Bird Twitter Skill (Read-Only)

Read X/Twitter content using the Bird CLI tool. This skill only exposes read-only operations to avoid account suspension risks.

Default routing note for this machine:

• If user asks to read/search/browse X content, ALWAYS try this skill first.
• Do NOT default to curl scraping, third-party mirrors (fx/vx/nitter), or ad-hoc HTTP parsing when Bird is available.
• Use xitter only when official API or write actions are explicitly needed.
• Only fall back to non-Bird methods if Bird auth/command execution is unavailable, and explicitly state the fallback reason.

When to Use This Skill

Triggered by:

• "read tweet [id/url]", "show tweet [id/url]"
• "search twitter [query]", "search x [query]"
• "my bookmarks", "twitter bookmarks"
• "trending", "twitter trends", "what's trending"
• "twitter news", "x news"
• "timeline", "i/timeline", "通知时间线", "device follow"
• "for you", "home", "home timeline", "首页推荐"
• "following", "following timeline", "首页关注流"
• "user timeline [username]", "timeline [username]", "user tweets [username]"
• "my mentions", "twitter mentions"
• "twitter lists", "my lists"
• "my feed"

Terminology Mapping (Unified)

• timeline -> x.com/i/timeline (device_follow endpoint)
• for you / 首页推荐 / home -> bird home -n 20
• following / 首页关注流 -> bird home --following -n 100
• timeline [username] -> bird user-tweets <username> -n 20

Default rule: if user says only timeline with no qualifier, treat it as i/timeline.

Prerequisites

1. Bird CLI must be installed: brew install steipete/tap/bird
2. Must be logged into X/Twitter in Chrome browser
3. Verify auth first without proxy:
   • bird check --plain
   • or bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 whoami
4. If your network requires proxy to reach X, add proxy env only when needed:
   • HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897
   • HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897
5. If Python requests fail with SSL certificate verification behind proxy, ensure certifi is available (python3 -c "import certifi; print(certifi.where())"); when needed, pass the CA bundle explicitly via --cafile.

Global Options

All commands should use:

• --cookie-source chrome to only use Chrome cookies (skip Safari/Firefox)
• --timeout 15000 to avoid hanging requests
• proxy env (HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY) only if your network requires it

Recommended command prefix (default, no proxy):

bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 <command>

If proxy is required in your environment:

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 <command>

For device_follow_timeline.py:

• In this proxy environment, prefer a single-shot command with explicit --cafile; do not first try a bare command and then retry.
• Script now auto-detects certifi CA bundle and logs SSL trust source.
• You can explicitly force trust source with --cafile <path> / --capath <dir>; environment variables SSL_CERT_FILE / SSL_CERT_DIR are still supported.
• Emergency fallback only: set BIRD_INSECURE_SSL=1 to retry once without SSL verification.

Example:

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 home -n 20

Commands

1. Check Auth Status

Triggers: "twitter auth", "bird whoami", "check twitter login"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 whoami

2. Read Tweet

Triggers: "read tweet [id]", "show tweet [url]", "get tweet"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 read <tweet-id-or-url>

Options: --plain for stable output without emoji/color

3. Read Thread

Triggers: "read thread [id]", "show thread [url]"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 thread <tweet-id-or-url>

4. Read Replies

Triggers: "show replies to [id]", "tweet replies"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 replies <tweet-id-or-url>

Notes:

• replies does not support -n / --count in current Bird CLI versions.
• Use --max-pages <number> or --all to control pagination when needed.

