LinkedIn Automation by Linked API

LinkedIn automation skill — search people and companies, fetch profiles, send messages and InMails, manage connections, create posts, react, comment. Supports Sales Navigator.

LinkedIn Skill

You have access to linkedin – a CLI tool for LinkedIn automation. Use it to fetch profiles, search people and companies, send messages, manage connections, create posts, react, comment, and more.

Each command sends a request to Linked API, which runs a real cloud browser to perform the action on LinkedIn. Operations are not instant – expect 30 seconds to several minutes depending on complexity.

If linkedin is not available, install it:

bash

npm install -g @linkedapi/linkedin-cli

Authentication

If a command fails with exit code 2 (authentication error), ask the user to set up their account:

1. Go to app.linkedapi.io and sign up or log in
2. Connect their LinkedIn account
3. Copy the Linked API Token and Identification Token from the dashboard

Once the user provides the tokens, run:

bash

linkedin setup --linked-api-token=TOKEN --identification-token=TOKEN

Global Flags

Always use --json and -q for machine-readable output:

bash

linkedin <command> --json -q

Flag	Description
--json	Structured JSON output
--quiet / -q	Suppress stderr progress messages
--fields name,url,...	Select specific fields in output
--no-color	Disable colors
--account "Name"	Use a specific account for this command

Output Format

Success:

json

{"success": true, "data": {"name": "John Doe", "headline": "Engineer"}}

Error:

json

{"success": false, "error": {"type": "personNotFound", "message": "Person not found"}}

Exit code 0 means the API call succeeded – always check the success field for the action outcome. Non-zero exit codes indicate infrastructure errors:

Exit Code	Meaning
0	Success (check success field – action may have returned an error like "person not found")
1	General/unexpected error
2	Missing or invalid tokens
3	Subscription/plan required
4	LinkedIn account issue
5	Invalid arguments
6	Rate limited
7	Network error
8	Workflow timeout (workflowId returned for recovery)

Commands

Fetch a Person Profile

bash

linkedin person fetch <url> [flags] --json -q

Optional flags to include additional data:

• --experience – work history
• --education – education history
• --skills – skills list
• --languages – languages
• --posts – recent posts (with --posts-limit N, --posts-since TIMESTAMP)
• --comments – recent comments (with --comments-limit N, --comments-since TIMESTAMP)
• --reactions – recent reactions (with --reactions-limit N, --reactions-since TIMESTAMP)

Only request additional data when needed – each flag increases execution time.

bash

# Basic profile
linkedin person fetch https://www.linkedin.com/in/username --json -q

# With experience and education
linkedin person fetch https://www.linkedin.com/in/username --experience --education --json -q

# With last 5 posts
linkedin person fetch https://www.linkedin.com/in/username --posts --posts-limit 5 --json -q

Search People

bash

linkedin person search [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--term	Search keyword or phrase
--limit	Max results
--first-name	Filter by first name
--last-name	Filter by last name
--position	Filter by job position
--locations	Comma-separated locations
--industries	Comma-separated industries
--current-companies	Comma-separated current company names
--previous-companies	Comma-separated previous company names
--schools	Comma-separated school names

bash

linkedin person search --term "product manager" --locations "San Francisco" --json -q
linkedin person search --current-companies "Google" --position "Engineer" --limit 20 --json -q

Fetch a Company

bash

linkedin company fetch <url> [flags] --json -q

Optional flags:

• --employees – include employees
• --dms – include decision makers
• --posts – include company posts

Employee filters (require --employees):

Flag	Description
--employees-limit	Max employees to retrieve
--employees-first-name	Filter by first name
--employees-last-name	Filter by last name
--employees-position	Filter by position
--employees-locations	Comma-separated locations
--employees-industries	Comma-separated industries
--employees-schools	Comma-separated school names

Flag	Description
--dms-limit	Max decision makers to retrieve (requires --dms)
--posts-limit	Max posts to retrieve (requires --posts)
--posts-since	Posts since ISO timestamp (requires --posts)

bash

# Basic company info
linkedin company fetch https://www.linkedin.com/company/name --json -q

# With employees filtered by position
linkedin company fetch https://www.linkedin.com/company/name --employees --employees-position "Engineer" --json -q

