posting-automation

Executive Summary

LinkedIn offers official REST APIs for programmatic posting, similar to Twitter/X. The Posts API (recommended) replaced the legacy UGC/Shares APIs in 2022. Key requirements: OAuth 2.0 authentication, w_member_social permission, and versioned API headers. Access tokens are valid for 60 days.

Comparison: LinkedIn API vs Twitter/X API

LinkedIn Posts API (Recommended)

API Endpoint

POST https://api.linkedin.com/rest/posts

Required Headers

Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}
X-Restli-Protocol-Version: 2.0.0
LinkedIn-Version: 202511
Content-Type: application/json

Important: LinkedIn-Version must be in YYYYMM format (e.g., 202511 for November 2025).

Success Response

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
x-restli-id: urn:li:share:6844785523593134080

The x-restli-id header contains the Post ID.

API Versioning

Support Window: Versioned APIs are stable for minimum 1 year before sunset.

OAuth 2.0 Authentication

Setup Steps

1. Create LinkedIn Developer Application

• Go to LinkedIn Developers Portal
• Create new application
• Obtain API Key, Client Secret, and OAuth 2.0 credentials

2. Request Required Permissions

• w_member_social - Post on behalf of a member (required)
• Share On LinkedIn product
• Login With LinkedIn product

3. Obtain Access Token

LinkedIn uses OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow:

# Step 1: Redirect user to LinkedIn authorization URL
https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/authorization?
  response_type=code&
  client_id={CLIENT_ID}&
  redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&
  scope=w_member_social

# Step 2: Exchange authorization code for access token
POST https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

grant_type=authorization_code&
code={AUTHORIZATION_CODE}&
client_id={CLIENT_ID}&
client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}&
redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}

Response:

{
  "access_token": "AQV8...",
  "expires_in": 5184000,
  "scope": "w_member_social"
}

Token Validity

Key Limitation: Unlike Twitter/X, LinkedIn does not provide refresh tokens for most developers. You can post programmatically for up to 60 days before requiring manual re-authentication.

Creating Posts

Text Post

POST https://api.linkedin.com/rest/posts
Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}
X-Restli-Protocol-Version: 2.0.0
LinkedIn-Version: 202511
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "author": "urn:li:person:{PERSON_ID}",
  "commentary": "Just shipped a new feature! 🚀",
  "visibility": "PUBLIC",
  "distribution": {
    "feedDistribution": "MAIN_FEED",
    "targetEntities": [],
    "thirdPartyDistributionChannels": []
  },
  "lifecycleState": "PUBLISHED",
  "isReshareDisabledByAuthor": false
}

Text Limit: Maximum 3,000 characters (vs Twitter’s 280).

Post with Image

Step 1: Upload image to get Image URN

Use Images API to upload and obtain urn:li:image:{id}.

Step 2: Create post with image

{
  "author": "urn:li:person:{PERSON_ID}",
  "commentary": "Check out this visualization!",
  "visibility": "PUBLIC",
  "content": {
    "media": {
      "id": "urn:li:image:123456789"
    }
  },
  "distribution": {
    "feedDistribution": "MAIN_FEED"
  },
  "lifecycleState": "PUBLISHED"
}

Post with Video

1. Upload video via Videos API → get urn:li:video:{id}
2. Use video URN in post creation

Post with Document

1. Upload document via Documents API → get urn:li:document:{id}
2. Use document URN in post creation

Article Post (Link Preview)

Important: Posts API does NOT support URL scraping for link previews.

You must manually set:

• Thumbnail image (upload via Images API first)
• Article title
• Article description

{
  "author": "urn:li:person:{PERSON_ID}",
  "commentary": "New blog post on LinkedIn automation",
  "visibility": "PUBLIC",
  "content": {
    "article": {
      "source": "https://example.com/blog/linkedin-automation",
      "thumbnail": "urn:li:image:123456789",
      "title": "Building LinkedIn Automation in 2025",
      "description": "A comprehensive guide to LinkedIn's REST APIs"
    }
  },
  "distribution": {
    "feedDistribution": "MAIN_FEED"
  },
  "lifecycleState": "PUBLISHED"
}

Multi-Image Posts (Carousel)

Mentions/Tags

Tag LinkedIn entities (members, organizations) in posts:

{
  "commentary": "Great collaboration with @CompanyName!",
  "content": {
    "contentEntities": [
      {
        "entityLocation": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/123456",
        "entity": "urn:li:organization:123456"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Node.js Implementation

Official Client Library

npm install linkedin-api-client

GitHub: linkedin-api-client

Built with Axios and TypeScript.

