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).

Step 1: Ensure twitter-cli Is Installed and Authenticated

Before running any command, install and check auth:

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

# Check authentication
twitter status --yaml >/dev/null && echo "AUTH_OK" || echo "AUTH_NEEDED"

If AUTH_OK, skip to Step 2. 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

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`

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

Check auth first — run twitter status --yaml before any other command
Use --yaml or --json for structured output when processing data programmatically
Use -c / --compact when token efficiency matters (LLM context)
Use --full-text when the user wants complete tweet content (text is truncated by default in rich tables)
Use --max N to limit results — start with 10-20 unless the user asks for more
For search, use filters — --from, --since, --lang, --exclude retweets, --has links
Tweet IDs vs URLs — both work: twitter tweet 1234567890 or twitter tweet https://x.com/user/status/1234567890
Use twitter show N to reference tweet #N from the most recent list output
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: "..."

Step 4: Present the Results

After fetching data, present it clearly for financial research:

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

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.

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

Proxy Configuration

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

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.