xurl — X (Twitter) API via the Official CLI

xurl

Use this skill for:

• posting, replying, quoting, deleting posts
• searching posts and reading timelines/mentions
• liking, reposting, bookmarking
• following, unfollowing, blocking, muting
• direct messages
• media uploads (images and video)
• raw access to any X API v2 endpoint
• multi-app / multi-account workflows

This skill replaces the older

xitter

xurl

Secret Safety (MANDATORY)

Critical rules when operating inside an agent/LLM session:

• Never read, print, parse, summarize, upload, or send

  ~/.xurl

  to LLM context.
• Never ask the user to paste credentials/tokens into chat.
• The user must fill

  ~/.xurl

  with secrets manually on their own machine.
• Never recommend or execute auth commands with inline secrets in agent sessions.
• Never use

  --verbose

  /

  -v

  in agent sessions — it can expose auth headers/tokens.
• To verify credentials exist, only use:

  xurl auth status

  .

Forbidden flags in agent commands (they accept inline secrets):

--bearer-token

--consumer-key

--consumer-secret

--access-token

--token-secret

--client-id

--client-secret

App credential registration and credential rotation must be done by the user manually, outside the agent session. After credentials are registered, the user authenticates with

xurl auth oauth2

~/.xurl

Installation

Pick ONE method. On Linux, the shell script or

go install

# Shell script (installs to ~/.local/bin, no sudo, works on Linux + macOS)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdevplatform/xurl/main/install.sh | bash

# Homebrew (macOS)
brew install --cask xdevplatform/tap/xurl

# npm
npm install -g @xdevplatform/xurl

# Go
go install github.com/xdevplatform/xurl@latest

Verify:

xurl --help
xurl auth status

If

xurl

auth status

One-Time User Setup (user runs these outside the agent)

These steps must be performed by the user directly, NOT by the agent, because they involve pasting secrets. Direct the user to this block; do not execute it for them.

1. Create or open an app at https://developer.x.com/en/portal/dashboard
2. Set the redirect URI to

   http://localhost:8080/callback

3. Copy the app's Client ID and Client Secret
4. Register the app locally (user runs this):

   xurl auth apps add my-app --client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID --client-secret YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET
   

5. Authenticate (specify

   --app

   to bind the token to your app):

   xurl auth oauth2 --app my-app
   

   (This opens a browser for the OAuth 2.0 PKCE flow.)
6. Set the app as default so all commands use it:

   xurl auth default my-app
   

7. Verify:

   xurl auth status
   xurl whoami
   

After this, the agent can use any command below without further setup. OAuth 2.0 tokens auto-refresh.

Common pitfall: If you omit

--app my-app

from

xurl auth oauth2

, the OAuth token is saved to the built-in

default

app profile — which has no client-id or client-secret. Commands will fail with auth errors even though the OAuth flow appeared to succeed. If you hit this, re-run

xurl auth oauth2 --app my-app

and

xurl auth default my-app

.

Quick Reference

xurl post "Hello world!"

xurl reply POST_ID "Nice post!"

xurl quote POST_ID "My take"

xurl delete POST_ID

xurl read POST_ID

xurl search "QUERY" -n 10

xurl whoami

xurl user @handle

xurl timeline -n 20

xurl mentions -n 10

xurl like POST_ID

xurl unlike POST_ID

xurl repost POST_ID

xurl unrepost POST_ID

xurl bookmark POST_ID

xurl unbookmark POST_ID

xurl bookmarks -n 10

xurl likes -n 10

xurl follow @handle

xurl unfollow @handle

xurl following -n 20

xurl followers -n 20

xurl block @handle

xurl unblock @handle

xurl mute @handle

xurl unmute @handle

xurl dm @handle "message"

xurl dms -n 10

xurl media upload path/to/file.mp4

xurl media status MEDIA_ID

xurl auth apps list

xurl auth apps remove NAME

xurl auth default APP_NAME [USERNAME]

xurl --app NAME /2/users/me

xurl auth status

Notes:

• POST_ID

  accepts full URLs too (e.g.

  https://x.com/user/status/1234567890

  ) — xurl extracts the ID.
• Usernames work with or without a leading

  @

  .

Command Details

Posting

xurl post "Hello world!"
xurl post "Check this out" --media-id MEDIA_ID
xurl post "Thread pics" --media-id 111 --media-id 222

xurl reply 1234567890 "Great point!"
xurl reply https://x.com/user/status/1234567890 "Agreed!"
xurl reply 1234567890 "Look at this" --media-id MEDIA_ID

xurl quote 1234567890 "Adding my thoughts"
xurl delete 1234567890

Reading & Search

xurl read 1234567890
xurl read https://x.com/user/status/1234567890

xurl search "golang"
xurl search "from:elonmusk" -n 20
xurl search "#buildinpublic lang:en" -n 15

Users, Timeline, Mentions

xurl whoami
xurl user elonmusk
xurl user @XDevelopers

xurl timeline -n 25
xurl mentions -n 20

Engagement

xurl like 1234567890
xurl unlike 1234567890

xurl repost 1234567890
xurl unrepost 1234567890

xurl bookmark 1234567890
xurl unbookmark 1234567890

xurl bookmarks -n 20
xurl likes -n 20

Social Graph

xurl follow @XDevelopers
xurl unfollow @XDevelopers

xurl following -n 50
xurl followers -n 50

# Another user's graph
xurl following --of elonmusk -n 20
xurl followers --of elonmusk -n 20

xurl block @spammer
xurl unblock @spammer
xurl mute @annoying
xurl unmute @annoying

