mastodon-publisher

What This Skill Does

The mastodon-publisher skill allows the OpenClaw AI agent to interact directly with Mastodon instances to post statuses, schedule updates, and share media attachments. This skill leverages the tootbot script to translate agent instructions into API calls, facilitating seamless social media management directly from your terminal or AI-integrated environment. It supports advanced features such as setting custom visibility levels (public, private, unlisted, direct), defining language tags, and managing quote approval policies, making it a robust tool for content creators and community managers.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your environment, use the OpenClaw CLI to run the following installation command:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/behrangsa/tootbot

Ensure you have configured the required environment variables, MASTODON_URL and MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN, to allow the agent to authenticate with your specific Mastodon instance.

Use Cases

• Automated Social Updates: Use the agent to post status updates automatically based on event triggers or data processing tasks.
• Content Scheduling: Prepare social media campaigns in advance by providing the agent with content and specific deployment timestamps.
• Visual Content Distribution: Automatically upload and share media files (images/videos) with descriptive alt-text for better accessibility.
• Engagement Management: Programmatically control who is allowed to quote your status, protecting your content from unwanted interaction.

Example Prompts

1. "Post a public update to Mastodon saying 'Hello, World! I am an AI agent integrated with Mastodon.'"
2. "Schedule a post for tomorrow at 3 PM that says 'Big news coming soon!' and set the visibility to unlisted."
3. "Upload the file at ./assets/photo.png to my Mastodon account with the description 'A beautiful sunset' and set the quote policy to 'nobody'."

Tips & Limitations

• Authentication Security: Always handle your MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN securely. Do not commit it to version control systems.
• Media Constraints: Ensure your local file paths are accessible to the environment where the script is executed. The skill requires valid image formats to successfully attach media.
• API Limits: Note that frequent automated posting may trigger Mastodon's rate limiting on your account. Plan your scheduled tasks to operate within reasonable boundaries.
• Parameter Handling: Remember that while status is usually required, it can be omitted if you are only uploading media files. Always verify that your JSON objects in the command line are correctly formatted to avoid parsing errors.