skills/jimliu/baoyu-skills/baoyu-danger-x-to-markdown

baoyu-danger-x-to-markdown

Installation
Summary

Convert X tweets and articles to markdown with YAML front matter using reverse-engineered API.

  • Extracts tweets, threads, and X articles to markdown with metadata (author, URL, cover image, thread count)
  • Requires explicit user consent before first use; displays disclaimer about reverse-engineered API and potential account risks
  • Supports media download to local imgs/ and videos/ directories with automatic link rewriting, configurable per-conversion or via preferences
  • Authenticates via environment variables (X_AUTH_TOKEN, X_CT0) or Chrome login with cached cookies; includes --login flag to refresh credentials
SKILL.md

X to Markdown

Converts X content to markdown:

  • Tweets/threads → Markdown with YAML front matter
  • X Articles → Full content extraction

User Input Tools

When this skill prompts the user, follow this tool-selection rule (priority order):

  1. Prefer built-in user-input tools exposed by the current agent runtime — e.g., AskUserQuestion, request_user_input, clarify, ask_user, or any equivalent.
  2. Fallback: if no such tool exists, emit a numbered plain-text message and ask the user to reply with the chosen number/answer for each question.
  3. Batching: if the tool supports multiple questions per call, combine all applicable questions into a single call; if only single-question, ask them one at a time in priority order.

Concrete AskUserQuestion references below are examples — substitute the local equivalent in other runtimes.

Script Directory

Scripts located in scripts/ subdirectory.

Path Resolution:

  1. {baseDir} = this SKILL.md's directory
  2. Script path = {baseDir}/scripts/main.ts
  3. Resolve ${BUN_X} runtime: if bun installed → bun; if npx available → npx -y bun; else suggest installing bun

Consent Requirement

Before any conversion, check and obtain consent.

Consent Flow

Step 1: Check consent file

# macOS
cat ~/Library/Application\ Support/baoyu-skills/x-to-markdown/consent.json

# Linux
cat ~/.local/share/baoyu-skills/x-to-markdown/consent.json

Step 2: If accepted: true and disclaimerVersion: "1.0" → print warning and proceed:

Warning: Using reverse-engineered X API. Accepted on: <acceptedAt>

Step 3: If missing or version mismatch → display disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER

This tool uses a reverse-engineered X API, NOT official.

Risks:
- May break if X changes API
- No guarantees or support
- Possible account restrictions
- Use at your own risk

Accept terms and continue?

Use AskUserQuestion with options: "Yes, I accept" | "No, I decline"

Step 4: On accept → create consent file:

{
  "version": 1,
  "accepted": true,
  "acceptedAt": "<ISO timestamp>",
  "disclaimerVersion": "1.0"
}

Step 5: On decline → output "User declined. Exiting." and stop.

Preferences (EXTEND.md)

Check EXTEND.md in priority order — the first one found wins:

Priority Path Scope
1 .baoyu-skills/baoyu-danger-x-to-markdown/EXTEND.md Project
2 ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/baoyu-skills/baoyu-danger-x-to-markdown/EXTEND.md XDG
3 $HOME/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-danger-x-to-markdown/EXTEND.md User home
Result Action
Found Read, parse, apply settings
Not found MUST run first-time setup (see below) — do NOT silently create defaults

EXTEND.md supports: Download media by default, default output directory.

First-Time Setup (BLOCKING)

CRITICAL: When EXTEND.md is not found, you MUST use AskUserQuestion to ask the user for their preferences before creating EXTEND.md. NEVER create EXTEND.md with defaults without asking. This is a BLOCKING operation — do NOT proceed with any conversion until setup is complete.

Use AskUserQuestion with ALL questions in ONE call:

Question 1 — header: "Media", question: "How to handle images and videos in tweets?"

  • "Ask each time (Recommended)" — After saving markdown, ask whether to download media
  • "Always download" — Always download media to local imgs/ and videos/ directories
  • "Never download" — Keep original remote URLs in markdown

Question 2 — header: "Output", question: "Default output directory?"

  • "x-to-markdown (Recommended)" — Save to ./x-to-markdown/{username}/{tweet-id}.md
  • (User may choose "Other" to type a custom path)

Question 3 — header: "Save", question: "Where to save preferences?"

  • "User (Recommended)" — ~/.baoyu-skills/ (all projects)
  • "Project" — .baoyu-skills/ (this project only)

After user answers, create EXTEND.md at the chosen location, confirm "Preferences saved to [path]", then continue.

Full reference: references/config/first-time-setup.md

Supported Keys

Key Default Values Description
download_media ask ask / 1 / 0 ask = prompt each time, 1 = always download, 0 = never
default_output_dir empty path or empty Default output directory (empty = ./x-to-markdown/)

Value priority:

  1. CLI arguments (--download-media, -o)
  2. EXTEND.md
  3. Skill defaults

Usage

${BUN_X} {baseDir}/scripts/main.ts <url>
${BUN_X} {baseDir}/scripts/main.ts <url> -o output.md
${BUN_X} {baseDir}/scripts/main.ts <url> --download-media
${BUN_X} {baseDir}/scripts/main.ts <url> --json

Options

Option Description
<url> Tweet or article URL
-o <path> Output path
--json JSON output
--download-media Download image/video assets to local imgs/ and videos/, and rewrite markdown links to local relative paths
--login Refresh cookies only

Supported URLs

  • https://x.com/<user>/status/<id>
  • https://twitter.com/<user>/status/<id>
  • https://x.com/i/article/<id>

Output

---
url: "https://x.com/user/status/123"
author: "Name (@user)"
tweetCount: 3
coverImage: "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/example.jpg"
---

Content...

File structure: x-to-markdown/{username}/{tweet-id}/{content-slug}.md

When --download-media is enabled:

  • Images are saved to imgs/ next to the markdown file
  • Videos are saved to videos/ next to the markdown file
  • Markdown media links are rewritten to local relative paths

Media Download Workflow

Based on download_media setting in EXTEND.md:

Setting Behavior
1 (always) Run script with --download-media flag
0 (never) Run script without --download-media flag
ask (default) Follow the ask-each-time flow below

Ask-Each-Time Flow

  1. Run script without --download-media → markdown saved
  2. Check saved markdown for remote media URLs (https:// in image/video links)
  3. If no remote media found → done, no prompt needed
  4. If remote media found → use AskUserQuestion:
    • header: "Media", question: "Download N images/videos to local files?"
    • "Yes" — Download to local directories
    • "No" — Keep remote URLs
  5. If user confirms → run script again with --download-media (overwrites markdown with localized links)

Authentication

  1. Environment variables (preferred): X_AUTH_TOKEN, X_CT0
  2. Chrome login (fallback): Auto-opens Chrome, caches cookies locally

Extension Support

Custom configurations via EXTEND.md. See Preferences section for paths and supported options.

Weekly Installs
16.3K
GitHub Stars
16.4K
First Seen
Today