Direct Messages

xurl dm @someuser "Hey, saw your post!"
xurl dms -n 25

Media Upload

# Auto-detect type
xurl media upload photo.jpg
xurl media upload video.mp4

# Explicit type/category
xurl media upload --media-type image/jpeg --category tweet_image photo.jpg

# Videos need server-side processing — check status (or poll)
xurl media status MEDIA_ID
xurl media status --wait MEDIA_ID

# Full workflow
xurl media upload meme.png                  # returns media id
xurl post "lol" --media-id MEDIA_ID

Raw API Access

The shortcuts cover common operations. For anything else, use raw curl-style mode against any X API v2 endpoint:

# GET
xurl /2/users/me

# POST with JSON body
xurl -X POST /2/tweets -d '{"text":"Hello world!"}'

# DELETE / PUT / PATCH
xurl -X DELETE /2/tweets/1234567890

# Custom headers
xurl -H "Content-Type: application/json" /2/some/endpoint

# Force streaming
xurl -s /2/tweets/search/stream

# Full URLs also work
xurl https://api.x.com/2/users/me

Global Flags

--app

--auth

oauth1

oauth2

app

--username

-u

--verbose

-v

--trace

-t

X-B3-Flags: 1

Streaming

Streaming endpoints are auto-detected. Known ones include:

• /2/tweets/search/stream

• /2/tweets/sample/stream

• /2/tweets/sample10/stream

Force streaming on any endpoint with

-s

Output Format

All commands return JSON to stdout. Structure mirrors X API v2:

{ "data": { "id": "1234567890", "text": "Hello world!" } }

Errors are also JSON:

{ "errors": [ { "message": "Not authorized", "code": 403 } ] }

Common Workflows

Post with an image

xurl media upload photo.jpg
xurl post "Check out this photo!" --media-id MEDIA_ID

Reply to a conversation

xurl read https://x.com/user/status/1234567890
xurl reply 1234567890 "Here are my thoughts..."

Search and engage

xurl search "topic of interest" -n 10
xurl like POST_ID_FROM_RESULTS
xurl reply POST_ID_FROM_RESULTS "Great point!"

Check your activity

xurl whoami
xurl mentions -n 20
xurl timeline -n 20

Multiple apps (credentials pre-configured manually)

xurl auth default prod alice               # prod app, alice user
xurl --app staging /2/users/me             # one-off against staging

Error Handling

• Non-zero exit code on any error.
• API errors are still printed as JSON to stdout, so you can parse them.
• Auth errors → have the user re-run

  xurl auth oauth2

  outside the agent session.
• Commands that need the caller's user ID (like, repost, bookmark, follow, etc.) will auto-fetch it via

  /2/users/me

  . An auth failure there surfaces as an auth error.

Agent Workflow

1. Verify prerequisites:

   xurl --help

   and

   xurl auth status

   .
2. Check default app has credentials. Parse the

   auth status

   output. The default app is marked with

   ▸

   . If the default app shows

   oauth2: (none)

   but another app has a valid oauth2 user, tell the user to run

   xurl auth default <that-app>

   to fix it. This is the most common setup mistake — the user added an app with a custom name but never set it as default, so xurl keeps trying the empty

   default

   profile.
3. If auth is missing entirely, stop and direct the user to the "One-Time User Setup" section — do NOT attempt to register apps or pass secrets yourself.
4. Start with a cheap read (

   xurl whoami

   ,

   xurl user @handle

   ,

   xurl search ... -n 3

   ) to confirm reachability.
5. Confirm the target post/user and the user's intent before any write action (post, reply, like, repost, DM, follow, block, delete).
6. Use JSON output directly — every response is already structured.
7. Never paste

   ~/.xurl

   contents back into the conversation.

Troubleshooting

default

xurl auth oauth2 --app my-app

xurl auth default my-app

unauthorized_client

xurl auth status

▸

client-forbidden

client-not-enrolled

CreditsDepleted

media processing failed

amplify_video

--category tweet_image --media-type image/png

MTpjaQ

Notes

• Rate limits: X enforces per-endpoint rate limits. A 429 means wait and retry. Write endpoints (post, reply, like, repost) have tighter limits than reads.
• Scopes: OAuth 2.0 tokens use broad scopes. A 403 on a specific action usually means the token is missing a scope — have the user re-run

  xurl auth oauth2

  .
• Token refresh: OAuth 2.0 tokens auto-refresh. Nothing to do.
• Multiple apps: Each app has isolated credentials/tokens. Switch with

  xurl auth default

  or

  --app

  .
• Multiple accounts per app: Select with

  -u / --username

  , or set a default with

  xurl auth default APP USER

  .
• Token storage:

  ~/.xurl

  is YAML. Never read or send this file to LLM context.
• Cost: X API access is typically paid for meaningful usage. Many failures are plan/permission problems, not code problems.

Attribution

• Upstream CLI: https://github.com/xdevplatform/xurl (X developer platform team, Chris Park et al.)
• Upstream agent skill: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/blob/main/skills/xurl/SKILL.md
• Hermes adaptation: reformatted for Hermes skill conventions; safety guardrails preserved verbatim.