Bluesky Skill

Interact with Bluesky via the AT Protocol API. Supports public reads, search, authenticated posting, and profile monitoring.

Configuration

Credentials can come from openclaw config or environment variables:

App passwords are created at: https://bsky.app/settings/app-passwords

Never use a main account password. Always use an app password.

1. Read — Fetch Recent Posts from a Profile

No auth required. Uses the public API.

API Endpoint

GET https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=\x3Chandle>&limit=\x3Cn>

• actor — Bluesky handle (e.g. alice.bsky.social) or DID
• limit — number of posts to return (1–100, default 50)

curl Example

curl -s "https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=alice.bsky.social&limit=5" | jq '.feed[] | {text: .post.record.text, createdAt: .post.record.createdAt, uri: .post.uri}'

Helper Script

./scripts/bsky-read.sh alice.bsky.social 5

Response Structure

The response JSON has a feed array. Each entry contains:

• .post.record.text — the post text
• .post.record.createdAt — ISO 8601 timestamp
• .post.uri — AT URI of the post
• .post.author.handle — author handle
• .post.author.displayName — author display name
• .post.likeCount, .post.repostCount, .post.replyCount — engagement counts

2. Search — Find Posts by Keyword

No auth required. Uses the public API.

API Endpoint

GET https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.searchPosts?q=\x3Cquery>&limit=\x3Cn>

• q — search query (keywords, hashtags, phrases)
• limit — number of results (1–100, default 25)

curl Example

curl -s "https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.searchPosts?q=openclaw&limit=10" | jq '.posts[] | {text: .record.text, author: .author.handle, createdAt: .record.createdAt}'

Helper Script

./scripts/bsky-search.sh "openclaw" 10

Response Structure

The response JSON has a posts array. Each entry contains:

• .record.text — the post text
• .record.createdAt — ISO 8601 timestamp
• .author.handle — author handle
• .author.displayName — author display name
• .uri — AT URI of the post

3. Post — Create a New Post

Requires auth. Uses app password authentication.

Step 1: Authenticate

POST https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.server.createSession
Content-Type: application/json

{"identifier": "\x3Chandle>", "password": "\x3Capp_password>"}

This returns a session with accessJwt and did.

curl Example

# Always use env vars — never interpolate credentials directly into shell strings
SESSION=$(curl -s -X POST "https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.server.createSession" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --arg h "$BSKY_HANDLE" --arg p "$BSKY_APP_PASSWORD" '{identifier: $h, password: $p}')")

ACCESS_TOKEN=$(echo "$SESSION" | jq -r '.accessJwt')
DID=$(echo "$SESSION" | jq -r '.did')

Step 2: Create the Post

POST https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.createRecord
Authorization: Bearer \x3CaccessJwt>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "repo": "\x3Cdid>",
  "collection": "app.bsky.feed.post",
  "record": {
    "$type": "app.bsky.feed.post",
    "text": "\x3Cpost text>",
    "createdAt": "\x3CISO 8601 timestamp>"
  }
}

curl Example

curl -s -X POST "https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.createRecord" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{
    \"repo\": \"${DID}\",
    \"collection\": \"app.bsky.feed.post\",
    \"record\": {
      \"\$type\": \"app.bsky.feed.post\",
      \"text\": \"Hello from OpenClaw!\",
      \"createdAt\": \"$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.000Z)\"
    }
  }"

Helper Script

# Pass app password via env var — never as a CLI argument (visible in ps/shell history)
BSKY_APP_PASSWORD=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx ./scripts/bsky-post.sh alice.bsky.social "Hello from OpenClaw!"

Post Length Limit

Bluesky posts have a 300-character limit (grapheme count). Check length before posting.

4. Monitor — Check for New Posts Since Last Check

Use the read endpoint with a timestamp comparison to detect new posts. This is useful for heartbeat monitoring.

Approach

1. Fetch recent posts from the target profile.
2. Compare .post.record.createdAt against the last-known timestamp.
3. Any post with a createdAt newer than the stored timestamp is new.

curl Example

# Fetch the 10 most recent posts
FEED=$(curl -s "https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=alice.bsky.social&limit=10")

# Filter posts newer than a given timestamp
SINCE="2026-03-24T00:00:00.000Z"
echo "$FEED" | jq --arg since "$SINCE" '.feed[] | select(.post.record.createdAt > $since) | {text: .post.record.text, createdAt: .post.record.createdAt}'

Monitoring Loop Pattern

For heartbeat use, store the latest seen timestamp and compare on each check:

# Use a user-owned state dir, not world-readable /tmp
LAST_SEEN_FILE="${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/bsky-monitor-${HANDLE}.txt"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LAST_SEEN_FILE")"
HANDLE="alice.bsky.social"

# Read last seen timestamp (or default to 24h ago)
if [ -f "$LAST_SEEN_FILE" ]; then
  SINCE=$(cat "$LAST_SEEN_FILE")
else
  SINCE=$(date -u -v-24H +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.000Z 2>/dev/null || date -u -d '24 hours ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.000Z)
fi

FEED=$(curl -s "https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=${HANDLE}&limit=20")
NEW_POSTS=$(echo "$FEED" | jq --arg since "$SINCE" '[.feed[] | select(.post.record.createdAt > $since)]')
COUNT=$(echo "$NEW_POSTS" | jq 'length')

if [ "$COUNT" -gt 0 ]; then
  echo "Found $COUNT new post(s) from $HANDLE since $SINCE"
  echo "$NEW_POSTS" | jq '.[] | {text: .post.record.text, createdAt: .post.record.createdAt}'
  # Update last seen to the most recent post timestamp
  echo "$NEW_POSTS" | jq -r '.[0].post.record.createdAt' > "$LAST_SEEN_FILE"
else
  echo "No new posts from $HANDLE since $SINCE"
fi

Error Handling

Auth Token Expiry

Access tokens expire. If you get a 401, re-authenticate by calling createSession again. Do not cache tokens for more than a few minutes.

Quick Reference