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 c

/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: 1. Try it 2. If success: parse → normalize → return 3. 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): 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.

social-fetch