Automate X Posts with Playwright and Node.js

27.11.2025

Overview

This repository ships a single script, tweet.js, that opens X (Twitter) in Playwright, logs in automatically (or with your help), and publishes a post. It can run headless for fully automated flows or visible for the first manual login. Auth state is persisted to twitter-auth.json so you do not have to sign in on every run.

Why it is useful

Automates posting to X without using the public API or access tokens.
Works with chromium (default) or webkit; can run headless or with a visible browser.
Handles 2FA: reads a one-time code from env or generates TOTP from a secret.
Saves and reuses session state to avoid repeated logins.
Supports a manual-login mode to survive captchas or unusual prompts.

Quick start

1) Install dependencies and Playwright browsers:
git clone https://github.com/127/ixer

npm install && npx playwright install

2) Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env

Fill .env with:

TWITTER_USERNAME=your_login
TWITTER_PASSWORD=your_password
TWITTER_2FA_SECRET=your_totp_secret (optional for 2FA)

or a single-use code: TWITTER_2FA_CODE=123456

Running the script

Automatic login with credentials from .env:

TWEET_TEXT="Post via Playwright" npm run tweet

First run with manual login (if you expect captchas or verification):

MANUAL_LOGIN=true HEADLESS=false npm run tweet

Subsequent headless run using the saved session:

HEADLESS=true TWEET_TEXT="New post" npm run tweet

Key environment variables

TWEET_TEXT — post text (default: "Привет, X!").
BROWSER — chromium (default) or webkit.
HEADLESS — true|false; ignored when MANUAL_LOGIN=true (window stays visible).
MANUAL_LOGIN — true|false; enables manual sign-in before posting.
TWITTER_2FA_SECRET or TWITTER_2FA_CODE — allows automatic 2FA.

Session handling

After a successful login, Playwright stores cookies and tokens in twitter-auth.json. Keep this file alongside tweet.js to reuse the session. Delete it if you need to force a fresh login or rotate accounts.

Tips and safeguards

Prefer MANUAL_LOGIN=true for the very first run to confirm the UI path and handle any security prompts.
Do not commit .env or twitter-auth.json; they contain credentials and session data.
If X changes its UI, rerun with HEADLESS=false to watch the flow and adjust selectors if needed.

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Automate X Posts with Playwright and Node.js

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