approval. Do not infer approval from context or prior conversation turns. Do not pass --confirmed before the user provides explicit typed approval.

Gate: User has typed an explicit approval in this conversation turn. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 3: POST

Goal: Execute the write operation and capture tweet IDs.

Only proceed once Phase 2 approval is confirmed. Pass the --confirmed flag when the user approves in this turn.

Single tweet:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py post \
  --confirmed \
  --text "your tweet text here"

Thread:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py thread \
  --confirmed \
  --texts "part 1" "part 2" "part 3"

Tweet with media:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py post \
  --confirmed \
  --text "your tweet text here" \
  --media /absolute/path/to/image.jpg

Media constraints: Images must be <= 5 MB (JPG, PNG, GIF); videos must be <= 512 MB (MP4). Media upload is a two-step process; if either step fails, no orphaned media is left behind. Confirm the file exists and is in a supported format before posting.

Watch output for:

• [tweet-posted] id=... url=... — success line per tweet; contains canonical URL (https://x.com/i/web/status/{id})
• [rate-limit-warning] remaining=N reset=EPOCH — surface to user immediately if present
• Any ERROR: line — surface verbatim and stop

OAuth mode is automatic: Read operations use Bearer token only; write operations require full OAuth 1.0a. The script selects the mode based on operation type — do not override it.

Gate: Script exits 0, at least one [tweet-posted] line in output. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 4: REPORT

Goal: Return tweet URLs, IDs, and engagement baseline to the user.

Step 1: Collect tweet IDs from Phase 3 output

Parse all [tweet-posted] id=... url=... lines from the script output.

Step 2: Read engagement baseline (optional)

For each posted tweet, you may optionally read initial engagement metrics via:

python3 $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py read-timeline --user-id me --max-results 5

Engagement metrics have propagation delay: X API metrics take time to populate. Reading public_metrics immediately after posting with 0 impressions is expected behavior, not failure. Report metrics as baseline at post time and note they will grow asynchronously.

Step 3: Report to user

Provide:

• Tweet URL(s) as clickable links
• Tweet ID(s) for reference
• Thread structure if applicable (N tweets, root ID)
• Any rate limit warnings encountered
• Engagement baseline if collected (impressions, likes, retweets at T+0), with a note about async growth

Error Handling

Error: "Missing required environment variable: X_API_KEY"

Cause: One or more credential env vars not set in the shell Solution:

1. Verify all five variables are exported: X_API_KEY, X_API_SECRET, X_ACCESS_TOKEN, X_ACCESS_SECRET, X_BEARER_TOKEN
2. For read-only operations, only X_BEARER_TOKEN is required
3. For write operations, all five are required
4. Never pass credentials as command arguments or store in files

Error: "Tweet text exceeds 280 characters"

Cause: A single tweet segment is too long Solution:

1. Shorten the text manually
2. Or approve auto-segmentation into a thread — the skill will split on sentence boundaries

Error: "Write operation requires --confirmed flag"

Cause: Script invoked without confirmation (should not happen if Phase 2 gate was followed) Solution: Return to Phase 2, present the confirm gate, and obtain explicit user approval

Error: "403 Forbidden" or "401 Unauthorized"

Cause: Credentials are invalid, expired, or lack the required permissions Solution:

1. Verify the X developer app has Read and Write permissions enabled
2. Regenerate access tokens after changing app permissions
3. Confirm the app is attached to a Project in the X developer portal

Error: "429 Too Many Requests" or rate limit exhaustion

Cause: API rate limit window exhausted Solution:

1. Check x-rate-limit-reset timestamp in the warning output
2. Wait until the reset epoch before retrying
3. X API rate limits are per-15-minute window — a thread of N tweets consumes N requests

Error: "Media upload failed at step 1" or "Media upload failed at step 2"

Cause: Media upload is a two-step process; failure at either step leaves no orphaned media Solution:

1. Confirm media file exists and is a supported format (JPG, PNG, GIF, MP4)
2. Check file size: images <= 5 MB, videos <= 512 MB
3. Re-run the post command; the script does not partially attach media on failure

References

• $HOME/.claude/scripts/x-api-poster.py: Backing script (exit codes: 0=success, 1=missing credentials, 2=content validation failed, 3=API error, 4=write attempted without --confirmed)
• X API v2 documentation: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api
• X media upload (v1.1): https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api/v1/media/upload-media/api-reference/post-media-upload