xurl

xurl — X (Twitter) API via the Official CLI

xurl is the X developer platform's official CLI for the X API. It supports shortcut commands for common actions AND raw curl-style access to any v2 endpoint. All commands return JSON to stdout.

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 skill (which wrapped a third-party Python CLI). xurl is maintained by the X developer platform team, supports OAuth 2.0 PKCE with auto-refresh, and covers a substantially larger API surface.

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 — also outside the agent session. Tokens persist to ~/.xurl in YAML. Each app has isolated tokens. OAuth 2.0 tokens auto-refresh.

Installation

Pick ONE method. On Linux, the shell script or go install are the easiest.

# 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 is installed but auth status shows no apps or tokens, the user needs to complete auth manually — see the next section.

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):

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

1. Authenticate (specify --app to bind the token to your app):

``bash xurl auth oauth2 --app my-app `` (This opens a browser for the OAuth 2.0 PKCE flow.)

If X returns a UsernameNotFound error or 403 on the post-OAuth /2/users/me lookup, pass your handle explicitly (xurl v1.1.0+): ``bash xurl auth oauth2 --app my-app YOUR_USERNAME ` This binds the token to your handle and skips the broken /2/users/me` call.

1. Set the app as default so all commands use it:

``bash xurl auth default my-app ``

1. Verify:

``bash 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

| Action | Command | | --- | --- | | Post | xurl post "Hello world!" | | Reply | xurl reply POST_ID "Nice post!" | | Quote | xurl quote POST_ID "My take" | | Delete a post | xurl delete POST_ID | | Read a post | xurl read POST_ID | | Search posts | xurl search "QUERY" -n 10 | | Who am I | xurl whoami | | Look up a user | xurl user @handle | | Home timeline | xurl timeline -n 20 | | Mentions | xurl mentions -n 10 | | Like / Unlike | xurl like POST_ID / xurl unlike POST_ID | | Repost / Undo | xurl repost POST_ID / xurl unrepost POST_ID | | Bookmark / Remove | xurl bookmark POST_ID / xurl unbookmark POST_ID | | List bookmarks / likes | xurl bookmarks -n 10 / xurl likes -n 10 | | Follow / Unfollow | xurl follow @handle / xurl unfollow @handle | | Following / Followers | xurl following -n 20 / xurl followers -n 20 | | Block / Unblock | xurl block @handle / xurl unblock @handle | | Mute / Unmute | xurl mute @handle / xurl unmute @handle | | Send DM | xurl dm @handle "message" | | List DMs | xurl dms -n 10 | | Upload media | xurl media upload path/to/file.mp4 | | Media status | xurl media status MEDIA_ID | | List apps | xurl auth apps list | | Remove app | xurl auth apps remove NAME | | Set default app | xurl auth default APP_NAME [USERNAME] | | Per-request app | xurl --app NAME /2/users/me | | Auth status | 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
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