# With decision makers and posts
linkedin company fetch https://www.linkedin.com/company/name --dms --posts --posts-limit 10 --json -q

Search Companies

bash

linkedin company search [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--term	Search keyword
--limit	Max results
--sizes	Comma-separated sizes: 1-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 501-1000, 1001-5000, 5001-10000, 10001+
--locations	Comma-separated locations
--industries	Comma-separated industries

bash

linkedin company search --term "fintech" --sizes "11-50,51-200" --json -q

Send a Message

bash

linkedin message send <person-url> '<text>' --json -q

Text up to 1900 characters. Wrap the message in single quotes to avoid shell interpretation issues.

bash

linkedin message send https://www.linkedin.com/in/username 'Hey, loved your latest post!' --json -q

Get Conversation

bash

linkedin message get <person-url> [--since TIMESTAMP] --json -q

The first call for a conversation triggers a background sync and may take longer. Subsequent calls are faster.

bash

linkedin message get https://www.linkedin.com/in/username --json -q
linkedin message get https://www.linkedin.com/in/username --since 2024-01-15T10:30:00Z --json -q

Connection Management

Check connection status

bash

linkedin connection status <url> --json -q

Send connection request

bash

linkedin connection send <url> [--note 'text'] [--email [e-mail]] --json -q

List connections

bash

linkedin connection list [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--limit	Max connections to return
--since	Only connections made since ISO timestamp (only works when no filter flags are used)
--first-name	Filter by first name
--last-name	Filter by last name
--position	Filter by job position
--locations	Comma-separated locations
--industries	Comma-separated industries
--current-companies	Comma-separated current company names
--previous-companies	Comma-separated previous company names
--schools	Comma-separated school names

bash

linkedin connection list --limit 50 --json -q
linkedin connection list --current-companies "Google" --position "Engineer" --json -q
linkedin connection list --since 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z --json -q

List pending outgoing requests

bash

linkedin connection pending --json -q

Withdraw a pending request

bash

linkedin connection withdraw <url> [--no-unfollow] --json -q

By default, withdrawing also unfollows the person. Use --no-unfollow to keep following.

Remove a connection

bash

linkedin connection remove <url> --json -q

Posts

Fetch a post

bash

linkedin post fetch <url> [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--comments	Include comments
--reactions	Include reactions
--comments-limit	Max comments to retrieve (requires --comments)
--comments-sort	Sort order: mostRelevant or mostRecent (requires --comments)
--comments-replies	Include replies to comments (requires --comments)
--reactions-limit	Max reactions to retrieve (requires --reactions)

bash

linkedin post fetch https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_activity-123 --json -q

# With comments sorted by most recent, including replies
linkedin post fetch https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_activity-123 \
  --comments --comments-sort mostRecent --comments-replies --json -q

Create a post

bash

linkedin post create '<text>' [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--company-url	Post on behalf of a company page (requires admin access)
--attachments	Attachment as url:type or url:type:name. Types: image, video, document. Can be specified multiple times.

Attachment limits: up to 9 images, or 1 video, or 1 document. Cannot mix types.

bash

linkedin post create 'Excited to share our latest update!' --json -q

# With a document
linkedin post create 'Our Q4 report' \
  --attachments "https://example.com/report.pdf:document:Q4 Report" --json -q

# Post as a company
linkedin post create 'Company announcement' \
  --company-url https://www.linkedin.com/company/name --json -q

React to a post

bash

linkedin post react <url> --type <reaction> [--company-url <url>] --json -q

Reaction types: like, love, support, celebrate, insightful, funny.

bash

linkedin post react https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_activity-123 --type like --json -q

# React on behalf of a company
linkedin post react https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_activity-123 --type celebrate \
  --company-url https://www.linkedin.com/company/name --json -q

Comment on a post

bash

linkedin post comment <url> '<text>' [--company-url <url>] --json -q

Text up to 1000 characters.

bash

linkedin post comment https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_activity-123 'Great insights!' --json -q

# Comment on behalf of a company
linkedin post comment https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_activity-123 'Well said!' \
  --company-url https://www.linkedin.com/company/name --json -q

Statistics

bash

# Social Selling Index
linkedin stats ssi --json -q

# Performance analytics (profile views, post impressions, search appearances)
linkedin stats performance --json -q

# API usage for a date range
linkedin stats usage --start 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z --end 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z --json -q

Sales Navigator

Requires a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription. Uses hashed URLs for person/company lookups.

