x-bookmarks

X Bookmarks

What This Does

Fetches your Twitter/X bookmarks via bird CLI, expands shortened links, extracts basic metadata, and drops them as markdown files into your Inbox folder. From there, capture-triage handles classification and routing to Ready.

The flow:

bird CLI → expand t.co links → extract metadata → .md to Inbox/ → capture-triage handles rest

Prerequisites

bird CLI Setup

This skill requires the bird CLI for Twitter API access.

Install bird:

npm install -g bird-cli
# OR build from source for pagination support:
git clone https://github.com/steipete/bird.git
cd bird && pnpm install && pnpm run build:dist && npm link --force

Get Twitter credentials:

1. Open Twitter/X in your browser
2. Open Developer Tools → Application → Cookies
3. Copy these values:
   • auth_token
   • ct0

Configure (one-time): Create ~/.bird/config.json:

{
  "authToken": "your_auth_token_here",
  "ct0": "your_ct0_here"
}

Or set environment variables:

export AUTH_TOKEN="your_auth_token"
export CT0="your_ct0"

---

Paths

Inbox: /Users/eddale/Documents/COPYobsidian/MAGI/Zettelkasten/Inbox/
Processed Log: ~/.x-bookmarks-processed.txt

The processed log persists tweet IDs across sessions, even after files are triaged out of Inbox.

---

Instructions

Step 1: Check bird CLI

Verify bird is available:

which bird && bird --version

If not found, stop and tell Ed to set up bird CLI (see Prerequisites above).

Step 2: Fetch Bookmarks

Default (recent 20):

~/bin/bird bookmarks -n 20 --json

Fetch more (paginated):

~/bin/bird bookmarks --all --max-pages 5 --json

Note: Requires AUTH_TOKEN and CT0 environment variables set in ~/.zshrc

Parse the JSON output. Each bookmark has:

• id - Tweet ID
• text or full_text - Tweet content
• author.username - Handle
• author.name - Display name
• createdAt - Timestamp

Step 3: Check for Duplicates

Before processing, load the processed log to skip already-imported bookmarks:

# Load previously processed IDs (one per line)
cat ~/.x-bookmarks-processed.txt 2>/dev/null || echo ""

Compare each bookmark ID against this list. Skip any that have already been processed.

This check persists across sessions - even after files leave Inbox via capture-triage.

Step 4: Process Each New Bookmark

For each bookmark:

4a: Expand t.co Links

Find all https://t.co/xxxxx links in the tweet text.

For each t.co link, use WebFetch to follow redirects:

WebFetch(url: "https://t.co/xxxxx", prompt: "What is the final URL after redirects?")

Or use curl:

curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w '%{url_effective}' "https://t.co/xxxxx"

4b: Categorize Link Type

Based on expanded URL:

• github.com → type: github
• youtube.com, youtu.be → type: video
• medium.com, substack.com, blog patterns → type: article
• x.com, twitter.com (not media) → type: tweet (quote)
• Other → type: link

4b-extra: Auto-Process YouTube Links

When link_type is video AND URL matches YouTube pattern (youtube.com or youtu.be):

1. Say: "Found YouTube video, extracting transcript..."
2. Invoke the youtube-processor skill with the YouTube URL
3. Wait for transcript extraction to complete
4. Capture the summary and key points from youtube-processor output

Enhanced template for YouTube bookmarks:

---
source: x-bookmark
author: @{username}
tweet_url: https://x.com/{username}/status/{id}
captured: {YYYY-MM-DD}
link_type: video
video_processed: true
---

{Tweet text}

**Video:** [{video title}]({youtube_url})

**Summary:** {2-3 sentence summary from youtube-processor}

**Key Points:**
{bullet points from transcript}

---
Full transcript saved to: [[YouTube - {title} - YYYY-MM-DD]]

Skip auto-processing if:

• Video duration > 2 hours (flag for manual processing in file)
• youtube-processor fails (drop bookmark anyway, note "transcript pending")
• User specified "quick mode" or "no transcripts"

Fallback output (when skipped):

**Video:** [{title or "YouTube Video"}]({youtube_url})
**Note:** Transcript pending (video too long / processing failed)

4c: Extract Basic Metadata

For GitHub repos:

# Extract owner/repo from URL, fetch via API
curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO" | jq '{name, description, stargazers_count, language}'

For articles: Use WebFetch to get page title and description:

WebFetch(url: "[expanded URL]", prompt: "Extract the page title and a 1-2 sentence summary")

For videos: Note for future transcription, capture title if visible.

