name: twitter-bird-workflows
description: Read/search X (Twitter) and draft posts/replies using the bird CLI with safety guardrails. Use when you need to check timelines, read threads, search X, summarize findings, or prepare a tweet/reply draft. NEVER post without explicit user approval.

Twitter (X) via bird — Workflows + Guardrails

This skill standardizes how to use the bird CLI to read/search X/Twitter and prepare drafts.

Guardrails (Non-Negotiable)

• Reading/searching is always OK.
• Posting is NEVER automatic. Before running bird tweet or bird reply, present the exact final text and ask for explicit approval.
• Prefer links + short summaries over long copied text.
• If auth fails, stop and ask for help configuring AUTH_TOKEN + CT0 (or bird config).

Setup / Sanity Check

Run:

command -v bird && bird --version
bird check
bird whoami

If whoami fails, authentication is not configured.

Common Read Workflows

Read a specific tweet

bird read <url-or-id>

Read a full thread

bird thread <url-or-id>

Search

bird search "<query>" -n 10

User timeline

bird user-tweets @handle -n 20

Output Patterns

Summarize a thread

1. Fetch thread: bird thread <url>
2. Produce:
3. 1–2 sentence gist
4. Key points as bullets
5. Any claims that need verification
6. Link back to the source tweet

Draft a reply (DO NOT POST)

1. Read context: bird thread <url> (and optionally bird replies <url>)
2. Draft 1–3 candidate replies with different tones:
3. neutral/helpful
4. concise/technical
5. friendly/light
6. Ask which one to post.

Posting (Approval Required)

Only after explicit approval:

bird tweet "..."
# or
bird reply <url> "..."

Troubleshooting

Query IDs stale

bird query-ids --fresh

Cookie/auth issues

• Ensure AUTH_TOKEN and CT0 are set (or use bird's cookie-source options)
• Re-run: bird check