Automated pipeline that fetches developer articles from DEV, summarizes them via LLM and publishes daily posts to X.

• Overview
• Architecture
• Tech Stack
• Third-Party APIs
• Prerequisites
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• Features
• Error Handling
• License
• Author

Developer content is abundant. Distribution is not.

This service reduces long form DEV articles into short, compliant posts suitable for X, while respecting API constraints, rate limits, and operational safety.

Key Objectives:

• Pull articles from the DEV (Forem) API
• Summarize content using an LLM with enforced character limits
• Optionally persist data to MongoDB for deduplication and retry
• Enforce strict 1 post per 24h rate limiting
• Publish summaries to X via the X API

Note: Built for backend execution only — cron, workers, serverless jobs. No browser. No UI.

flowchart LR
    subgraph Input
        A[DEV API]
    end

    subgraph Processing
        B[Fetch Articles]
        C[LLM Summarize]
        D[Validate Output]
    end

    subgraph Storage
        E[(MongoDB)]
    end

    subgraph Output
        F{Rate Gate<br/>1 post/24h}
        G[X API]
    end

    subgraph Errors
        X1[Abort]
        X2[Retry/Skip]
        X3[Discard]
        X4[Log & Defer]
    end

    A -->|articles| B
    B -->|raw content| C
    B -.->|fetch fail| X1
    C -->|summary| D
    C -.->|LLM fail| X2
    D -->|valid| E
    D -.->|invalid| X3
    E -->|check duplicate| F
    F -->|allowed| G
    F -.->|rate limited| X4
    G -.->|post fail| X4

    style E stroke-dasharray: 5 5
    style X1 fill:#ffcccc
    style X2 fill:#fff3cc
    style X3 fill:#ffcccc
    style X4 fill:#fff3cc

Before running this project, ensure you have the following installed:

• Node.js v18.0.0 or higher
• npm v9.0.0 or higher
• MongoDB (optional, for persistence)
• DEV API Key (for authenticated endpoints)
• X API Key (required for posting)

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ajajm/x-post-automation.git
cd x-post-automation

2. Install dependencies

cd backend
npm install

3. Configure environment variables

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys

4. Run the application

npm start

Create a .env file in the backend directory:

# DEV API (required for authenticated endpoints)
DEV_TO_API_KEY=your_dev_api_key

# X API (required)
X_API_KEY=your_x_api_key
X_API_SECRET=your_x_api_secret
X_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_x_access_token
X_ACCESS_SECRET=your_x_access_secret

# MongoDB (optional)
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/x-post-automation

# Server
PORT=3000

⚠️ Never commit secrets to source control.

• Article Fetching — Pull latest articles from DEV API
• LLM Summarization — Generate concise, X compatible summaries
• Rate Limiting — Strict 1 post per 24h enforcement
• Deduplication — Prevent reposting of processed articles
• Retry Logic — Handle transient failures gracefully
• Stateless Mode — Run without database when persistence isn't needed

No partial or corrupt state is published.

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

ajaj

• GitHub: @ajajm
• Website: ajaj.dev

Automation should be boring, predictable, and constrained.