| name | x-thread-fetch |
| description | Fetch a full X/Twitter thread — all posts with untruncated text plus images — without auth or the paid API. Use when the user wants to retrieve, extract, scrape, pull, save, or download an X/Twitter thread, tweet text, or tweet images, mentions a status URL or tweet id, or asks to get the content of a thread/post. |
X thread fetch
Retrieve a complete X/Twitter thread deterministically. No login, no API key, no paid tier. Two free no-auth endpoints cover everything; the script below runs them.
The key insight that costs the most to rediscover: X's note tweets (long-form posts) are truncated at 280 chars by the metadata endpoint. A second endpoint unfurls the full text. Skipping the second gives you silently incomplete threads — posts ending mid-sentence ("...solved 2 more", "...On Deck:").
The two endpoints
- Syndication (
cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=<id>&token=0) — metadata, engagement counts, the reply chain (in_reply_to_status_id_str), and image URLs (mediaDetails). Truncates note tweets.
- Unfurl (
api.fxtwitter.com/<handle>/status/<id>) — the full untruncated note-tweet text. Needs the author handle (take it from the status URL).
Process
-
Get the IDs. Accept a status URL or bare id. The script walks the reply chain backward (via in_reply_to_status_id_str) until it reaches the root post (no parent) — so any single post in the thread is enough. --last is an optional convenience when you only have the last/mid post handy, or want to be explicit; passing the root URL alone fetches the full thread.
-
Run the script — it walks the reply chain backward via syndication, unfurls each post's full text, downloads images, and writes thread.json + thread.md + images/:
./fetch_thread.py "<any-post-url>" [-o <outdir>] [--last "<last-post-url>"]
Always pass the full status URL (not a bare id) so the author handle is extracted for the unfurl endpoint.
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Verify completeness — the script exits non-zero silently only on network failure; it prints WARNING: truncated posts only when the unfurl endpoint failed for specific ids. The completion criterion: zero truncation warnings AND every post's source is fxtwitter (or the post is genuinely short). If a warning fires, re-run with the handle in the URL, or the unfurl service is down — fall back to the syndication text and flag those posts as incomplete to the user rather than guessing.
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Images download at ?format=jpg&name=large (full res). Videos/animated GIFs: the script currently pulls photos only; note this if the thread has video.
Do not use fetch_content, X's logged-in pages, or browser automation for retrieval — they fail (JS-gated / login-walled) and the two endpoints above already return structured data faster. Reach for the browser only if both endpoints are down for a specific tweet.
What you get
thread.json (structured: text, text_len, source, media, urls, user_mentions, engagement), thread.md (readable), images/*.jpg, and raw/*.json (API responses, for re-parse). Posts are ordered oldest → newest with a index field.
