Twitter reader

Twitter Skill (Read-Only)

Reads Twitter/X for financial research using twitter-cli, a command-line tool that accesses Twitter via browser cookie authentication.

This skill is read-only. It is designed for financial research: searching market discussions, reading analyst tweets, tracking sentiment, and monitoring financial news on Twitter/X. It does NOT support posting, liking, retweeting, replying, or any write operations.

Important: This tool uses your browser session cookies. No API keys needed — it authenticates via your logged-in browser session (Chrome, Arc, Edge, Firefox, Brave).

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Step 1: Ensure twitter-cli Is Installed and Authenticated

Current environment status:

!`(command -v twitter && twitter status --yaml 2>&1 | head -5 && echo "AUTH_OK" || echo "AUTH_NEEDED") 2>/dev/null || echo "NOT_INSTALLED"`

If the status above shows AUTH_OK, skip to Step 2. If NOT_INSTALLED, install first:

# Install (requires Python 3.10+)
uv tool install twitter-cli

If AUTH_NEEDED, guide the user:

Authentication methods

Method A: Browser cookie extraction (recommended)

Ensure user is logged into x.com in Arc/Chrome/Edge/Firefox/Brave. twitter-cli auto-extracts cookies. Verify with:

twitter whoami

Chrome multi-profile: all profiles are scanned automatically. To specify one:

TWITTER_CHROME_PROFILE="Profile 2" twitter feed

Method B: Environment variables

export TWITTER_AUTH_TOKEN="<auth_token from browser>"
export TWITTER_CT0="<ct0 from browser>"
twitter whoami

Common auth issues

Symptom	Fix
No Twitter cookies found	Login to x.com in browser, or set env vars
Cookie expired (401/403)	Re-login to x.com and retry
Unable to get key for cookie decryption (macOS)	Run security unlock-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db for SSH, or allow Terminal in Keychain Access

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Step 2: Identify What the User Needs

Match the user's request to one of the read commands below, then use the corresponding command from references/commands.md.

User Request	Command	Key Flags
Auth check	twitter status	--yaml
Who am I	twitter whoami	--json, --yaml
Home feed / timeline	twitter feed	-t following, --max N, --full-text, --filter
Search tweets	twitter search "QUERY"	-t Latest, --from USER, --since DATE, --lang, --exclude retweets, --has links, --max N
Bookmarks	twitter bookmarks	--max N, --full-text
View a specific tweet	twitter tweet TWEET_ID_OR_URL	--full-text
Open tweet from last list	twitter show N	--full-text, --json
Twitter article	twitter article ID_OR_URL	--markdown, --output FILE, --json
List timeline	twitter list LIST_ID	--full-text, --max N
User profile	twitter user USERNAME	--json
User's tweets	twitter user-posts USERNAME	--max N, --full-text, -o FILE
User's likes	twitter likes USERNAME	own account only (private since Jun 2024)
Followers	twitter followers USERNAME	--max N
Following	twitter following USERNAME	--max N

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Step 3: Execute the Command

General pattern

# Use --yaml for structured output, -c for compact (token-efficient)
twitter feed --yaml --max 20
twitter -c feed --max 10              # Compact: ~80% fewer tokens than --json

# Searching for financial topics
twitter search "$AAPL earnings" -t Latest --max 10 --full-text --yaml
twitter search "Fed rate decision" --since 2026-03-01 --max 20 --yaml
twitter search "market crash" --exclude retweets --has links --max 15

Key rules

1. Check auth first — run twitter status --yaml before any other command
2. Use --yaml or --json for structured output when processing data programmatically
3. Use -c / --compact when token efficiency matters (LLM context)
4. Use --full-text when the user wants complete tweet content (text is truncated by default in rich tables)
5. Use --max N to limit results — start with 10-20 unless the user asks for more
6. For search, use filters — --from, --since, --lang, --exclude retweets, --has links
7. Tweet IDs vs URLs — both work: twitter tweet 1234567890 or twitter tweet https://x.com/user/status/1234567890
8. Use twitter show N to reference tweet #N from the most recent list output
9. NEVER execute write operations — this skill is read-only; do not post, like, retweet, reply, quote, follow, or delete

Output flags (all read commands)

Flag	Purpose
--json	JSON output
--yaml	YAML output (default in non-TTY)
--full-text	Show complete tweet text (rich table only)
-c / --compact	Minimal fields, great for LLM context
-o FILE / --output FILE	Save output to file
--input FILE	Read from previously saved JSON

Structured output envelope

All --yaml and --json output uses this envelope (see references/schema.md):

ok: true
schema_version: "1"
data: ...          # tweet/user lists or single objects

Error responses:

ok: false
schema_version: "1"
error:
  code: api_error
  message: "..."

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Step 4: Present the Results

After fetching data, present it clearly for financial research:

1. Summarize key content — highlight the most relevant tweets for the user's financial research
2. Include attribution — show @username, tweet text, and engagement metrics (likes, retweets)
3. Provide tweet IDs/URLs when the user might want to read the full thread
4. For search results, group by relevance and highlight key themes, sentiment, or market signals
5. For user profiles, present follower count, bio, and notable recent activity
6. Flag sentiment — note bullish/bearish sentiment, consensus vs contrarian views
7. Treat cookies as secrets — never echo cookie values to stdout

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Step 5: Diagnostics

If something isn't working, run:

twitter doctor

Reports version, OS, browser detection, keychain status, and cookie extraction results.

For verbose diagnostics on any command, add -v.

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Error Reference

Error	Cause	Fix
No Twitter cookies found	Not authenticated	Login to x.com in browser, or set env vars
HTTP 401/403	Cookie expired	Re-login to x.com and retry
HTTP 404	QueryId rotation	Retry (auto-fallback built in)
HTTP 429	Rate limited	Wait 15+ minutes, then retry

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Proxy Configuration

export TWITTER_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7890
# or
export TWITTER_PROXY=socks5://127.0.0.1:1080

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Reference Files

• references/commands.md — Complete read command reference with all flags, research workflows, and usage examples
• references/schema.md — Structured output schema documentation

Read the reference files when you need exact command syntax, research workflow patterns, or schema details.