Writing and publishing

The composer is one draft: a thread of cards, the accounts it goes to, and a Publish button with a schedule option next to it. Everything here happens in the browser; the same actions are available to scripts through the API.

Drafts save themselves

A draft is saved as you type, and Cmd/Ctrl + S saves it on demand. Drafts are listed under Posts → Drafts, where Edit Post reopens one and Remove deletes it. The trash button in the composer discards the draft you are on, after asking.

A thread is a list of cards

Each card is one post, with its own character counter and its own images.

• + Thread adds a card; the × on a card removes it.
• Type --- in a card to split it there. The text after the marker moves into a new card below.
• Paste a long draft and it is split for you: into a thread that fits the strictest limit among the accounts you picked, counted the way that platform counts (graphemes, and Mastodon’s own URL weighting). Paste text with --- on lines of their own and it splits on those instead.
• Alt + ↑ / ↓ moves the card you are typing in up or down the thread.

LinkedIn has no threads: a thread sent there is flattened into one post. The limits for every platform are in OAuth apps → Platforms.

Images and alt text

Each card takes up to four images. Every image has an alt-text field (“Describe this image…”); fill it in and it goes out with the image on platforms that support it. Size and format limits differ per platform — Bluesky takes 1 MB, X 5 MB, and LinkedIn rejects WebP — and are checked again when the post is published.

A URL in a card shows the link preview it will produce, while you write.

Global, and a tab per platform

The Global tab is the post every account gets. With more than one account selected, Add override… adds a tab for one platform, where you can rewrite the text for that platform alone — shorter for X, longer for LinkedIn — without touching the others. An override tab is unlinked from Global from then on; its reset button re-syncs it to the Global text.

With a Mastodon account selected, Mastodon Options sets the visibility (Public, Unlisted, Followers, Direct) and an optional content warning.

Choosing destinations

The accounts button in the dock (N selected) opens the list of connected accounts. Tick the ones this draft goes to; Clear all empties the list. An account that needs reconnecting is marked, and Accounts is where you fix it.

Publish now, or schedule

Publish sends the draft to every selected account and shows the result per account. By default it asks first, with a Confirm Post step; tick Publish without asking next time to skip it in this browser, and turn the question back on under Settings → Preferences → Ask for confirmation before publishing. Cmd/Ctrl + Enter publishes from the keyboard.

The calendar button next to it schedules instead: either Publish in an offset of minutes, hours or days (one hour by default), or a Specific Date and time in your own timezone. Opening a scheduled post again with Edit Post starts on the time it is already set for, so confirming without a change keeps it. A scheduled post waits in Posts → Scheduled until a tick publishes it.

If some accounts fail, the composer says Couldn’t publish everywhere and lists why; Posts → Failed has a Retry for each. A scheduled post that hits a retryable failure (a rate limit, a platform timeout) tries again on its own, backing off from one minute up to thirty — five attempts, then it stops in Failed. See Posts and Insights.

Where to go next

• Posts and Insights — what happens to a post after you publish or schedule it.
• Connecting accounts — adding the accounts the composer publishes to.
• OAuth apps — every platform’s limits on text, images and threads.