Bluesky CLI

Full-featured CLI for Bluesky/AT Protocol.

Agent Instructions

First check auth:

bsky whoami

• If it shows a handle, read commands are ready.
• If it says "Not logged in", use the setup flow below.

Safety rules:

• Never ask the user to paste a Bluesky app password into chat, notes, logs, or command arguments.
• For login, ask the user to run bsky login --handle THEIR_HANDLE.bsky.social locally so the app password goes into the hidden prompt.
• For public posts/replies/quotes/threads, use --dry-run first unless the user already gave final text.
• For block, unblock, mute, unmute, follow, unfollow, delete, repost, and unrepost, verify the exact account or post target before running. Pass --yes only after the user has clearly confirmed the action or when opt-in mutation confirmations are enabled.

Common tasks:

• "Post to Bluesky" → bsky post "text"
• "Check my timeline" → bsky timeline
• "Like this post" → bsky like <url>
• "Follow someone" → verify target, then bsky follow @alice.bsky.social --yes

Setup

If bsky whoami shows "Not logged in", guide the user through setup.

Getting an app password:

Tell the user:

Go to bsky.app -> click your avatar -> Settings -> Privacy and Security -> App Passwords -> Add App Password. Name it "OpenClaw". Do not paste the password into chat; keep it for the hidden CLI prompt.

Have them run this locally:

bsky login --handle THEIR_HANDLE.bsky.social

Security: the app password is used once to get a session token, then discarded. The CLI stores only the session token at ~/.config/bsky/config.json with owner-only permissions.

Legacy --password still works for backward compatibility, but it is intentionally hidden from help and warns if used.

Quick Reference

• View timeline: bsky timeline or bsky tl
• Post: bsky post "text"
• Post with image: bsky post "text" --image photo.jpg --alt "description"
• Reply: bsky reply <url> "text"
• Quote-post: bsky quote <url> "text"
• View thread: bsky thread <url>
• Create thread: bsky create-thread "Post 1" "Post 2" "Post 3" or bsky ct
• Like: bsky like <url>
• Repost: verify target, then bsky repost <url> --yes
• Follow: verify target, then bsky follow @alice.bsky.social --yes
• Block: verify target, then bsky block @alice.bsky.social --yes
• Mute: verify target, then bsky mute @alice.bsky.social --yes
• Search: bsky search "query"
• Notifications: bsky notifications or bsky n
• Delete post: verify target, then bsky delete <url> --yes

Commands

Timeline

bsky timeline              # 10 posts
bsky timeline -n 20        # 20 posts
bsky timeline --json       # JSON output

Posting

bsky post "Hello world!"                           # Basic post
bsky post "Check this!" --image pic.jpg --alt "A photo"  # With image
bsky post "Test" --dry-run                         # Preview only

Reply & Quote

bsky reply <post-url> "Your reply"
bsky quote <post-url> "Your take on this"

Thread View

bsky thread <post-url>           # View conversation
bsky thread <url> --depth 10     # More replies
bsky thread <url> --json         # JSON output

Create Thread

bsky create-thread "First post" "Second post" "Third post"   # Create a thread
bsky ct "Post 1" "Post 2" "Post 3"                           # Short alias
bsky create-thread "Hello!" "More thoughts" --dry-run         # Preview only
bsky create-thread "Look!" "Nice" --image pic.jpg --alt "A photo"  # Image on first post

Engagement

bsky like <post-url>             # ❤️ Like
bsky unlike <post-url>           # Remove like
bsky repost <post-url> --yes     # 🔁 Repost after verifying target
bsky unrepost <post-url> --yes   # Remove repost after verifying target

Social Graph

bsky follow @someone.bsky.social --yes    # Follow user after verifying target
bsky unfollow @someone.bsky.social --yes  # Unfollow user after verifying target
bsky profile @someone.bsky.social         # View profile
bsky profile --json              # JSON output

Moderation

bsky block @someone.bsky.social --yes     # 🚫 Block user after verifying target
bsky unblock @someone.bsky.social --yes   # Unblock after verifying target
bsky mute @someone.bsky.social --yes      # 🔇 Mute user after verifying target
bsky unmute @someone.bsky.social --yes    # Unmute after verifying target

Search & Notifications

bsky search "query"              # Search posts
bsky search "topic" -n 20        # More results
bsky notifications               # Recent notifications
bsky n -n 30                     # More notifications

Delete

bsky delete <post-url> --yes     # Delete your post after verifying target
bsky delete <post-id> --yes      # By ID, after verifying target

JSON Output

Add --json to read commands for structured output:

bsky timeline --json
bsky search "topic" --json
bsky notifications --json
bsky profile @someone --json
bsky thread <url> --json

Error Handling

• "Session expired": run bsky login --handle your.handle again.
• "Not logged in": run bsky login --handle your.handle.
• "Refusing to ... without confirmation": opt-in mutation confirmation is enabled; verify the target/account, then re-run with --yes if the user confirmed.
• "Post is X chars (max 300)": shorten text.
• "Image too large": use image under 1MB.

Notes

• All <url> parameters accept either https://bsky.app/... URLs or at:// URIs
• Leading @ is optional; use the full handle, such as alice.bsky.social
• Image posts require --alt for accessibility (Bluesky requirement)
• Session tokens auto-refresh; password never stored