lkdn 0.1.1

Minimal CLI for publishing LinkedIn text posts with the Posts API

lkdn

Small CLI for supported LinkedIn API workflows.

Scope

This project is intentionally narrow:

• publish a text post as a member or organization
• publish an image post as a member or organization
• publish a video post as a member or organization
• read employment data from official LinkedIn profile APIs when your app tier and scopes allow it
• use the current LinkedIn Posts API
• stay easy to read and easy to fork

It does not try to automate OAuth in a fragile way. You bring your own access token and author URN. It does not scrape LinkedIn pages or rely on undocumented web endpoints.

Install

uv sync

PyPI distribution: lkdn

Command aliases:

• licli
• lkdn
• linkedin

Usage

Set the required environment variables:

export LINKEDIN_ACCESS_TOKEN="..."
export LINKEDIN_AUTHOR_URN="urn:li:person:YOUR_ID"
export LINKEDIN_API_VERSION="YYYYMM"

Then publish a post:

uv run licli post "Hello from the new Posts API"

Publish a post with an image:

uv run licli post \
  --image /absolute/path/to/banner.png \
  --alt-text "Bitdevs BSB event banner" \
  "Hello from the new Posts API"

Publish a post with a video:

uv run licli post \
  --video /absolute/path/to/clip.mp4 \
  --video-title "Linus on abstraction" \
  "Hello from the new Posts API"

You can also pass values as flags:

uv run licli post \
  --access-token "..." \
  --author "urn:li:person:YOUR_ID" \
  --api-version "YYYYMM" \
  "Shipping a tiny CLI."

Read employment data through official profile APIs:

uv run licli profile employment-history

Use the Verified on LinkedIn identityMe endpoint instead:

uv run licli profile employment-history --source identity-me

Limit output to a different lookback window:

uv run licli profile employment-history --years 3

Docs

• docs/onboarding.md for the full step-by-step setup flow
• docs/credentials.md for the local env file layout and variable reference
• docs/pypi-publishing.md for the GitHub-to-PyPI release flow

LinkedIn requirements

According to the official LinkedIn docs, posting on behalf of a member requires:

• OAuth 2.0 member authentication
• the w_member_social scope
• a valid Linkedin-Version header in YYYYMM format

For image posts, this project uses LinkedIn's Images API to initialize an upload, uploads the binary to the returned uploadUrl, and then creates the post with the returned urn:li:image:....

For video posts, this project uses LinkedIn's Videos API to initialize the upload, uploads each instructed part, finalizes the upload, waits for the asset to become AVAILABLE, and then creates the post with the returned urn:li:video:....

For employment data, the official API surface is constrained:

• GET /rest/identityMe can return only the member's current position, and only on the Plus tier with the r_primary_current_experience scope.
• positions on the Profile API are part of the older r_fullprofile permission set, and LinkedIn documents that access to r_fullprofile is closed.
• This means profile employment-history is only useful if your app already has the required restricted profile access; otherwise LinkedIn will return limited data or a permission error.

Official docs:

• Getting access to LinkedIn APIs
• Sign In with LinkedIn
• Posts API
• Videos API
• Profile API
• Full Profile Fields
• Profile Details API (/identityMe)
• URNs and IDs

Development

Run tests:

uv run pytest

Run lint:

uv run ruff check