Bird Hardened

bird 🐦

Fast X/Twitter CLI using GraphQL + cookie auth.

Install

# npm/pnpm/bun
npm install -g @steipete/bird

# Homebrew (macOS, prebuilt binary)
brew install steipete/tap/bird

# One-shot (no install)
bunx @steipete/bird whoami

Authentication

bird uses cookie-based auth.

Use --auth-token / --ct0 to pass cookies directly, or --cookie-source for browser cookies.

Run bird check to see which source is active. For Arc/Brave, use --chrome-profile-dir .

Commands

Account & Auth

bird whoami                    # Show logged-in account
bird check                     # Show credential sources
bird query-ids --fresh         # Refresh GraphQL query ID cache

Reading Tweets

bird read           # Read a single tweet
bird                # Shorthand for read
bird thread         # Full conversation thread
bird replies        # List replies to a tweet

Timelines

bird home                      # Home timeline (For You)
bird home --following          # Following timeline
bird user-tweets @handle -n 20 # User's profile timeline
bird mentions                  # Tweets mentioning you
bird mentions --user @handle   # Mentions of another user

Search

bird search "query" -n 10
bird search "from:steipete" --all --max-pages 3

News & Trending

bird news -n 10                # AI-curated from Explore tabs
bird news --ai-only            # Filter to AI-curated only
bird news --sports             # Sports tab
bird news --with-tweets        # Include related tweets
bird trending                  # Alias for news

Lists

bird lists                     # Your lists
bird lists --member-of         # Lists you're a member of
bird list-timeline  -n 20  # Tweets from a list

Bookmarks & Likes

bird bookmarks -n 10
bird bookmarks --folder-id            # Specific folder
bird bookmarks --include-parent           # Include parent tweet
bird bookmarks --author-chain             # Author's self-reply chain
bird bookmarks --full-chain-only          # Full reply chain
bird unbookmark 
bird likes -n 10

Social Graph

bird following -n 20           # Users you follow
bird followers -n 20           # Users following you
bird following --user      # Another user's following
bird about @handle             # Account origin/location info

Engagement Actions

bird follow @handle            # Follow a user
bird unfollow @handle          # Unfollow a user

Posting

bird tweet "hello world"
bird reply  "nice thread!"
bird tweet "check this out" --media image.png --alt "description"

⚠️ Posting risks: Posting is more likely to be rate limited; if blocked, use the browser tool instead.

Media Uploads

bird tweet "hi" --media img.png --alt "description"
bird tweet "pics" --media a.jpg --media b.jpg  # Up to 4 images
bird tweet "video" --media clip.mp4            # Or 1 video

Pagination

Commands supporting pagination: replies, thread, search, bookmarks, likes, list-timeline, following, followers, user-tweets

bird bookmarks --all                    # Fetch all pages
bird bookmarks --max-pages 3            # Limit pages
bird bookmarks --cursor         # Resume from cursor
bird replies  --all --delay 1000    # Delay between pages (ms)

Output Options

--json          # JSON output
--json-full     # JSON with raw API response
--plain         # No emoji, no color (script-friendly)
--no-emoji      # Disable emoji
--no-color      # Disable ANSI colors (or set NO_COLOR=1)
--quote-depth n # Max quoted tweet depth in JSON (default: 1)

Global Options

--auth-token        # Set auth_token cookie
--ct0               # Set ct0 cookie
--cookie-source    # Cookie source for browser cookies (repeatable)
--chrome-profile     # Chrome profile name
--chrome-profile-dir  # Chrome/Chromium profile dir or cookie DB path
--firefox-profile    # Firefox profile
--timeout              # Request timeout
--cookie-timeout       # Cookie extraction timeout

Config File

~/.config/bird/config.json5 (global) or ./.birdrc.json5 (project):

{
  cookieSource: ["chrome"],
  chromeProfileDir: "/path/to/Arc/Profile",
  timeoutMs: 20000,
  quoteDepth: 1,
}

Environment variables: BIRD_TIMEOUT_MS, BIRD_COOKIE_TIMEOUT_MS, BIRD_QUOTE_DEPTH

Troubleshooting

Query IDs stale (404 errors)

bird query-ids --fresh

Cookie extraction fails

• Check browser is logged into X
• Try different --cookie-source
• For Arc/Brave: use --chrome-profile-dir

---

TL;DR: Read/search/engage with CLI. Post carefully or use browser. 🐦

Security Guardrails

• Only extract cookies from browser paths the user has explicitly configured via --cookie-source or --chrome-profile-dir, and only for X/Twitter authentication -- bird's cookie mechanism is not a general-purpose cookie reader, and accessing other browsers or services exposes credentials beyond the user's intended scope.

• List specific bookmarks before removing them, even in bulk -- unbookmarking is irreversible and blanket removal can destroy curated references the user intended to keep.

• Process bird output locally (jq, grep, saving to files) rather than piping it to network commands or external endpoints -- bird responses may contain private data, internal identifiers, and session metadata that must not leave the local machine.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: faberlens
• Source: faberlens/hardened-skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://faberlens.ai

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.