Unix examples

Use shell tools with Twitter CLI to turn text from files, commands, and the clipboard into tweets. These examples use POSIX-style shell syntax that works in common macOS and Linux shells. Configure and authorize the CLI before trying them.

The examples publish real tweets

Every twitter tweet command in this guide sends immediately. Run the part before a pipe by itself to inspect its output first.

A line containing only --- becomes a thread separator; see Tweet and write threads.

Tweet one line with printf

printf gives you predictable newlines and works well in scripts:

printf '%s\n' 'A thought from the terminal' | twitter tweet

The first %s is a format placeholder for the quoted text. \n adds a final newline; the CLI trims trailing whitespace from piped input.

Tweet more than one line

Pass each line as a separate argument to printf:

printf '%s\n' 'First line' 'Second line' | twitter tweet

The result is one tweet with a line break. To make a thread instead, put --- on its own line as shown later in this guide.

Preview a draft before tweeting

Save a draft, display it, and only then pipe it to Twitter CLI:

printf '%s\n' 'A draft worth checking' > draft.txt
cat draft.txt
cat draft.txt | twitter tweet

draft.txt is a local file, and cat shows exactly what you are about to send. Replace its contents before running the last line. Use an editor for longer drafts.

Tweet text from another command

Shell command output can become tweet text. For example, add today's local date:

printf 'Notes from %s\n' "$(date +%F)" | twitter tweet

To tweet the subject of the latest Git commit, first preview it, then send it:

git log -1 --format='%s'
git log -1 --format='%s' | twitter tweet

Run this inside the Git repository whose commit you mean to share. The second line sends the subject exactly as returned by Git.

Edit a draft in a pipeline

Use sed to replace a marker before tweeting:

sed 's/PROJECT_NAME/Twitter CLI/g' draft.txt
sed 's/PROJECT_NAME/Twitter CLI/g' draft.txt | twitter tweet

The first command previews the transformed text. The second sends it. Replace PROJECT_NAME and the replacement text with values that fit your draft. Shell filters can change meaning, so inspect the complete result before you send it.

Tweet from your clipboard

Choose the clipboard command for your system. Linux examples require wl-paste or xclip to be installed:

macOS

pbpaste
pbpaste | twitter tweet

Linux · Wayland

wl-paste --no-newline
wl-paste --no-newline | twitter tweet

Linux · X11

xclip -selection clipboard -o
xclip -selection clipboard -o | twitter tweet

Read the clipboard output first. It might contain text other than the draft you meant to tweet.

Write a thread without a file

A shell heredoc sends several lines to standard input. The quoted delimiter keeps the shell from expanding $ or command substitutions inside the draft:

twitter tweet <<'TWEET'
First thought.
---
Second thought.
---
Final thought.
TWEET

The CLI recognizes each --- line as a boundary and sends the parts as replies in order. If a later tweet fails, earlier parts can already be live.

Combine piped text and an image

Add --image while the tweet body comes from standard input:

printf '%s\n' 'A photo from today' |
  twitter tweet --image "$HOME/Pictures/photo.png"

Replace the image path with a readable local image. The CLI uploads the image first, then tweets the text with that image. It supports one image path per command.

Schedule the contents of a file

twitter schedule new takes its body as an option, so use command substitution to read a file into that option:

cat draft.txt
twitter schedule new --body "$(cat draft.txt)" --in "30 minutes"
twitter schedule list

The quotes preserve internal line breaks. Command substitution removes trailing newlines. The final command shows the resolved send time. Scheduling only adds a local queue item; set up a scheduler to send it automatically.

Send one tweet per line

If each nonempty line of tweets.txt should be a separate tweet, inspect the numbered file first:

cat -n tweets.txt

Then run this loop:

while IFS= read -r line || [ -n "$line" ]; do
  [ -n "$line" ] || continue
  twitter tweet --body "$line"
done < tweets.txt

This sends every nonempty line as a separate tweet, in order. It does not turn the lines into a thread, and it does not stop automatically if one API request fails. Use it only when you intend to send the entire file.

Page through read-only output

Unix tools also help with long CLI output. For example:

twitter schedule list | less -S
twitter tweets recent --query "rustlang" | less

less -S keeps wide schedule rows on one line and lets you scroll horizontally. Press q to exit. These commands read data; they do not send tweets.

For the complete options behind these recipes, see the command reference.