5. Search

Triggers: "search twitter [query]", "search x [query]", "find tweets about"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 search "<query>" -n 10

6. View Bookmarks

Triggers: "my bookmarks", "twitter bookmarks", "saved tweets"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 bookmarks -n 20

7. View Trending/News

Triggers: "trending", "twitter trends", "what's trending", "twitter news", "x news"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 news

8. View Home Timeline

Triggers: "home", "home timeline", "my feed", "for you", "首页推荐"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 home -n 20

8b. View Following Timeline

Triggers: "following", "following timeline", "首页关注流", "关注时间线"

Following 时间线按时间排序，是日常信息获取的主要入口。默认拉 100 条以覆盖近一天的内容，避免遗漏。

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 home --following -n 100

8c. View i/timeline (Device Follow)

Triggers: "timeline", "i/timeline", "notified timeline", "device follow", "通知时间线"

x.com/i/timeline 与 home --following 不是同一数据源。该命令直接请求 device_follow REST endpoint，默认读取 20 条。

SKILLS_HOME="$HOME/.codex/skills"
HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 \
python3 "${SKILLS_HOME}/bird-twitter/scripts/device_follow_timeline.py" \
  --count 20 \
  --cafile "$(python3 -c 'import certifi; print(certifi.where())')"

如需严格对齐抓包参数，传入完整请求 URL：

SKILLS_HOME="$HOME/.codex/skills"
HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 \
python3 "${SKILLS_HOME}/bird-twitter/scripts/device_follow_timeline.py" \
  --count 20 \
  --request-url "$BIRD_DEVICE_FOLLOW_URL"

9. View User Tweets

Triggers: "tweets from [username]", "timeline [username]", "[username]'s tweets"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 user-tweets <username> -n 20

10. View Likes

Triggers: "my likes", "liked tweets"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 likes -n 20

11. View Mentions

Triggers: "my mentions", "twitter mentions", "who mentioned me"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 mentions -n 20

12. View Lists

Triggers: "my lists", "twitter lists"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 lists

13. View List Timeline

Triggers: "list timeline [id]", "tweets from list"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 list-timeline <list-id-or-url> -n 20

14. View Following

Triggers: "who do I follow", "my following"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 following -n 50

15. View Followers

Triggers: "my followers", "who follows me"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 followers -n 50

16. User Info

Triggers: "about [username]", "user info [username]"

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 about <username>

Output Options (Command-Specific)

Global output flag:

• --plain - Stable output without emoji or color (good for parsing)

Count flags (supported by many but not all commands):

• -n <number> or --count <number> - Limit number of results
• Commonly supported: home, search, bookmarks, likes, mentions, user-tweets, list-timeline, following, followers, lists, news

Pagination-only commands:

• replies / thread use --max-pages <number> or --all instead of -n / --count

When in doubt, check command-specific help first:

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7897 bird --cookie-source chrome --timeout 15000 <command> --help

Practical Notes for Bookmark / Curation Work

• For bookmark triage, prefer bird ... bookmarks -n <N> --plain first to quickly scan authors, dates, and candidate URLs.
• Then enrich only shortlisted items with bird read <tweet-url> --json.
• Prefer --json over --json-full for long article-style tweets during batch analysis. In real sessions, --json-full can become very large (full _raw payload / article blocks) and may get truncated by wrappers or downstream JSON parsers.
• If you truly need --json-full for a long X Article in a scripted workflow, redirect stdout to a temporary file first, then parse that file locally. This avoids wrapper output caps corrupting JSON mid-payload.
• Use --json-full only when you specifically need raw article block structure, expanded metadata, or deep URL extraction from _raw.
• For article tweets, bird read <tweet-url> --json often exposes enough fields (for example article.title) to decide whether the item is already curated in a knowledge base.
• When --json-full includes _raw.article.article_results.result.rest_id, you can construct a stable X Article URL as https://x.com/i/article/<rest_id> and share that as the longform original.

Important Notes

• This skill is READ-ONLY to avoid account suspension
• Uses unofficial X GraphQL API - may break without notice
• Requires browser login to X for cookie authentication
• If authentication fails, log into X in your browser and try again

Excluded Commands (High Risk)

The following commands are intentionally NOT exposed due to account suspension risk:

• bird tweet - Post new tweets
• bird reply - Reply to tweets
• bird follow / bird unfollow - Follow/unfollow users
• bird unbookmark - Remove bookmarks