post-publish-folder

Post Publish — Folder Method

Publish your text and image posts to social platforms from a local folder.

Drop content into ~/Posts/. This skill picks up images with caption files (or plain text files), and publishes to LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, and Instagram.

For creators who write their own posts and want automated cross-platform publishing.

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Watch Folder

Default: ~/Desktop/Posts/

The skill scans this folder for:

• Image posts: .jpg, .png, .webp with matching .txt caption file
• Text-only posts: .txt files (for platforms that support text-only)

Folder Structure

~/Posts/
  ├── monday-motivation.jpg           ← image to post
  ├── monday-motivation.txt           ← caption for the image
  ├── weekly-update.txt               ← text-only post
  ├── carousel/                       ← carousel folder
  │   ├── slide-1.jpg
  │   ├── slide-2.jpg
  │   └── caption.txt                 ← caption for carousel
  ├── old-post.jpg                    
  ├── old-post.txt
  └── old-post.published.json         ← sidecar (marks as published)

Caption Files

Create a .txt file with the same name as your image:

• Image: product-launch.jpg
• Caption: product-launch.txt

The caption file contains your post text. Use --- to separate platform-specific captions:

This is my LinkedIn post. More professional tone.
#business #startup

---twitter---
Short punchy version for Twitter/X 🚀

---instagram---
Full caption for Instagram with more hashtags
.
.
.
#instagram #content #creator

If no platform separators, the same caption is used everywhere.

---

Usage

# Publish the next unpublished post
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js

# Publish to specific platforms only
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js --platforms "linkedin,twitter"

# Publish a specific file
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js --file "~/Posts/my-post.jpg"

# Preview without publishing
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js --dry-run

# Custom watch folder
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js --folder "~/Desktop/social-posts"

# Publish ALL unpublished posts (batch mode)
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js --all --limit 5

# Schedule for later
node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js --schedule "2026-03-20T09:00:00"

Flags

Flag	Description
--file PATH	Publish a specific image or text file
--folder PATH	Override watch folder (default: ~/Posts/)
--platforms LIST	Comma-separated: linkedin,twitter,facebook,instagram
--schedule DATETIME	ISO datetime to schedule publish
--all	Publish all unpublished posts in folder
--limit N	Max posts in --all mode (default: 10)
--dry-run	Preview post, skip publishing

Supported Platforms

Platform	Image Posts	Text-Only	Carousels
LinkedIn	✅	✅	✅
Twitter/X	✅	✅	❌
Facebook	✅	✅	✅
Instagram	✅	❌	✅

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
LATE_API_KEY	Yes	Late API key for publishing
INSFORGE_CONNECTION_STRING	No	Database for post tracking

Carousels

Create a subfolder with numbered images:

~/Posts/carousel-post/
  ├── 1.jpg (or slide-1.jpg, 01.jpg)
  ├── 2.jpg
  ├── 3.jpg
  └── caption.txt

The skill detects carousel folders and posts as multi-image posts.

Output

After publishing, each post gets a .published.json sidecar:

{
  "source_file": "monday-motivation.jpg",
  "caption_file": "monday-motivation.txt",
  "media_url": "https://cdn.getlate.dev/media/...",
  "late_post_id": "post_abc123",
  "published_at": "2026-03-13T12:00:00Z",
  "published_platforms": ["linkedin", "twitter", "facebook", "instagram"],
  "captions": { "linkedin": "...", "twitter": "...", ... }
}

Cron Schedule (Recommended)

Check for new posts 3x/day:

0 9,13,17 * * * node skills/post-publish-folder/scripts/post-publish-folder.js