crier

name	crier
description	Cross-post blog content to social platforms. Crier is MCP-native; the tools handle mechanics while this skill provides judgment context they can't: rewrite guidelines, platform culture, workflow tips.

Crier Cross-Posting

Crier cross-posts blog content to multiple platforms. The blog is the source of truth.

Division of labor:

• Crier MCP tools handle mechanics: publish, track, query, validate
• Claude handles judgment: rewrites, platform voice, user interaction

Platform Reference

Platform	Mode	Limit	Short-form?	Notes
devto	API	none	No	Tags auto-sanitized
hashnode	API	none	No
bluesky	API	300	Yes	Needs rewrite
mastodon	API	500	Yes	Needs rewrite
medium	import	none	No	User imports from canonical URL
twitter	paste	280	Yes	Copy-paste only
threads	paste	500	Yes	Copy-paste only
linkedin	paste	3000	No	Copy-paste only

Rewrite Guidelines

When cross-posting to short-form platforms (bluesky, mastodon), write a rewrite and pass it via crier_publish(rewrite_content=...).

Rules

1. Lead with insight, not summary. Open with the most interesting idea.
2. No meta-language. Don't say "New blog post" or "I wrote about."
3. Crier appends the canonical URL automatically. Never include it in the rewrite.
4. Match platform voice:
   • Bluesky: conversational, personal, like talking to a friend
   • Mastodon: slightly more formal, technical audience
5. Budget for the appended URL. Crier appends \n\n<canonical URL> to the rewrite and then enforces the platform limit on the combined text, so the real budget is limit - (URL length + 2): roughly 230 chars on Bluesky (limit 300) and 430 on Mastodon (limit 500) for typical metafunctor URLs. Over-budget rewrites fail at the confirmed publish step, not at preview.

Anti-patterns

• "Check out my latest post on X" (meta)
• "In this article, I explore..." (academic tone for social)
• Including the URL in the rewrite text (crier adds it)
• Generic summaries that could describe any article

Good example

Article: "pagevault: Hiding an Encryption Platform Inside HTML" Bluesky rewrite: "What if a single HTML file could encrypt anything you drop into it? No backend, no JS libraries. Just the browser's Web Crypto API and some careful engineering."

Workflow

Quick publish (single file)

1. crier_check(file_path) to validate
2. crier_publish(file_path, platform) with no token: returns a preview plus a confirmation_token
3. crier_publish(file_path, platform, confirmation_token=...) to execute
4. For short-form: read the article, write the rewrite, pass it as rewrite_content on BOTH calls

(dry_run=True is a separate no-side-effects preview; it does NOT return a confirmation token, so it cannot start the two-step flow.)

Audit and bulk publish

1. crier_search(since="2w") to find recent content
2. crier_missing(platforms=["devto","hashnode","bluesky","mastodon"]) for gaps
3. For bulk work, dispatch the cross-poster agent
4. For analysis, dispatch the auditor agent

Important rules

• DevTo sanitizes tags: no hyphens, max 4 tags, lowercase
• Medium is import-only: crier_publish refuses import-mode platforms with an error; give the user the canonical URL to import on Medium, or use the CLI (crier publish <file> --to medium)
• Twitter/LinkedIn are paste-only: content goes to clipboard
• To skip social platforms: crier audit --long-form (CLI), or read the crier://platforms MCP resource and filter on is_short_form