Recover canonical sources from public X article cards
Use this when a public x.com/<handle>/status/<id> post contains an X Article card, but opening the card itself redirects an anonymous browser to login.
Public status extraction
A public status page can render the post and article card without authentication even when the article route is gated. Inspect links in the post before clicking:
Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('article a')).map(a => ({
text: (a.innerText || '').trim(),
href: a.href,
})).filter(x => x.href)Article cards commonly point to https://x.com/i/article/<id>. An anonymous visit to that route may redirect to x.com/i/jf/onboarding/web?...mode=login; do not interpret this as evidence that the status itself is private or deleted.
Cross-post fallback
Authors sometimes cross-post the same article on LinkedIn or another public profile and link the canonical external page there. A LinkedIn sign-in modal may cover the page visually while the public post text and anchors remain in the DOM.
Inspect the public DOM rather than entering credentials:
({
description: document.querySelector('meta[name="description"]')?.content || null,
body: (document.body.innerText || '').slice(0, 12000),
links: Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('a')).map(a => ({
text: (a.innerText || '').trim(),
href: a.href,
})),
})LinkedIn wraps external links as https://www.linkedin.com/redir/redirect?url=<encoded-url>&.... Decode the url query parameter, open that canonical URL directly, and validate the article title and content there.
Guardrails
- Treat the X status and the author's canonical page as primary sources; comments and search snippets are secondary context.
- If no author-controlled canonical page is recoverable, cite the public status and mark the X Article body as inaccessible rather than reconstructing it from commentary.
- Never type credentials from screenshots or attempt to bypass a login wall.
X (Twitter) - Posting & Auth
Login
Navigate to https://x.com/i/flow/login (not https://x.com/) to get the full sign-in modal. The homepage may render a truncated version of the auth buttons.
Google sign-in (FedCM) - cannot be automated
The "Sign in as <user>" Google button uses Chrome's Federated Credential Management (FedCM) API. CDP mouse events (Input.dispatchMouseEvent) do not count as a trusted user gesture for FedCM, and the button lives in a sandboxed cross-origin iframe (accounts.google.com). Clicking it via automation has no effect.
If the user wants Google sign-in, ask them to click the button themselves, then wait for confirmation before proceeding.
Username / password flow
Use the standard form on https://x.com/i/flow/login. Ask the user for credentials - do not guess or read them from screenshots.
Composing and posting a tweet
Once logged in, the home feed is at https://x.com/home.
import json
# Find the compose box and type
result = js(r'''
var el = document.querySelector("[data-testid=\"tweetTextarea_0\"]");
if (!el) return null;
var r = el.getBoundingClientRect();
return JSON.stringify({x: Math.round(r.x + r.width/2), y: Math.round(r.y + r.height/2)});
''')
if result is None:
raise RuntimeError("compose textarea not found — are you logged in and on x.com/home?")
pos = json.loads(result)
click_at_xy(pos["x"], pos["y"])
type_text("hello world!")
# Find and click Post
btn = js(r'''
var b = document.querySelector("[data-testid=\"tweetButtonInline\"]")
|| document.querySelector("[data-testid=\"tweetButton\"]");
if (!b) return null;
var r = b.getBoundingClientRect();
return JSON.stringify({x: Math.round(r.x + r.width/2), y: Math.round(r.y + r.height/2)});
''')
if btn is None:
raise RuntimeError("post button not found — did the compose surface fail to open?")
pos = json.loads(btn)
click_at_xy(pos["x"], pos["y"])Stable selectors
| Element | Selector |
|---|---|
| Compose textbox | [data-testid="tweetTextarea_0"] |
| Post button (home feed inline) | [data-testid="tweetButtonInline"] |
| Post button (modal) | [data-testid="tweetButton"] |
Confirmation
A toast "Your post was sent." appears at the bottom of the page after a successful post. Verify with a screenshot.
Gotchas
- The home feed compose area and the sidebar "Post" button both open a compose surface, but
tweetButtonInlineis specific to the inline feed composer. If you open a modal (e.g. via the sidebar "Post" button), usetweetButtoninstead. - If the Grok side panel opens unexpectedly, click a neutral area (e.g. left sidebar) to dismiss it before interacting with the compose box.
twitter.comredirects tox.com- all canonical URLs usex.com.