| name | social-fetch |
| description | When you or another skill needs to fetch the content of a social media post by URL — tweet, X thread, LinkedIn post, Instagram post, TikTok video, Bluesky post, Reddit thread, Mastodon status, Threads post, Hacker News thread. Returns normalized structured data (author, posted_at, text, engagement counts, media URLs, replies if requested) regardless of platform. Tries strategies in order: direct API (Bluesky, Mastodon, HN, Reddit), agent-browser with modal dismissal (LinkedIn, X preview), Wayback Machine (older posts), paid APIs (ScrapeCreators / Apify — only if env keys present). Triggers on "/social-fetch <url>," "fetch this tweet," "fetch this post," "what does this LinkedIn say," "read this thread," "pull this post." Used by deep-research (citing specific posts), jab-hook (inspiration account analysis), business-brainstorm (competitor / operator commentary). |
| metadata | {"version":"0.1.1"} |
/social-fetch — Pull any social post by URL
Normalized fetcher for social posts across platforms. Detects platform from URL, tries strategies in order, returns the same JSON shape regardless of source.
Step 1 — Detect platform
| URL pattern | Platform |
|---|
x.com/<user>/status/<id> or twitter.com/<user>/status/<id> | x (Twitter) |
linkedin.com/posts/<slug> or linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:<id> | linkedin |
linkedin.com/in/<handle> (profile, recent activity) | linkedin-profile |
instagram.com/p/<id> or instagram.com/reel/<id> | instagram |
tiktok.com/@<user>/video/<id> | tiktok |
bsky.app/profile/<handle>/post/<rkey> | bluesky |
reddit.com/r/<sub>/comments/<id>/... | reddit |
<mastodon-instance>/@<user>/<id> (e.g. mastodon.social, hachyderm.io) | mastodon |
threads.net/@<user>/post/<id> | threads |
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=<id> | hn |
youtube.com/watch?v=<id> or youtu.be/<id> | → defer to watch-video |
If the URL doesn't match any pattern, ask the user what platform it is.
Step 2 — Pick strategy chain
Read references/strategies.md for the per-platform strategy chain. Each platform has 2–5 strategies tried in order.
Key principles:
- Free strategies first (direct APIs, agent-browser)
- Paid only as fallback (ScrapeCreators / Apify) — and only if the env key is set
- Bluesky / Mastodon / HN / Reddit are free + reliable (public APIs)
- X / LinkedIn / Instagram / TikTok / Threads need paid or scraping fallback for full data
Step 3 — Execute strategy
For each strategy in the chain:
- Try it
- If success: parse → normalize → return
- If failure (404, 402, auth wall, empty response): note the failure and try the next strategy
After exhausting the chain, return a clear error: which strategies were tried, why each failed, and what's needed to unlock (e.g., "Add $SCRAPECREATORS_API_KEY for X — see references/auth-keys.md").
Step 4 — Normalize output
Return this shape regardless of platform (see references/output-schema.md for the full spec + platform-specific examples):
{
"platform": "x",
"url": "https://x.com/example/status/1234567890",
"fetched_at": "2026-06-17T14:35:00Z",
"raw_source": "scrapecreators",
"author": {
"handle": "@example",
"name": "the user Ganim",
"verified": true
},
"posted_at": "2026-06-17T16:53:00Z",
"text": "The 80/20 of a useful AI second brain: ...",
"media": [],
"engagement": {
"likes": 51,
"reposts": 13,
"replies": 9,
"bookmarks": 7,
"views": 32700
},
"is_thread": true,
"thread": [],
"replies": []
}
Fields with no equivalent on a platform (e.g., bookmarks on Mastodon) get null, not 0. Missing data is different from zero data.
Step 5 — Optional enrichments
Based on flags / asks:
| Flag | Behavior |
|---|
--with-replies | Fetch top-level replies (1 hop). Costs extra API quota. |
--thread | If the post is part of a thread by the same author, fetch the whole thread. |
--raw | Include the raw API/scrape response in the output (for debugging) |
--media | Download media files (images/videos) to ~/Documents/social-fetches/<platform>-<id>/ |
Default: just the post itself, no replies, no media download (just URLs).
Step 6 — Cache (optional)
If ~/Documents/social-fetches/_cache/ exists, cache successful fetches there by {platform}-{id}.json for 24h. Saves API quota when the same post is referenced repeatedly across skills.
Skip cache if --no-cache flag is set or for --with-replies / --thread (likely-stale).
Composes with
deep-research — cite specific posts in research briefs. When research surfaces a relevant tweet/post URL, fetch and include in the brief.jab-hook — pull recent posts from inspiration accounts for deeper format analysis (currently uses agent-browser inline; should call this skill instead).business-brainstorm — pull competitor / operator commentary as evidence during scoring.second-brain — capture a post into raw/ with the tweet- / bookmark- prefix; the structured output makes for cleaner raw files than a screenshot or copy-paste.watch-video — for YouTube URLs (or any video — Loom, Vimeo, Riverside, MP4), route there instead.
Known limits
- X: free strategies return tweet preview only (text, author, basic engagement). Full thread + replies need
$SCRAPECREATORS_API_KEY or $APIFY_API_TOKEN.
- LinkedIn: agent-browser works for profile recent-activity (after dismissing the modal). Specific post URLs (
linkedin.com/posts/...) often need paid fallback.
- Instagram / TikTok / Threads: heavy anti-bot. Paid fallback strongly recommended.
- Bluesky / Mastodon / HN / Reddit: free + reliable.
- Private / deleted posts: nothing helps. Try Wayback Machine for deleted content.
If a platform consistently fails on free strategies and the user uses it often, prompt to set up the paid key (see references/auth-keys.md).
Notes on quality
- Strategy chain, not single-source. Every platform has a fallback ladder (native oEmbed → agent-browser → SCS API → Apify). If one step fails, degrade gracefully to the next. Never fail hard on the first attempt.
- Structured output over screenshots. Downstream skills (jab-hook, deep-research, second-brain) need JSON with author + text + engagement fields, not an image. Even when the underlying strategy is a screenshot, extract text before returning.
- Cache aggressively, invalidate honestly. 24h TTL on
~/Documents/social-fetches/_cache/ prevents API burn when the same post is referenced across multiple skills in a session. --with-replies / --thread skip cache because replies age fast.
- Respect paid-key economics. ScrapeCreators / Apify calls cost real money. Prompt before hitting paid strategies if the user hasn't confirmed they want depth. Free strategies first, always.
- Media download is opt-in. Default is post text only;
--media downloads images/videos. Silent media downloads eat disk quickly.
- Private / deleted content is a hard stop. No strategy chain rescues private accounts or deleted posts. Suggest Wayback Machine for deleted content and stop.
- Rate-limits are per-platform. X free strategies hit rate limits fast; LinkedIn agent-browser burns session fingerprints. Space out calls in loops or the workflow degrades to worse-than-manual.
