Project
Mastodon Toot Client
A Rust CLI bot for scheduling and automating Mastodon posts from plain-text files — safe, stateless, and deployable as a cron job.
The problem
Mastodon’s official apps don’t support scheduling or file-based content. Automating posts for a personal account — say, a weekly architecture tip from a text file — required either a Python script with fragile state management or a paid third-party service.
Approach
Built a stateless Rust CLI: reads a text file of toots (one per line), posts the next unposted one to the Mastodon API, and marks it done by moving the line to a done file. Runs as a GitHub Actions cron job — no server required, credentials stored as Actions secrets.
Trade-offs
- Stateless file-append over a database: Simpler deployment and easier to audit. The “done” file doubles as a history log.
- Rust over Python: Compile-time guarantees matter when the binary runs unattended. The async Tokio runtime handles the HTTP call without blocking.
Outcome
A zero-dependency automation that posts on a schedule without any hosted infrastructure. The approach generalises to any API-driven content automation with similar stateless patterns.