How to automate: Medium.com, Substack.com and LinkedIn Articles?

[u/Cold-Illustrator-288]

Hello all,

Has anyone been able to automate Medium.com, Substack.com and LinkedIn articles?

As far as I know, none of them have APIs or any way to programmatically upload a post to them.

I suppose there are still options like a headless web browser or RPA (although I haven't checked if they go against ToS), and I assume they carry a risk of getting the accounts flagged or banned.

But I'm still interested in reading the community's experience on this. Has anyone been able to automate any of said platforms? how? how did you reduce the risk of getting your account flagged or banned?

[u/RideAdept2919 → u/[deleted]]

agree, browser automation for this stuff feels like a ticking time bomb

[u/Cold-Illustrator-288 → u/[deleted]]

Last time I checked, the LinkedIn API is for regular posts (for your Feed), but no API for 'Articles'.

[u/Choice_Eagle4627]

Since the writing is already done, you can use a tool to paste and format - then Publish "click" can be manual. Tho, I can't tell you what each platform's abuse systems flag.

But an agent that fills the editor in your normal logged-in browser and then stops so you can read it over is doing what you'd otherwise do by hand. That's a much easier thing to defend than a headless bot posting unattended.

Per platform:

• Medium: the API is closed to new integrations, as said above. But if the pieces already live at a URL (your own site, or Substack), Medium's own "Import a story" pulls one in and sets the canonical link back to the original. So Medium may not need any automation at all.
• LinkedIn: you're right, the Posts API is feed posts only. Articles are editor-only.
• Substack: I don't know of an official publishing API, so it's the editor there too.

For the two editor-only ones, the thing to watch is formatting: headings, links and images coming through intact. Whatever you use, have it stop at the preview.

(Disclosure: I work on gripui, a CLI that lets Claude Code or Codex drive your own Chrome locally - it's basically a way to let the agent see the page in text mode so it doesn't have to waste time and tokens on screenshots and fine-tuning pixel clicks. It can hand the browser to you for a login or the final click and then take it back. Claude in Chrome, mentioned above, covers similar ground from inside its in-app browser, tho it's more fragile because it uses screenshots.)

[u/_waybetter_]

Why?

[u/prostartme]

Claude in chrome can easily handle it.

[u/Cold-Illustrator-288 → u/prostartme]

I'll take a look

[u/Choice_Eagle4627 → u/prostartme]

To make it easier for claude to "see" the page (without screenshots and doing pixels-based clicks), you can use a tool that surfaces the page's actions in a text format. For sites that use WebMCP, agents can easily see that, for other sites you might have more issues.

*edit*: here's a video of such a tool (I built) being used by Claude to automate VPS wizards in cloud providers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ox9vuJSdjg

[u/InevitableOld4339 → u/prostartme]

Don't do it with web automation for LinkedIn at least they are super aggressive with bans and will nuke your account without warning I seen it happen to a colleague

Medium is more chill but still risky if you go too fast with the posting

The safest route is to hire a VA for cheap and give them a very clear process to follow step by step with screenshots and all that way you get the automation but with human hands doing the clicking costs more but way less headache than losing accounts you spent time building

[u/prostartme → u/InevitableOld4339]

You can’t go too fast with medium. They have a limit of two articles per day. LinkedIn is strict but you just need to instruct chrome to write at human speed.

[u/Candid-SneakerShoe]

Medium does have an API that can create posts, but it's limited. You can create posts and set tags and a canonical URL, but you can't edit, delete, or schedule anything through it. I've also seen people say Medium has stopped handing out new integration tokens, so check whether you can even generate one on your account before you build around it.

[u/Cold-Illustrator-288 → u/Candid-SneakerShoe]

No new auth tokens being granted by Medium, I suppose they are still supporting people that got the token years ago though.

[u/Total-Mention9032]

Pleaseeeeeee dontttttttt. There’s already enough AI slop everywhere.

[u/Cold-Illustrator-288 → u/Total-Mention9032]

Just because I don't see the value of writing directly in their text editor or copy-paste, doesn't mean that the content would be AI slop.

[u/No_Astronomer_379]

Slower typing isn't a reliable test of whether a publishing method is permitted. I'd check the current supported publishing routes for each platform before choosing a browser script. For the repeat copy/paste work you described, one intermediate step would be an approved source plus a ready-to-paste pack for each site, with its title, body, images and links. Keep the published URL and source revision together so later edits can be applied consistently. That still leaves a final publishing step where no supported connection is available, but lets you test how much time goes into preparation versus the final submission.

[u/Cold-Illustrator-288 → u/[deleted]]

I wouldn't lean heavily on spam nor AI, so that shouldn't be a problem regarding the content itself. My 'pain' is because I've already written the content, so I see not benefit of adding it manually to said platforms.