@osanoai/linkedin

A zero-dependency command-line tool for posting to LinkedIn as the authenticated member. It does two things and does them well:

1. Auth — LinkedIn OAuth 2.0 (3-legged, browser-based) or direct access-token auth for headless use.
2. Post — text posts, article/URL shares, image posts (up to 9 images), video posts, member/company @-mentions, and public/connections visibility.

Built on LinkedIn's documented Share on LinkedIn (UGC Posts + Assets) and OAuth 2.0 APIs.

Install

npm install -g @osanoai/linkedin
linkedin --help

Requires Node.js >= 18.17.

Prerequisites (one-time LinkedIn app setup)

1. Create an app at https://www.linkedin.com/developers/apps.
2. On the Products tab, add Share on LinkedIn (grants w_member_social) and Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect (grants openid profile, used to resolve your member URN).
3. For browser login: on the Auth tab, add http://localhost:8914/callback as an authorized redirect URL (or another port — pass --port to match).

Authenticate

Option A — browser OAuth flow:

linkedin auth login --client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID --client-secret YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET

Your browser opens LinkedIn's consent page; after you click Allow, the CLI captures the callback, exchanges the code for a ~60-day access token, resolves your urn:li:person:..., and stores everything in ~/.config/linkedin-cli/credentials.json (mode 0600). LINKEDIN_CLIENT_ID / LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET env vars work too.

Option B — paste a token (headless/CI/agents):

# from https://www.linkedin.com/developers/tools/oauth/token-generator
linkedin auth token ACCESS_TOKEN
# or keep it entirely in the environment:
export LINKEDIN_ACCESS_TOKEN=...        # overrides stored credentials
export LINKEDIN_PERSON_URN=urn:li:person:...   # optional; skips profile lookup

Check state anytime:

linkedin auth status   # exit 0 = authenticated, 3 = not
linkedin whoami        # verifies the token against the live API
linkedin auth logout

Post

# Text
linkedin post "Hello LinkedIn!"

# Article / URL share
linkedin post "Worth a read:" \
  --article https://example.com/report \
  --article-title "2026 Privacy Report" \
  --article-description "Key findings on consent trends."

# Images (repeat --image, up to 9; --alt/--image-title apply to the preceding image)
linkedin post "Highlights from the summit" \
  --image day1.jpg --alt "Keynote stage" \
  --image day2.jpg --alt "Panel discussion"

# Video
linkedin post "Feature demo" --video demo.mp4 --video-title "Demo"

# Mentions — inline anywhere in the text
linkedin post 'Kudos to @[Jane Doe](urn:li:person:AbC_123) and @[Osano](urn:li:organization:17959845)!'

# Connections-only, machine-readable output
linkedin post "Inner circle" --visibility connections --json

# Preview the exact API payload without posting
linkedin post "test" --image pic.png --dry-run

On success the CLI prints the post URN and URL:

Posted to LinkedIn ✔
URN: urn:li:share:7123456789012345678
URL: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7123456789012345678/

Mention syntax

@[Display Name](urn) renders as a real, linked mention. Supported URNs:

• Members: urn:li:person:{id} (find your own via linkedin whoami)
• Companies/schools: urn:li:organization:{id} (urn:li:company:{id} is auto-normalized)

LinkedIn offers no public API to look up an arbitrary member's URN by name, so you must already know the URN of anyone you mention.

Reference

Env var	Purpose
LINKEDIN_ACCESS_TOKEN	Access token; takes precedence over stored credentials
LINKEDIN_PERSON_URN	Author URN; skips the profile lookup
LINKEDIN_CLIENT_ID / LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth app credentials for auth login
LINKEDIN_CLI_CONFIG_DIR	Credentials directory (default ~/.config/linkedin-cli)
LINKEDIN_API_BASE / LINKEDIN_OAUTH_BASE	Endpoint overrides (used by the e2e tests to target a mock server)

Exit codes: 0 success · 1 API/runtime error · 2 invalid usage · 3 not authenticated.

Rate limits (LinkedIn-enforced): 150 posts per member per day, 100,000 per app per day.

Development

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm test   # full e2e suite: real CLI processes against a mock LinkedIn API

pnpm is the pinned package manager (packageManager in package.json); .npmrc enforces a 7-day minimum release age for dependencies. See AGENTS.md for repo conventions and the CI/CD release flow (merges to main auto-publish to npm with provenance).

The suite in test/e2e.test.js spawns the actual binary and exercises the complete OAuth flow (including CSRF rejection), token auth, every post type, mention annotation ranges, byte-exact media uploads, and all error paths against test/mock-linkedin.js, which faithfully implements the documented LinkedIn contracts.

License

MIT