---
name: read-tweet
description: Use when the user asks to read, fetch, or show the content of an X (Twitter) tweet or thread by URL or ID. Triggers on x.com/twitter.com URLs or tweet IDs. Uses the local `bird` CLI to pull content via the browser cookie session.
---

# Read X/Twitter Tweet Content with bird

When the user asks to read, fetch, view, or summarize a tweet (or thread), use the locally installed `bird` CLI instead of `webfetch` — it authenticates via the active browser session and returns full tweet content + metadata.

## Commands

Use `/opt/homebrew/bin/bird` (absolute path since PATH can be sparse in non-interactive shells):

- Single tweet: `bird read <tweet-url-or-id> --json`
- Full thread/conversation: `bird thread <tweet-url-or-id> --json`
- Replies to a tweet: `bird replies <tweet-url-or-id> --json`

Prefer `--json` for parseable output (author, text, media, created_at, metrics). Drop `--json` only if the user wants pretty-printed terminal output.

## When to use

- User pastes an `x.com`/`twitter.com` URL and asks anything about it
- User references a tweet by numeric ID
- User asks for "the thread", "the replies", or "what does this tweet say"

## When NOT to use

- User asks to post, reply, like, bookmark, follow, or search tweets — use other `bird` subcommands directly (see `bird --help`)
- User asks about article content linked FROM a tweet — `bird` only returns tweet text/metadata, not outbound article bodies; fall back to `webfetch` on the linked URL

## Notes

- `bird` reads `auth_token` and `ct0` cookies from Safari/Chrome/Firefox; no paid dev account needed
- If a fetch fails with auth errors, tell the user to sign in to x.com in their browser and retry
- Quote tweets and retweets include the referenced tweet in the JSON payload