replica882

Twitter Bridge MCP

Community replica882
Updated

Connect Claude.ai to Twitter/X via browser automation — no API key needed

Twitter Bridge MCP

Connect Claude.ai to Twitter/X — without paying $100/month for the official API.

Uses bb-browser (open-source browser automation) to control a logged-in Chrome session, wrapped as an MCP server that Claude.ai can talk to.

Claude.ai ──MCP──▶ your-server:8080 ──bb-browser──▶ Chrome (logged in) ──▶ Twitter/X

Cost: ~$5/year (just a domain for Cloudflare Tunnel).

What it can do

Tool Method Status
twitter_post Browser automation
twitter_reply Browser automation
twitter_like GraphQL API
twitter_retweet GraphQL API
twitter_quote Browser automation
twitter_follow Browser automation
twitter_unfollow Browser automation
twitter_undo GraphQL API
twitter_search Browser DOM parsing
twitter_timeline Browser DOM parsing
twitter_bookmarks Browser DOM parsing
twitter_tweets Browser DOM parsing
twitter_notifications bb-sites adapter
twitter_user bb-sites adapter
twitter_view_tweet Browser DOM parsing
twitter_dm_read Browser automation ⚠️ partial
twitter_screenshot bb-browser
browser_open bb-browser
browser_snapshot bb-browser

DM reading works but Twitter's E2E encryption may limit what's visible via browser automation.

Architecture

The server has three layers:

  1. MCP + OAuth — Claude.ai connects via Streamable HTTP transport with auto-approved OAuth 2.0 (PKCE).
  2. Tool implementations — 19 tools split between browser automation (open page → wait → parse DOM) and GraphQL API calls (for lightweight actions like like/retweet/undo).
  3. bb-browser — Controls Chrome via CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol), inheriting the logged-in session.

Browser automation was chosen over GraphQL API for most read operations because Twitter's API requires a x-client-transaction-id header generated from webpack internals — the module IDs change on every Twitter deploy, causing random 404s. DOM parsing is slower but never breaks.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js ≥ 18
  • Chrome (or Chromium) with remote debugging enabled
  • bb-browser — Install from GitHub
  • A Twitter/X account — logged in within the Chrome profile
  • Cloudflare Tunnel (or any reverse proxy) — to expose your local server with HTTPS

Setup

1. Start Chrome with CDP

# Create a dedicated Chrome profile
mkdir -p ~/chrome-mcp-profile

# Launch Chrome with remote debugging
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome \
  --remote-debugging-port=9222 \
  --user-data-dir=$HOME/chrome-mcp-profile

Log in to Twitter/X in this Chrome window.

2. Install & configure

git clone https://github.com/replica882/twitter-bridge-mcp.git
cd twitter-bridge-mcp
npm install

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your values

3. Run

node server.mjs
# Twitter MCP Bridge v0.6.0: http://0.0.0.0:8080/mcp

4. Expose via Cloudflare Tunnel

cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8080

Or set up a named tunnel for a permanent URL.

5. Connect from Claude.ai

In Claude.ai → Settings → Connected Tools → Add Custom Connector:

  • URL: https://your-tunnel-domain.com/mcp

Claude will auto-discover OAuth endpoints and connect.

Configuration

All config is via environment variables (or .env file):

Variable Default Description
PORT 8080 Server port
CDP_PORT 9222 Chrome DevTools Protocol port
BASE_URL http://localhost:8080 Public URL (for OAuth discovery)
BB_BROWSER_PATH ~/local/bin/bb-browser Path to bb-browser binary
DM_PIN (empty) Twitter DM encryption PIN (if set up)
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID twitter-mcp-client OAuth client ID
OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET (auto-generated) OAuth client secret

How it works

Why not the official API?

Twitter/X API Basic tier costs $100/month. This project does the same thing for $5/year by automating a real browser session.

Why not just GraphQL?

Twitter's internal GraphQL API requires a x-client-transaction-id header. This ID is generated by a function buried in Twitter's webpack bundles — the module number changes every time Twitter deploys. We use GraphQL only for simple mutations (like, retweet, delete) that don't need this header. Everything else uses DOM parsing.

Tab management

Every browser operation opens a new tab. Without cleanup, Chrome accumulates 40+ tabs and crashes. The server auto-closes excess tabs, keeping a maximum of 10.

DM PIN auto-entry

Twitter requires a PIN every time you open the DM page (E2E encryption). If DM_PIN is set, the server auto-enters it using React-compatible input simulation (native property setter + keyboard events).

Gotchas

  • Chrome profile encryption — Cookie storage is bound to a profile key. You can't copy a Chrome profile directory to migrate login state. Always use --user-data-dir and log in manually.
  • React contenteditable — Twitter's compose box is a contenteditable div. Normal DOM manipulation doesn't trigger React state updates. The server uses ClipboardEvent paste for quote tweets and bb-browser's type command for regular posts.
  • Search occasionally empty — If you search too quickly after page load, DOM might not be populated yet. The server waits 4 seconds, which works reliably.
  • launchd/systemd and dotenv — If you run the server as a system service, make sure to set WorkingDirectory to the project directory. Without this, dotenv can't find .env, BASE_URL falls back to http://localhost:8080, and OAuth discovery returns localhost URLs — Claude.ai will fail to connect. For macOS launchd, add <key>WorkingDirectory</key><string>/path/to/twitter-bridge-mcp</string> to your plist. For systemd, add WorkingDirectory=/path/to/twitter-bridge-mcp to your unit file.
  • Server restart loses OAuth tokens — OAuth tokens are stored in memory. Every server restart requires reconnecting from Claude.ai (Settings → Connected Tools → reconnect Twitter Bridge).

Credits

License

MIT

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