Basic Usage

import { RestliClient } from 'linkedin-api-client';

// Initialize client
const client = new RestliClient();

// Get user ID
const userInfo = await client.get({
  resourcePath: '/userinfo',
  accessToken: ACCESS_TOKEN
});

const personId = userInfo.sub;

// Create post
const post = await client.create({
  resourcePath: '/posts',
  accessToken: ACCESS_TOKEN,
  entity: {
    author: `urn:li:person:${personId}`,
    commentary: 'Hello LinkedIn API!',
    visibility: 'PUBLIC',
    distribution: {
      feedDistribution: 'MAIN_FEED'
    },
    lifecycleState: 'PUBLISHED'
  }
});

console.log('Post ID:', post.headers['x-restli-id']);

Community Libraries

Legacy APIs (Deprecated)

UGC Post API

Status: Legacy, migrate to Posts API

Endpoint: POST https://api.linkedin.com/v2/ugcPosts

Why it’s deprecated:

• Part of unversioned API (/v2/)
• Overlapping features with Shares API
• No long-term support guarantee

Migration Path: Use Posts API (/rest/posts) instead.

Shares API

Status: Deprecated

Replaced by Posts API for better consistency and feature parity.

Rate Limits & Best Practices

Rate Limiting

LinkedIn enforces daily request limits per application:

• Limits vary by partnership tier
• 429 Too Many Requests error when exceeded
• No published public rate limits (unlike Twitter’s transparent limits)

Best Practices:

• Implement exponential backoff for 429 errors
• Cache user profile data (person URNs)
• Batch image uploads when possible

API Guidelines

✅ Safe & Compliant:

• Use official LinkedIn APIs
• Official SDK/client libraries
• Build server-side integrations

❌ Avoid (Risk of Account Ban):

• Browser automation/bots
• Unofficial scrapers
• Chrome extensions that bypass API
• Violating rate limits

Error Handling

Rest.li Framework

LinkedIn built and uses the Rest.li framework for building RESTful architectures at scale.

Key Characteristics:

• Custom REST semantics (not pure REST)
• X-Restli-Protocol-Version header required
• Response headers contain entity metadata (x-restli-id)
• Typed responses with URN identifiers

Learn more: Rest.li GitHub

Comparison with Twitter/X Automation

Similarities

• OAuth 2.0 authentication
• REST API architecture
• Official Node.js clients
• Rate limiting
• Media upload separate from post creation

Key Differences

Workflow Comparison

Twitter/X (with x-cli):

bun src/main.ts tweet "Hello world!"

LinkedIn (proposed linkedin-cli):

linkedin post "Hello LinkedIn!" --access-token=$LINKEDIN_TOKEN

Building a LinkedIn CLI Tool

Similar to x-cli for Twitter, you could build linkedin-cli:

Suggested Features

# Text post
linkedin post "Just shipped a feature!"

# Post with image
linkedin post "Check this out" --image ./screenshot.png

# Article post
linkedin article https://blog.example.com/post \
  --title "My Article" \
  --description "Summary here"

# Authentication
linkedin login  # Opens OAuth flow

Implementation Considerations

Challenges compared to Twitter:

• 60-day token expiry - Need to handle re-authentication
• No refresh tokens - Can’t auto-refresh like Twitter
• Manual link previews - Need to fetch og:title/og:image yourself
• Image upload first - Can’t post image inline, must upload separately

Advantages:

• 3,000 character limit (vs Twitter’s 280)
• Professional audience
• Better long-form content support
• Official Node.js client

Use Cases for LinkedIn API

Build in Public (Similar to Twitter)

# Post daily updates
linkedin post "Day 15: Implemented caching layer. 30% faster response times."

Commit-to-Post Workflow

# Similar to commit-to-tweet
git log -1 --format="%s%n%n%b" | linkedin post --stdin

Cross-posting

# Post to both platforms
./scripts/post-update.sh "New release v2.0!" --twitter --linkedin

Company Page Automation

Use Pages API to post on behalf of company pages.

Sources

1. Posts API - LinkedIn | Microsoft Learn
2. Posting to LinkedIn via the API - Marcus Noble
3. Build a LinkedIn Automation Stack with Official APIs in 2025
4. LinkedIn API Documentation - Microsoft Learn
5. UGC Post API - LinkedIn | Microsoft Learn
6. linkedin-api-client (Official Node.js Client)
7. LinkedIn’s New Posts API: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
8. How to Post to LinkedIn via API - Ezz