Agent Skills: Dev.to Publisher

Dev.to Publisher

Use the Dev.to API via direct curl calls to publish and manage articles.

Official docs: https://developers.forem.com/api/v1

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Publish articles to Dev.to
• Update existing articles
• Manage drafts
• Fetch your published articles

Prerequisites

1. Go to https://dev.to/settings/extensions
2. Scroll to "DEV Community API Keys"
3. Generate a new API key

export DEVTO_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

How to Use

All examples below assume you have DEVTO_API_KEY set.

1. Publish an Article

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "My Awesome Article",
    "body_markdown": "## Introduction\n\nThis is my article content.\n\n## Conclusion\n\nThanks for reading!",
    "published": false,
    "tags": ["javascript", "webdev"]
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{id, url, published}'

Response:

{
  "id": 123456,
  "url": "https://dev.to/username/my-awesome-article-abc",
  "published": false
}

2. Publish Immediately

Set published: true to publish right away:

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "Published Article",
    "body_markdown": "Content here...",
    "published": true,
    "tags": ["tutorial"]
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{id, url, published}'

3. Publish with Cover Image

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "Article with Cover",
    "body_markdown": "Content here...",
    "published": true,
    "tags": ["webdev", "tutorial"],
    "main_image": "https://example.com/cover.png"
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{id, url}'

4. Publish from Markdown File

To publish from a markdown file, first convert it to JSON:

cat article.md | jq -Rs '.' > /tmp/content.json

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "My Article Title",
    "body_markdown": "Your article content here...",
    "published": false,
    "tags": ["programming"]
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{id, url, published}'

Managing Articles

5. Get Your Articles

bash -c 'curl -s "https://dev.to/api/articles/me?per_page=10" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}"' | jq '.[] | {id, title, published, url}'

6. Get Published Articles Only

bash -c 'curl -s "https://dev.to/api/articles/me/published?per_page=10" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}"' | jq '.[] | {id, title, url}'

7. Get Unpublished (Drafts)

bash -c 'curl -s "https://dev.to/api/articles/me/unpublished" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}"' | jq '.[] | {id, title}'

8. Get Single Article

Replace <your-article-id> with an actual article ID from the "List My Articles" response (example 5) or from the id field in the create article response (example 1).

bash -c 'curl -s "https://dev.to/api/articles/<your-article-id>" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}"' | jq '{id, title, url, published}'

9. Update an Article

Replace <your-article-id> with an actual article ID from the "List My Articles" response (example 5) or from the id field in the create article response (example 1).

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "Updated Title",
    "body_markdown": "Updated content..."
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X PUT "https://dev.to/api/articles/<your-article-id>" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{id, url}'

10. Publish a Draft

Replace <your-article-id> with an actual article ID from the "List My Articles" response (example 5) or from the id field in the create article response (example 1).

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "published": true
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X PUT "https://dev.to/api/articles/<your-article-id>" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{id, url, published}'

Article Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Description | |-----------|------|-------------| | title | string | Article title (required) | | body_markdown | string | Content in Markdown | | published | boolean | true to publish, false for draft | | tags | array | Up to 4 tags (lowercase, no spaces) | | main_image | string | Cover image URL | | canonical_url | string | Original article URL (for cross-posts) | | series | string | Series name to group articles |

Examples

Tech Tutorial

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "Getting Started with Docker",
    "body_markdown": "## What is Docker?\n\nDocker is a platform for developing...\n\n## Installation\n\n```bash\nbrew install docker\n```\n\n## Your First Container\n\n```bash\ndocker run hello-world\n```",
    "published": true,
    "tags": ["docker", "devops", "tutorial", "beginners"]
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{url}'

Cross-post from Blog

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "My Blog Post",
    "body_markdown": "Content from my blog...",
    "published": true,
    "canonical_url": "https://myblog.com/original-post",
    "tags": ["webdev"]
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{url}'

Article in a Series

Write to /tmp/devto_request.json:

{
  "article": {
    "title": "React Hooks - Part 1: useState",
    "body_markdown": "First part of the series...",
    "published": true,
    "series": "React Hooks Deep Dive",
    "tags": ["react", "javascript", "hooks"]
  }
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://dev.to/api/articles" -H "api-key: ${DEVTO_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/devto_request.json' | jq '{url}'

Guidelines

1. Max 4 tags: Dev.to limits articles to 4 tags
2. Lowercase tags: Tags should be lowercase without spaces
3. Escape markdown: Use jq -Rs to properly escape markdown content
4. Cover images: Must be URLs, not local files
5. Draft first: Set published: false to review before publishing
6. Check response: Always verify the returned URL