@paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp

Publish Markdown articles to TabNews from the terminal or from your AI agent.

Browser automation with a persistent session — no TabNews API key required. Includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Cursor, Claude Code, and other MCP clients.

Why this exists

TabNews is a developer-focused publishing platform with native Markdown support. There is no official publishing API for automated cross-posting from agent pipelines.

This package fills the form at tabnews.com.br/publicar programmatically: title, Markdown body, optional source URL, and screenshot verification — so humans and AI agents can publish reliably without leaving the workflow.

Features

| Feature | Description | |--------|-------------| | Markdown publish | Native TabNews Markdown in the body field | | Source attribution | Optional canonical URL appended to the post | | Draft-first | Preview without --publish | | Dry-run | Fill form + screenshot, no submit | | MCP server | 2 tools for agent workflows | | Persistent session | Login once; reuse cookies |

Quick start

npm install -g @paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp
tabnews-publisher login
tabnews-publisher publish \
  --title "My TabNews Post" \
  --body-file ./post.md \
  --source-url "https://dev.to/you/original" \
  --json

Expected output:

{
  "ok": true,
  "status": "draft",
  "tabnews_url": "https://www.tabnews.com.br/publicar",
  "source_url": "https://dev.to/you/original",
  "message": "Draft prepared on TabNews.",
  "screenshot": "C:\\Users\\…\\tabnews-publisher\\artifacts\\tabnews-preview-….png"
}

Add --publish when you are ready to go live.

Installation

npm (recommended)

npm install -g @paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp

Binaries: tabnews-publisher (CLI) · tabnews-publisher-mcp (MCP server)

From source (monorepo)

git clone https://github.com/paladini/publish-agents.git
cd publish-agents
npm install && npm run build -w @paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp
npm link -w @paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp
tabnews-publisher login

GitHub Packages

npm install -g @paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp --registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com

Authentication

No TabNews API key. One interactive login saves browser cookies.

| Platform | Default session path | |----------|---------------------| | Windows | %LOCALAPPDATA%\tabnews-publisher\storageState.json | | macOS / Linux | ~/.local/share/tabnews-publisher/storageState.json |

Environment overrides: TABNEWS_STATE_PATH · TABNEWS_PUBLISHER_HOME

tabnews-publisher login
tabnews-publisher session-check --json

During login, sign in at tabnews.com.br/login in the opened browser, then press Enter in the terminal.

CLI reference

tabnews-publisher login
tabnews-publisher session-check [--json]
tabnews-publisher publish \
  --title TITLE \
  --body-file PATH \
  [--source-url URL] \
  [--publish] \
  [--dry-run] \
  [--json]

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | --title | Post title (required) | | --body-file | Path to Markdown file (required) | | --source-url | Original URL — appended as attribution footer | | --publish | Submit and go live (default: draft/preview only) | | --dry-run | Fill form + screenshot; do not submit | | --json | Machine-readable output |

Examples

Prepare draft (safe):

tabnews-publisher publish \
  --title "Automating TabNews with Playwright" \
  --body-file ./article.md \
  --source-url "https://dev.to/you/original"

Publish live:

tabnews-publisher publish \
  --title "Automating TabNews with Playwright" \
  --body-file ./article.md \
  --publish --json

Dry-run (verify session + selectors):

tabnews-publisher publish \
  --title "Test" \
  --body-file ./article.md \
  --dry-run

Source attribution

When --source-url is set, the body automatically includes:

---
*Publicado originalmente em: [https://…](https://…)*

MCP server

Transport: stdio (newline-delimited JSON-RPC).

Client configuration

Cursor:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tabnews-publisher": {
      "command": "tabnews-publisher-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add tabnews-publisher -- tabnews-publisher-mcp

Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | tabnews_session_check | Verify saved session | | tabnews_publish | Publish Markdown. Args: title, body, source_url, status (draft|published), dry_run |

Example agent call:

{
  "title": "My TabNews Post",
  "body": "# Hello\n\nMarkdown content here.",
  "source_url": "https://dev.to/author/post",
  "status": "draft"
}

How it works

Load storageState.json
    → navigate to tabnews.com.br/publicar
    → assertLoggedIn()
    → fill title input
    → fill body textarea (Markdown)
    → append source attribution (optional)
    → screenshot → artifacts/
    → click Publish (if --publish)
    → return tabnews_url + screenshot path

Uses Playwright Chromium. TabNews does not require Patchright anti-detection patches.

Programmatic API

import { publishTabNews } from '@paladini/tabnews-publisher-mcp';

const result = await publishTabNews({
  title: 'My Post',
  body: '# Hello\n\nContent in Markdown.',
  sourceUrl: 'https://dev.to/author/post',
  publish: false,
  dryRun: false,
});

Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Fix | |---------|-----| | Exit code 3 / not authenticated | tabnews-publisher login | | Form fields not found | TabNews UI changed — open an issue with screenshot | | Publish button not clicked | Omit --publish for draft; add it only when ready |

Screenshots: %LOCALAPPDATA%\tabnews-publisher\artifacts\

Limitations

• TabNews UI changes can break selectors
• No DEV.to import — pass Markdown via --body-file or MCP body arg
• Requires Node.js ≥ 20
• Respect TabNews community guidelines and rate limits

Related

| Resource | Link | |----------|------| | Monorepo | paladini/publish-agents | | Medium cross-post | @paladini/medium-publisher-mcp | | LinkedIn cross-post | @paladini/linkedin-publisher-mcp | | MCP setup | mcp/tabnews/README.md |

License

MIT · Fernando Paladini