Fetch person

bash

linkedin navigator person fetch <hashed-url> --json -q

Search people

bash

linkedin navigator person search [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--term	Search keyword or phrase
--limit	Max results
--first-name	Filter by first name
--last-name	Filter by last name
--position	Filter by job position
--locations	Comma-separated locations
--industries	Comma-separated industries
--current-companies	Comma-separated current company names
--previous-companies	Comma-separated previous company names
--schools	Comma-separated school names
--years-of-experience	Comma-separated ranges: lessThanOne, oneToTwo, threeToFive, sixToTen, moreThanTen

bash

linkedin navigator person search --term "VP Marketing" --locations "United States" --json -q
linkedin navigator person search --years-of-experience "moreThanTen" --position "CEO" --json -q

Fetch company

bash

linkedin navigator company fetch <hashed-url> [flags] --json -q

Optional flags:

• --employees – include employees
• --dms – include decision makers

Employee filters (require --employees):

Flag	Description
--employees-limit	Max employees to retrieve
--employees-first-name	Filter by first name
--employees-last-name	Filter by last name
--employees-positions	Comma-separated positions
--employees-locations	Comma-separated locations
--employees-industries	Comma-separated industries
--employees-schools	Comma-separated school names
--employees-years-of-experience	Comma-separated experience ranges
--dms-limit	Max decision makers to retrieve (requires --dms)

bash

linkedin navigator company fetch https://www.linkedin.com/sales/company/97ural --employees --dms --json -q
linkedin navigator company fetch https://www.linkedin.com/sales/company/97ural \
  --employees --employees-positions "Engineer,Designer" --employees-locations "Europe" --json -q

Search companies

bash

linkedin navigator company search [flags] --json -q

Flag	Description
--term	Search keyword
--limit	Max results
--sizes	Comma-separated sizes: 1-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 501-1000, 1001-5000, 5001-10000, 10001+
--locations	Comma-separated locations
--industries	Comma-separated industries
--revenue-min	Min annual revenue in M USD: 0, 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000
--revenue-max	Max annual revenue in M USD: 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 1000+

bash

linkedin navigator company search --term "fintech" --sizes "11-50,51-200" --json -q
linkedin navigator company search --revenue-min 10 --revenue-max 100 --locations "United States" --json -q

Send InMail

bash

linkedin navigator message send <person-url> '<text>' --subject '<subject>' --json -q

Text up to 1900 characters. Subject up to 80 characters.

bash

linkedin navigator message send https://www.linkedin.com/in/username \
  'Would love to chat about API integrations' --subject 'Partnership Opportunity' --json -q

Get Sales Navigator conversation

bash

linkedin navigator message get <person-url> [--since TIMESTAMP] --json -q

Custom Workflows

Execute a custom workflow definition from a file, stdin, or inline:

bash

# From file
linkedin workflow run --file workflow.json --json -q

# From stdin
cat workflow.json | linkedin workflow run --json -q

# Inline
echo '{"actions":[...]}' | linkedin workflow run --json -q

Check workflow status or wait for completion:

bash

linkedin workflow status <id> --json -q
linkedin workflow status <id> --wait --json -q

See Building Workflows for the workflow JSON schema.

Account Management

bash

linkedin account list                            # List accounts (* = active)
linkedin account switch "Name"                   # Switch active account
linkedin account rename "Name" --name "New Name" # Rename account
linkedin reset                                   # Remove active account
linkedin reset --all                             # Remove all accounts

Important Behavior

• Sequential execution. All operations for an account run one at a time. Multiple requests queue up.
• Not instant. A real browser navigates LinkedIn – expect 30 seconds to several minutes per operation.
• Timestamps in UTC. All dates and times are in UTC.
• Single quotes for text arguments. Use single quotes around message text, post text, and comments to avoid shell interpretation issues with special characters.
• Action limits. Per-account limits are configurable on the platform. A limitExceeded error means the limit was reached.
• URL normalization. All LinkedIn URLs in responses are normalized to https://www.linkedin.com/... format without trailing slashes.
• Null fields. Fields that are unavailable are returned as null or [], not omitted.