x-api – OpenClaw Skill

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name: x-api description: Post to X (Twitter) using the official API with OAuth 1.0a. Use when you need to tweet, post updates, or publish content. Bypasses rate limits and bot detection that affect cookie-based approaches like bird CLI.

x-api 🐦

Post to X using the official API (OAuth 1.0a).

When to Use

• Posting tweets (cookie-based bird tweet gets blocked by bot detection)
• Official API access is needed for reliability

For reading (timeline, search, mentions), use bird CLI instead — it's free and works well for reads.

Setup

1. Get API Credentials

1. Go to https://developer.x.com/en/portal/dashboard
2. Create a Project and App
3. Set App permissions to Read and Write
4. Get your keys from "Keys and tokens" tab:
   • API Key (Consumer Key)
   • API Key Secret (Consumer Secret)
   • Access Token
   • Access Token Secret

2. Configure Credentials

Option A: Environment variables

export X_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export X_API_SECRET="your-api-secret"
export X_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-access-token"
export X_ACCESS_SECRET="your-access-token-secret"

Option B: Config file at ~/.clawdbot/secrets/x-api.json

{
  "consumerKey": "your-api-key",
  "consumerSecret": "your-api-secret",
  "accessToken": "your-access-token",
  "accessTokenSecret": "your-access-token-secret"
}

3. Install Dependency

npm install -g twitter-api-v2

Post a Tweet

x-post "Your tweet text here"

Or with full path:

node /path/to/skills/x-api/scripts/x-post.mjs "Your tweet text here"

Supports multi-line tweets:

x-post "Line one

Line two

Line three"

Returns the tweet URL on success.

Limits

• Free tier: 1,500 posts/month (requires credits in X Developer Portal)
• Basic tier ($100/mo): Higher limits

Reading (use bird)

For reading, searching, and monitoring — use the bird CLI:

bird home                    # Timeline
bird mentions                # Mentions
bird search "query"          # Search
bird user-tweets @handle     # User's posts
bird read <tweet-url>        # Single tweet

Troubleshooting

402 Credits Depleted: Add credits in X Developer Portal → Dashboard

401 Unauthorized: Regenerate Access Token (ensure Read+Write permissions are set first)

No credentials found: Set env vars or create config file (see Setup above)

x-api 🐦

A Clawdbot skill for posting to X (Twitter) using the official API.

Why This Exists

The excellent bird CLI is great for reading Twitter — timeline, mentions, search, etc. But posting through bird gets blocked by Twitter's bot detection:

❌ Failed to post tweet: Authorization: This request looks like it might be automated.
To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can't complete this action right now.

Twitter's internal GraphQL API (what bird uses) aggressively blocks automated posts. The only reliable way to post is through the official X API with OAuth 1.0a.

The Catch

The X API isn't free:

• Free tier: 1,500 posts/month, but requires credits (pay-as-you-go)
• Basic tier: $100/month for higher limits
• You need to create a Developer account and app at developer.x.com

Installation

Copy the skill to your Clawdbot skills directory:

cp -r x-api ~/.clawdbot/skills/
cd ~/.clawdbot/skills/x-api/scripts
npm install

Setup

1. Get API Credentials

1. Go to https://developer.x.com/en/portal/dashboard
2. Create a Project and App
3. Set App permissions to Read and Write
4. Generate keys from "Keys and tokens" tab

2. Configure Credentials

Option A: Environment variables

export X_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export X_API_SECRET="your-api-secret"
export X_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-access-token"
export X_ACCESS_SECRET="your-access-token-secret"

Option B: Config file at ~/.clawdbot/secrets/x-api.json

{
  "consumerKey": "your-api-key",
  "consumerSecret": "your-api-secret",
  "accessToken": "your-access-token",
  "accessTokenSecret": "your-access-token-secret"
}

Usage

node ~/.clawdbot/skills/x-api/scripts/x-post.mjs "Your tweet text here"

Multi-line tweets work too:

node ~/.clawdbot/skills/x-api/scripts/x-post.mjs "Line one

Line two

Line three"

Recommended Setup

Task	Tool
Reading (timeline, mentions, search)	bird CLI — free, cookie-based
Posting	This skill — official API, paid

License

MIT

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Built by Lobster General Intelligence 🦞