X (Twitter) API

Search tweets, retrieve article content, and fetch trending topics from X (Twitter).

Features

• Search Tweets: Search recent tweets (last 7 days) with advanced query operators
• Get Article Content: Retrieve tweet and article details by URL or ID
• Trending Topics: Fetch trending topics (requires Basic tier or higher)
• User Info: Get user profile and tweet history

Setup

# Set environment variable
export X_BEARER_TOKEN="your_bearer_token_here"

# Or temporarily for this session
X_BEARER_TOKEN="your_token" python3 scripts/search_tweets.py

Get API Token:

1. Visit https://developer.x.com
2. Create a project and app
3. Generate Bearer Token in "Keys and Tokens" tab
4. Set the environment variable

Usage

Search Tweets

# Basic search
python3 scripts/search_tweets.py --query "AI OR 人工智能"

# Advanced search (Chinese original tweets only)
python3 scripts/search_tweets.py --query "AI -is:retweet lang:zh" --count 10

# Search by user
python3 scripts/search_tweets.py --query "from:elonmusk" --count 5

# Search hashtags
python3 scripts/search_tweets.py --query "#Crypto OR #Blockchain"

Query Operators:

• -is:retweet - Original tweets only
• lang:zh - Chinese language
• from:username - Tweets from specific user
• has:links - Tweets with links
• is:verified - Verified users only

Get Article/Tweet Content

# By URL (article or tweet)
python3 scripts/get_article.py --url "https://x.com/username/article/123456789"

# By Tweet ID
python3 scripts/get_article.py --id "123456789"

Get Trending Topics

# Global trends
python3 scripts/get_trends.py

# Trends by WOEID (Yahoo Where On Earth ID)
python3 scripts/get_trends.py --woeid 1  # Global
python3 scripts/get_trends.py --woeid 23424977  # USA

API Limits

Tier	Cost	Tweets/Month	Notes
Free	$0	500	1 request/day, testing only
Basic	$200	500,000	Minimum production tier
Pro	$5,000	2,000,000+	Real-time streaming

Free tier restrictions:

• 500 tweets/month (~16-17/day)
• 1 request/day per endpoint
• No publishing/liking
• Suitable for development testing only

Output Formats

• JSON: Structured data with all fields
• Pretty: Human-readable formatted text
• Save: Optional file export (JSON/Markdown)

Error Handling

The scripts automatically handle:

• Rate limiting (429 errors)
• Invalid tokens (401 errors)
• Network errors with retry logic
• Missing required parameters

Examples

Example 1: Search AI tweets

python3 scripts/search_tweets.py --query "AI OR 人工智能 -is:retweet" --count 5 --output pretty

Example 2: Monitor specific user

python3 scripts/search_tweets.py --query "from:username" --count 10 --save output.json

Example 3: Get article and analyze

python3 scripts/get_article.py --url "https://x.com/user/article/id" --output markdown --save article.md