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Getting Started

This guide walks you through installing Crier and publishing your first post.

Installation

pip install crier

Configure Your First Platform

Let's start with dev.to, which has a simple API key setup:

  1. Go to dev.to/settings/extensions
  2. Generate an API key
  3. Configure Crier:
crier config set devto.api_key YOUR_API_KEY

Verify it works:

crier doctor

You should see dev.to listed as "Healthy".

Create a Markdown Post

Create a file called my-first-post.md:

---
title: "My First Cross-Posted Article"
description: "Testing out Crier for cross-posting"
tags: [testing, crier, automation]
canonical_url: https://myblog.com/my-first-post
published: true
---

This is my first post published with Crier!

## Why Crier?

Because manually posting to multiple platforms is tedious.

Preview Before Publishing

Use --dry-run to see what would be published:

crier publish my-first-post.md --dry-run

Publish

When you're ready:

crier publish my-first-post.md --to devto

Check Publication Status

crier status my-first-post.md

Add More Platforms

Configure additional platforms:

# Bluesky
crier config set bluesky.api_key "handle.bsky.social:app-password"

# Mastodon
crier config set mastodon.api_key "mastodon.social:access-token"

# Hashnode
crier config set hashnode.api_key "your-token"

See Platforms for setup instructions for each platform.

Create Publishing Profiles

Group platforms for convenience:

# Create profiles
crier config profile set blogs devto hashnode
crier config profile set social bluesky mastodon

# Publish to a profile
crier publish my-post.md --profile blogs

Next Steps