How to post to social media with Python

From zero to a published post, step by step

Set your key in the environment first: export POSTWIRE_API_KEY=pw_live_…. Every example below reads it from there.

1. Create a free account and copy your key

   Open the dashboard, sign in with your email and a 6-digit code (no password, no card), and copy your key under API & MCP. It starts with pw_live_ and goes in the Authorization: Bearer header.

2. Connect the accounts you post to

   Under Accounts, press Connect on each network; TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook sign in on their own page, Telegram, Discord, Bluesky and Mastodon take a token or webhook. Your script can check them with GET /api/me.

3. Publish a post

   One request, one result per network. The idempotency_key makes a retry safe: send the same key again after a timeout and the post is not published twice.

   import os, uuid, requests
   
   API = "https://postwire.io/api"
   HEAD = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['POSTWIRE_API_KEY']}"}
   key = str(uuid.uuid4())  # keep it for retries of this same post
   
   r = requests.post(f"{API}/post", headers=HEAD, timeout=120, json={
       "platforms": ["linkedin", "bluesky"],
       "text": "We cut our CI time from 9 minutes to 2. Here is what changed.",
       "idempotency_key": key,
   })
   for res in r.json().get("results", []):
       print(res["platform"], res.get("url") if res["ok"] else (res.get("code"), res.get("error")))

4. Let the API write each network's version

   POST /api/generate turns one idea into a post written for each network and publishes nothing. Pass its drafts straight back as per_platform.

   drafts = requests.post(f"{API}/generate", headers=HEAD, timeout=120, json={
       "prompt": "Our new pricing page is live: plans from $9, a free plan with no card",
       "platforms": ["linkedin", "bluesky"],
   }).json()["drafts"]
   
   requests.post(f"{API}/post", headers=HEAD, timeout=120, json={
       "platforms": list(drafts), "per_platform": drafts,
   })

5. Upload a video or photo from disk

   Three calls: ask for an upload URL, PUT the bytes there (they never pass through the API), and finalize to get a media_url. One PUT takes up to 50 MB; larger files are sent in parts with "multipart": true.

   path = "clip.mp4"
   up = requests.post(f"{API}/media/upload-url", headers=HEAD, json={
       "content_type": "video/mp4", "size_bytes": os.path.getsize(path),
   }).json()
   with open(path, "rb") as f:
       requests.put(up["upload_url"], data=f, headers={"Content-Type": "video/mp4"}).raise_for_status()
   media = requests.get(f"{API}/media/finalize", headers=HEAD, params={"path": up["path"]}).json()
   
   requests.post(f"{API}/post", headers=HEAD, timeout=300, json={
       "platforms": ["tiktok", "youtube"], "video_url": media["media_url"],
       "text": "CI in 2 minutes, start to finish",
       "per_platform": {"youtube": {"title": "CI in 2 minutes", "text": "How we did it"}},
   })

6. Schedule instead of posting now

   POST /api/schedule takes the same body plus run_at: an ISO time up to 365 days ahead, or "next_slot" for the brand's next free posting hour. PostWire publishes it at that time; your script can exit.

   requests.post(f"{API}/schedule", headers=HEAD, json={
       "platforms": ["linkedin", "bluesky"],
       "text": "Office hours this Friday at 4pm.",
       "run_at": "2026-10-23T09:00:00-04:00",
   })

Every endpoint, field and error code: API reference and openapi.json. Prefer no code? The same calls run from the n8n node or from an AI agent through the MCP server.