Skip to content
weibo

Configuration

Environment variables and global flags, with their defaults.

weibo needs no configuration file. Every option is a flag or an environment variable, and the defaults are chosen so the four open commands need neither.

user and posts read from endpoints that return ok:-100 for anonymous callers. Supply a session cookie from a logged-in browser:

# inline flag (stays out of shell history if you quote it)
weibo user 2656274875 --cookie 'SUB=xxx; SUBP=yyy'

# preferred: set it once in the environment
export WEIBO_COOKIE='SUB=xxx; SUBP=yyy'
weibo user 2656274875
weibo posts 2656274875

How to get the cookie:

  1. Open weibo.com in Chrome and log in.
  2. Press F12, go to Application → Cookies → weibo.com.
  3. Copy SUB and SUBP values, paste them as SUB=<value>; SUBP=<value>.

The cookie is your live browser session. Treat it like a password — do not commit it to source control or put it in shell history. When it expires (a few days to a few weeks depending on your session), copy fresh values.

Environment variables

Variable Used for
WEIBO_COOKIE Session cookie for user and posts (SUB=xxx; SUBP=yyy)

Global flags

Flag Default Meaning
-o, --output auto table, list, markdown, json, jsonl, csv, tsv, url, raw
-n, --limit command default Max records per command
--fields all Comma-separated columns to keep, in order
--template none Go text/template applied per record
--no-header off Omit the header row in table/csv/tsv output
--cookie none Session cookie for gated commands
--user-agent Chrome/Safari UA Override the User-Agent header
--rate 500ms Min delay between requests
--timeout 30s Per-request timeout
--retries 3 Retry attempts on 429 or 5xx
-q, --quiet off Suppress progress output on stderr
-v, --verbose 0 Increase verbosity (repeatable)
--color auto auto, always, or never
--dry-run off Print actions without performing them
--no-cache off Bypass on-disk caches
--data-dir ~/.local/share/weibo Override the data directory
--db none Tee every record into a store
--profile none Named profile to load

Rate limiting and retries

--rate sets the minimum gap between consecutive requests (default 500ms). On a 429 or 5xx response, weibo backs off with exponential delay (500ms × attempt, capped at 5s) and retries up to --retries times before giving up.

Output auto-detection

The default output format adapts to where it is going: an aligned table when writing to a terminal, JSONL when piped. That keeps interactive use readable and scripted use parseable without setting -o either way. See output formats for the full set.

3 min read