mdcast

A CLI tool to cross post Markdown articles into Medium, Dev.to and Hashnode.

Installation

npm install mdcast

Usage

1. Initialize Configuration

First, initialize your project configuration:

mdcast init

This will create a mdcast.config.json file in your current directory with default settings.

2. Set Environment Variables

Create a .env file with your API keys (see Configuration Instructions below for details):

# Required for Dev.to
DEVTO_API_KEY=your_api_key
DEVTO_ORG_ID=optional_org_id

# Required for Hashnode
HASHNODE_TOKEN=your_token
HASHNODE_PUB_ID=optional_pub_id

# Required for Medium
MEDIUM_TOKEN=your_token
MEDIUM_PUBLICATION_NAME=optional_pub_name

3. Post Your Content

To post your markdown content:

mdcast post path/to/your/article.md --platforms devto,medium,hashnode

Options:

• --platforms: Comma-separated list of platforms to post to (devto, medium, hashnode)
• --dry-run: Test the posting process without actually publishing

Configuration

You can customize your posting preferences in mdcast.config.json:

{
  "devto": {
    "should_publish": true
  },
  "hashnode": {
    "should_hide": false,
    "tags_dictionary": {}
  },
  "medium": {
    "should_publish": true,
    "should_notify_followers": false,
    "tags_dictionary": {}
  },
  "markdown": {
    "frontmatterProperties": {
      "title": "title",
      "description": "description",
      "canonical_url": "canonical_url",
      "tags": "tags",
      "image": "image",
      "date": "date",
      "slug": "slug"
    },
    "link_url_base": "",
    "canonical_url_base": "",
    "image_url_base": ""
  }
}

References

• Medium API
• Dev.to API
• Hashnode API

Configuration Instructions

This README provides instructions for configuring API keys and IDs required for publishing articles on different platforms. Please follow the guidelines below to set up the necessary credentials:

Dev.to

• DEVTO_API_KEY (Required): Your personal Dev.to API key is necessary for authentication. To obtain your API key go to the Settings > Extensions section of your account here.

• DEVTO_ORG_ID (Optional): The ID of the organization under which you want to publish the article. You can find this ID in two ways:

  1. From the organization dashboard page, where the ID is the last part of the URL. (e.g., https://dev.to/dashboard/organization/ORG_ID).
  2. Alternatively, you can use the Dev.to List Organizations endpoint to discover the ID.

Hashnode

• HASHNODE_TOKEN (Required): Your Hashnode personal token is essential for authentication. Ensure you have this token readily available.

• HASHNODE_PUB_ID (Optional): The ID of the publication where you wish to publish the article can be found in two ways:

  1. From the publication's dashboard page, where the ID is the second part of the URL (e.g., https://hashnode.com/PUB_ID/dashboard).

Medium

• MEDIUM_TOKEN (Required): The Medium Integration Token is required for authentication. You can obtain this token by following this link.

• MEDIUM_PUBLICATION_NAME (Optional): Specify the exact name of the Medium publication where you want to publish the article. Make sure it matches the publication name on Medium.

Please ensure you have the required credentials and follow the respective links provided to retrieve them.

Medium Tables with nice formatting (Optional)

Medium does not support tables in markdown, so we need to use a gist to save the table content. GitHub gists provide a nice markdown table formatting. If not provided, the table will be saved as a markdown codeblock.

• GITHUB_TOKEN_MEDIUM_TABLES (Optional): The GitHub token is required for the Medium client to create a gist and save the table content as a markdown file. You can obtain this token by following this link.

You'll need to:

1. Create a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) with gist scope at https://github.com/settings/tokens
2. Add it to your .env file as GITHUB_TOKEN_MEDIUM_TABLES or similar

Tags Configuration

Each platform requires specific tag formats. You can configure tag mappings in your mdcast.config.json under the tags_dictionary field for each platform:

Hashnode Tags

To get tag IDs for Hashnode:

1. Find the tag slug (e.g., "Shadcn UI" -> "shadcn-ui")
2. Query the Hashnode GraphQL API at https://gql.hashnode.com:

   query {
     tag(slug: "shadcn-ui") {
       id
     }
   }

3. Add to config:

   "hashnode": {
     "tags_dictionary": {
       "Shadcn UI": {
         "slug": "shadcn-ui",
         "id": "648b5554f9b78f110ed2c1eb"
       }
     }
   }

Medium Tags

To get tag slugs for Medium:

1. Search for the tag on Medium (e.g., "Shadcn UI")
2. Get the slug from the URL: https://medium.com/tag/shadcn-ui -> shadcn-ui
3. Add to config:

   "medium": {
     "tags_dictionary": {
       "Shadcn UI": {
         "slug": "shadcn-ui"
       }
     }
   }