A Python bot that automates several actions on Twitter, such as following users and favoriting tweets.
Project description
A Python bot that automates several actions on Twitter, such as following users and favoriting tweets.
Disclaimer
I hold no liability for what you do with this bot or what happens to you by using this bot. Abusing this bot can get you banned from Twitter, so make sure to read up on proper usage of the Twitter API.
Installation
You can install the Twitter Follow Bot using pip:
pip install TwitterFollowBot
Dependencies
You will need to install Python’s python-twitter library:
pip install twitter
Although this library should be installed along with the Twitter Follow Bot if you used pip.
You will also need to create an app account on https://dev.twitter.com/apps
Sign in with your Twitter account
Create a new app account
Modify the settings for that app account to allow read & write
Generate a new OAuth token with those permissions
Following these steps will create 4 tokens that you will need to place in the configuration file discussed below.
Usage
Configuring the bot
Before running the bot, you must first set it up so it can connect to the Twitter API. Create a config.txt file and fill in the following information:
OAUTH_TOKEN: OAUTH_SECRET: CONSUMER_KEY: CONSUMER_SECRET: TWITTER_HANDLE: ALREADY_FOLLOWED_FILE:already-followed.txt FOLLOWERS_FILE:followers.txt FOLLOWS_FILE:following.txt USERS_KEEP_FOLLOWING: USERS_KEEP_UNMUTED: USERS_KEEP_MUTED:
OAUTH_TOKEN, OAUTH_SECRET, CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET are your API keys that you received from creating your app account. TWITTER_HANDLE is your Twitter name, case-sensitive.
You can change the FILE entries if you want to store that information in a specific location on your computer. By default, the files will be created in your current directory.
Add comma-separated Twitter user IDs to the USERS_KEEP entries to:
USERS_KEEP_FOLLOWING: Keep following these users even if they don’t follow you back.
USERS_KEEP_UNMUTED: Keep these users unmuted (i.e., you receive a mobile notification when they tweet)
USERS_KEEP_MUTED: Keep these users muted (i.e., you don’t receive a mobile notification when they tweet)
For example:
... FOLLOWS_FILE:following.txt USERS_KEEP_FOLLOWING:1234,1235,1236 USERS_KEEP_UNMUTED: ...
You can look up a users’ Twitter ID here.
Create an instance of the bot
To create an instance of the bot:
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot my_bot = TwitterBot()
By default, the bot will look for a configuration file called config.txt in your current directory.
If you want to use a different configuration file, pass the configuration file to the bot as follows:
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot("my-other-bot-config.txt")
Note that this allows you to run multiple instances of the bot with different configurations, for example if you run multiple Twitter accounts:
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_other_bot = TwitterBot("my-other-bot-config.txt")
Syncing your Twitter following locally
Due to Twitter API rate limiting, the bot must maintain a local cache of all of your followers so it doesn’t use all of your API time looking up your followers. It is highly recommended to sync the bot’s local cache daily:
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot my_bot = TwitterBot() my_bot.sync_follows()
The bot will create cache files where you specified in the configuration file.
DO NOT delete the cache files (“followers.txt”, “follows.txt”, and “already-followed.txt” by default) unless you want to start the bot over with a fresh cache.
Automating Twitter actions with the bot
This bot has several functions for programmatically interacting with Twitter:
Automatically follow any users that tweet something with a specific phrase
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.auto_follow("phrase")
You can also search based on hashtags:
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.auto_follow("#hashtag")
By default, the bot looks up the 100 most recent tweets. You can change this number with the count parameter:
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.auto_follow("phrase", count=1000)
Automatically follow any users that have followed you
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot my_bot = TwitterBot() my_bot.auto_follow_followers()
Automatically follow any users that follow a user
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.auto_follow_followers_of_user("jack", count=1000)
Automatically favorite any tweets that have a specific phrase
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.auto_fav("phrase", count=1000)
Automatically retweet any tweets that have a specific phrase
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.auto_rt("phrase", count=1000)
Automatically unfollow any users that have not followed you back
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot my_bot = TwitterBot() my_bot.auto_unfollow_nonfollowers()
You will need to manually edit the code if you want to add special users that you will keep following even if they don’t follow you back.
Automatically mute all users that you have followed
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot my_bot = TwitterBot() my_bot.auto_mute_following()
You will need to manually edit the code if you want to add special users that you will not mute.
Automatically unmute everyone you have muted
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot my_bot = TwitterBot() my_bot.auto_unmute()
You will need to manually edit the code if you want to add special users that will remain muted.
Post a tweet on twitter
from TwitterFollowBot import TwitterBot
my_bot = TwitterBot()
my_bot.send_tweet("Hello world!")
Have questions? Need help with the bot?
If you’re having issues with or have questions about the bot, please file an issue in this repository so one of the project managers can get back to you. Please check the existing (and closed) issues to make sure your issue hasn’t already been addressed.
Release history Release notifications | RSS feed
Download files
Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.
