x-thread-reader

# X Thread Reader Fetch full text or generate a PDF from any X/Twitter thread via twitter-thread.com. ## How It Works **Text mode:** `curl` the twitter-thread.com `/pdf/{tweet_id}` page. The full article is embedded in the HTML `<meta name="description">` tag — no browser or JS rendering needed. Fast, reliable, zero dependencies beyond `curl` and `python3`. **PDF mode:** Uses Chrome headless (`--print-to-pdf`) or `agent-browser` to render and save the PDF. Browser required because the PDF generation page uses JS. ## Limitations - Requires the thread to be **indexed on twitter-thread.com** — if not indexed, visit the thread URL in a browser first to trigger indexing - Does **NOT** work for **X Articles** (`x.com/i/article/...`) — those require a logged-in browser - Does **NOT** work for protected/private accounts or deleted tweets ## Quick Usage ### Get full thread text ```bash scripts/x_thread.sh text "https://x.com/user/status/1234567890" ``` ### Download PDF ```bash scripts/x_thread.sh pdf "https://x.com/user/status/1234567890" # Custom output path: scripts/x_thread.sh pdf "https://x.com/user/status/1234567890" "/tmp/my-thread.pdf" ``` Accepts full X/Twitter URL or raw tweet ID. ## Output Format The text mode outputs structured content: - **Author** and **date** from the thread - **Full article text** — complete thread content, all tweets concatenated - **Source URL** for citation Suitable for archiving to Obsidian, note-taking apps, or further analysis. ## Gotchas - The `/pdf/{id}` URL returns HTML (not a PDF) — the article is in the `<meta name="description">` tag, extracted via python3. If twitter-thread.com changes their HTML structure, this extraction breaks silently (empty output). - Thread must be indexed on twitter-thread.com first. Fresh threads (< 30 min old) may not be available yet. The `/t/{id}` page triggers indexing when visited in a browser. - macOS grep does not support `-P` (PCRE). All grep patterns in the script use `-oE` (extended regex) for portability. - Very long threads may truncate in the meta description. If output seems incomplete, compare against the PDF version. - The script extracts from the **first** `<meta name="description">` match — if the page structure adds multiple, it may grab the wrong one. ## Troubleshooting **"Thread not found" error:** The thread is not yet indexed on twitter-thread.com. Visit `https://twitter-thread.com/t/{tweet_id}` in a browser to trigger indexing, wait ~30s, then retry. **Empty article text:** twitter-thread.com may have changed their HTML structure. Check if the `<meta name="description">` tag still contains the article content. **X Article links (`x.com/i/article/...`):** These are NOT threads. They require a logged-in browser session and cannot be fetched with this skill. **Protected/deleted tweets:** The skill cannot access tweets from private accounts or tweets that have been deleted.