For plain tweets/quotes: Use the tweet text as-is.

Step 5: Write to Inbox

For each processed bookmark, create a markdown file:

Filename: x-{id}.md (e.g., x-1234567890.md)

Template:

---
source: x-bookmark
author: @{username}
author_name: {display_name}
tweet_url: https://x.com/{username}/status/{id}
captured: {YYYY-MM-DD}
link_type: {github|article|video|tweet|link}
mission_area: {BlackBelt|Powerhouse|Newsletter|Prototyping|Daily workflow|Skill building|None}
action_verdict: {Act now|Bookmark|Ignore|Research}
---

{Tweet text}

**Linked:** [{title or domain}]({expanded_url})

{Brief description or key info extracted}

---

**Mission:** {mission_area} | **Verdict:** {action_verdict}
{One sentence on why this verdict - what should Ed do with this?}

Mission Areas:

• BlackBelt - Coaching program work
• Powerhouse - AI Amplified program / members
• Newsletter - The Little Blue Report
• Prototyping - Building leverage tools
• Daily workflow - Personal productivity
• Skill building - Improving the system itself
• None - Not relevant to Ed's mission (Ignore verdict)

Action Verdicts:

• Act now - Worth immediate attention
• Bookmark - Know it exists, use when relevant
• Ignore - Not applicable to mission
• Research - Needs more info before deciding

Example output:

---
source: x-bookmark
author: @simonw
author_name: Simon Willison
tweet_url: https://x.com/simonw/status/123456789
captured: 2026-01-08
link_type: github
mission_area: Skill building
action_verdict: Research
---

Just discovered this amazing tool for real-time transcription https://t.co/abc123

**Linked:** [whisper-flow](https://github.com/dimastatz/whisper-flow)

Real-time speech-to-text using OpenAI Whisper with streaming support. 2.3k stars, Python.

---

**Mission:** Skill building | **Verdict:** Research
Could improve youtube-processor with live transcription. Worth a deeper look when building video tools.

Step 6: Update Processed Log

After writing each bookmark file, append its ID to the log:

echo "2009705767490990418" >> ~/.x-bookmarks-processed.txt

Do this immediately after each successful write, not in a batch at the end. This ensures partial runs don't re-process bookmarks on retry.

Step 7: Report Summary

After processing all bookmarks:

## X Bookmarks Processed - YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM

**Fetched:** N bookmarks
**New:** M (skipped K duplicates)

### Dropped to Inbox
- x-123.md - @author: [brief description]
- x-456.md - @author: [brief description]
- ...

Ready for capture-triage.

---

Options

The user can specify:

Option	Default	Example
count	20	"fetch my last 50 bookmarks"
all	false	"fetch all my bookmarks"
max-pages	5	"fetch all bookmarks, max 10 pages"

---

Integration with Daily Review

This skill can be invoked:

1. Standalone: "process my X bookmarks"
2. Before daily-review: Run this first, then daily-review's capture-triage picks them up

The skill does NOT invoke capture-triage directly - it just drops files. This keeps the separation clean and lets Ed decide when to triage.

---

Error Handling

bird not found:

bird CLI is not installed. See Prerequisites in the skill docs for setup instructions.

Auth expired (403 errors):

Twitter session expired. Get fresh auth_token and ct0 from browser cookies.

No new bookmarks:

No new bookmarks to process. All recent bookmarks already in Inbox.

---

Guidelines

• Always check for duplicates before processing
• Use tweet ID in filename for deduplication
• Keep metadata extraction light - capture-triage handles classification
• Don't invoke capture-triage directly - just drop files
• Report what was processed so Ed knows what's ready

---

Version History

Version	Date	Changes
1.2	2026-01-16	YouTube auto-processing - invokes youtube-processor for video bookmarks, includes transcript summary
1.1	2026-01-12	Add persistent processed log (~/.x-bookmarks-processed.txt) for duplicate detection across sessions
1.0	2026-01-08	Initial build - fetch, expand, drop to Inbox