bip — build in public CLI

Share your progress to X, LinkedIn, Reddit, and HackerNews straight from your terminal. bip reads your git activity, generates platform-tailored posts with Claude AI, and publishes them via official APIs or browser automation.

Posts get better over time — bip remembers your variant preferences, learns your editing patterns, and adapts its voice to match yours.

Install

npm install -g build-in-public

Quick start

cd your-project
bip init                              # scaffold config, skills, soul template
bip soul                              # define your posting voice
bip auth x                            # set up platform credentials
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... bip draft # generate posts from git activity
bip post                              # publish to platforms

Setup

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var (get one at console.anthropic.com)

1. Initialize

bip init

This scaffolds into your project:

• BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md — your project's living story (committed to git)
• .buildpublic/config.json — credentials and platform config (gitignored)
• .buildpublic/soul.md — your posting voice and personality (committed)
• .buildpublic/skills/ — per-platform posting strategies (committed)
• .buildpublic/memory/ — posting history and preference tracking (gitignored)
• .buildpublic/posts/ — saved draft JSON files
• .buildpublic/captures/ — screenshots and videos (gitignored)

2. Define your voice

bip soul

An interactive questionnaire that creates soul.md — your posting personality:

• Tone (casual, technical, enthusiastic...)
• Perspective (I/me, we/us, third person)
• Recurring themes
• Words and phrases to avoid
• Example post for calibration

Soul evolves over time. After a few drafts, run bip soul evolve to refine it based on how you actually edit posts.

3. Customize platform skills

Each platform has a strategy file in .buildpublic/skills/:

| File | What it controls | |---|---| | skills/x.md | Character limits, thread strategy, hooks, hashtag policy | | skills/linkedin.md | Word count, opening hooks, professional tone, formatting | | skills/reddit.md | Title style, peer tone, discussion format, self-promotion rules | | skills/hackernews.md | Title constraints, Show HN/Ask HN format, technical focus |

Edit these files to change how bip writes for each platform. They're injected directly into the AI prompt.

4. Set up platform credentials

bip auth x           # X (Twitter) API keys
bip auth linkedin     # LinkedIn access token + person URN
bip auth reddit       # Reddit client ID + secret
bip auth hackernews   # HN username + password (browser automation)
bip auth --list       # check credential status for all platforms

| Platform | What you need | Where to get it | |---|---|---| | X | App Key, App Secret, Access Token, Access Token Secret | developer.x.com | | LinkedIn | Access Token + Person URN | linkedin.com/developers | | Reddit | Client ID + Secret | reddit.com/prefs/apps — create a "script" app | | HackerNews | Username + password | Your regular HN login (browser automation only) |

Credentials are stored in .buildpublic/config.json (automatically gitignored).

Workflow

Generate posts

bip draft

1. Reads your last 20 commits, changed files, and diff
2. Shows a git summary — confirm before calling the API
3. Sends everything to Claude with your BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md context, soul.md voice, platform skills, and posting memory
4. Returns 2 variants per platform — pick one, edit inline, or skip
5. Saves the draft to .buildpublic/posts/
6. Records your variant choice and any edits to memory

If BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md hasn't been updated in 30+ days, bip will nudge you to run bip evolve.

Publish

bip post              # publish the latest draft
bip post x            # publish to X only
bip post --dry-run    # preview with character counts, no API calls

Posts via official APIs first (X, LinkedIn, Reddit). Falls back to Playwright browser automation if the API fails. HackerNews always uses Playwright (no official submit API).

Evolve your project doc

bip evolve

Claude reads your current BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md, recent git log (50 commits), package.json, and posting history, then proposes updates section by section:

• Deepens the project description based on shipped features
• Detects new/removed dependencies for the tech stack
• Checks off completed milestones, suggests new ones
• You review, edit, or discard each change

Evolve your voice

bip soul evolve

Analyzes your posting memory — which variants you pick, how you edit AI-generated text, what you add or remove — and proposes soul.md refinements. Examples:

• "You consistently remove hashtags" → adds to your Avoid section
• "You always shorten LinkedIn posts" → notes conciseness preference in Tone
• "You prefer direct openers over questions" → updates hook style

How the AI prompt works

When you run bip draft, the prompt is assembled from four sources:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  System prompt                          │
│  ├── Base strategist instructions       │
│  ├── Platform skills (from skills/*.md) │
│  └── Soul / voice (from soul.md)        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  User prompt                            │
│  ├── BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md project context │
│  ├── Memory (variant prefs, edit rate,  │
│  │   recent topics, posts to avoid      │
│  │   repeating)                         │
│  ├── Git activity (commits, diff, files)│
│  └── Output format instructions         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Everything except the base instructions is editable by you.

Commands

| Command | Description | |---|---| | bip init | Scaffold config, skills, soul template, and directories | | bip auth <platform> | Save credentials for x, linkedin, reddit, or hackernews | | bip auth --list | Show credential status for all platforms | | bip draft | Generate 2 post variants per platform from git activity | | bip post [platform] | Publish the latest draft (optionally to one platform) | | bip post --dry-run | Preview posts with character counts | | bip soul | Interactive questionnaire to create or redo soul.md | | bip soul evolve | Propose soul.md refinements from posting patterns | | bip evolve | Update BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md from recent project activity | | bip doctor | Check your setup for common issues | | bip status | See platforms, credentials, and recent drafts at a glance | | bip history | Browse past drafts with content previews | | bip capture screenshot <url> | Save a full-page PNG | | bip capture record <url> | Record a browser session |

Local data

your-project/
├── BUILD_IN_PUBLIC.md          # project context (committed)
└── .buildpublic/
    ├── config.json             # credentials + settings (gitignored)
    ├── soul.md                 # voice / personality (committed)
    ├── skills/                 # platform strategies (committed)
    │   ├── x.md
    │   ├── linkedin.md
    │   ├── reddit.md
    │   └── hackernews.md
    ├── memory/                 # posting history + prefs (gitignored)
    │   ├── posting-history.json
    │   └── preferences.json
    ├── posts/                  # saved drafts
    ├── captures/               # screenshots + videos (gitignored)
    └── hn-state.json           # HN session cookies (gitignored)

Development

git clone https://github.com/cynthialmy/build-in-public-automate
cd build-in-public-automate
npm install
npm run build       # compile to dist/
npm run dev         # run without building (tsx)
npm run typecheck   # type-check only

License

MIT