FB Personal Poster

Post text and photos to personal Facebook timeline using browser automation (Patchright/Playwright). Use when: user asks to post to personal Facebook, publish to FB personal profile, upload photos to FB timeline, or share content on their personal Facebook wall. NOT for Facebook Pages (use fb-page-poster or Graph API instead). CREDENTIALS REQUIRED: FB_COOKIE_FILE (Facebook session cookies JSON — treat as password), FB_STATE_FILE (Playwright state path, writable).

Post text + photos to personal Facebook timeline via Patchright stealth browser automation.

Why Not Graph API?

Facebook removed publish_actions permission in 2018. API cannot post to personal timelines. Only browser automation works — this skill uses Patchright (stealth Chromium) to mimic human behavior.

Requirements

cd scripts/ && pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m patchright install chromium

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
FB_COOKIE_FILE	✅	Path to Facebook cookies JSON (Selenium format). Full account access.
FB_STATE_FILE	✅	Writable path for Playwright state (default: /tmp/fb_state.json)
FB_DRY_RUN	—	true (default) = preview only. false = actually post.
FB_USER_AGENT	—	Override browser user agent

How to Get Cookies

1. Log in to Facebook in Chrome (manually, once)
2. Export all facebook.com cookies as JSON via EditThisCookie extension
3. Save to path in FB_COOKIE_FILE with chmod 600

Cookies last ~30–90 days. Re-export when expired.

Usage

Text-only post

FB_COOKIE_FILE=~/.fb_cookies.json FB_DRY_RUN=false \
  python3 scripts/fb_post.py -m "Hello from automation!"

Post with photos

FB_COOKIE_FILE=~/.fb_cookies.json FB_DRY_RUN=false \
  python3 scripts/fb_post.py -m "Beautiful day!" -p photo1.jpg photo2.jpg

Dry run (default)

python3 scripts/fb_post.py -m "Test post" -p photo.jpg
# No actual posting — previews the flow

OpenClaw Integration (Recommended)

Use the built-in browser tool — already proven working for personal timeline posting:

# Step 1: Navigate to Facebook
browser(action="navigate", url="https://www.facebook.com/")

# Step 2: Confirm on personal profile (url should be facebook.com/me)
# Step 3: Click "What's on your mind"
browser(action="act", kind="click", ref="[post input box]")

# Step 4: Type message
browser(action="act", kind="type", text="Your message here")

# Step 5: Upload photo (if needed)
browser(action="upload", paths=["/path/to/photo.jpg"])

# Step 6: Set sharing to Public
# Step 7: Click Post button
browser(action="act", kind="click", ref="[post button]")

Tips

• Facebook 頁面結構複雜，selector 會變，用 snapshot 找當前可用的 ref
• 上傳圖片用 browser(action="upload") 功能
• 如果 timeout，重試一次通常就好
• 個人動態和粉絲專頁的操作流程不同，注意確認在正確頁面

Safety

• Dry-run is ON by default — must explicitly set FB_DRY_RUN=false for live posting
• Cookies stored locally with chmod 600 — never committed to git
• Human-like delays and typing speed to avoid detection