LinkDigest Social Link Reader

Overview

A plain fetch of a Xiaohongshu, Douyin or TikTok link returns an app-download page or a login wall, and the content is inside the images and the speech anyway. This skill hands one public post link to LinkDigest and gets back text: the caption, the spoken transcript, the text written on screen or inside images, key points with quotes checked word for word against the source, and a coverage receipt that says what was read and what was not.

It works through either the REST API (POST https://linkdigest.dev/api/v1/digest) or the hosted MCP server (https://linkdigest.dev/mcp, one read-only tool digest_url). The user brings their own LINKDIGEST_API_KEY; the service is pay as you go after 10 free credits.

When to Use

• Use when the user pastes a Xiaohongshu / RedNote (xiaohongshu.com, xhslink.com, rednote.com), Douyin (douyin.com, v.douyin.com), TikTok, YouTube, X or WeChat 公众号 (mp.weixin.qq.com) link and asks what it says, wants a summary, a translation, or the text for research.
• Use when you already tried to fetch such a link and got an app shell, a login wall, or a page with a title and no body.
• Use when the content of a post is inside the images (Xiaohongshu image notes, WeChat long images) or inside the speech (Douyin, TikTok, YouTube) and you need it as text.
• Use when the user wants to learn how a post is built (optional breakdown: hook, timed beats, title formula, call to action, reusable template).

Do not use it for an ordinary article that fetches fine; read that directly, it is faster and free.

Setup

1. The user creates an API key at https://linkdigest.dev/app/keys (sign in with Google or an email link). The key starts with ld_live_. New accounts get 10 free credits once; no card is needed.
2. The user puts the key in the environment of the shell or agent config:

export LINKDIGEST_API_KEY=the_key_the_user_created   # starts with ld_live_

Keep the key in an environment variable or the agent's config. Never paste it into the conversation, a file that is committed, or a log.

Docs: https://linkdigest.dev/docs (English) and https://linkdigest.dev/zh/docs (中文).

How It Works

Step 1: Pick the transport

• REST API: one curl or one urllib call. Use it from scripts and from agents without MCP.
• MCP server: add the remote server once and the agent calls digest_url itself when it meets a link it cannot read. Streamable HTTP, header Authorization: Bearer <key>.
• Python SDK / CLI (pip install "git+https://github.com/jcaiagent7143-ui/linkdigest-mcp#subdirectory=python", standard library only) if the user prefers a typed client. It also ships linkdigest-mcp, a stdio MCP server that forwards to the hosted endpoint.

Step 2: Read the link (REST)

curl -sS -X POST "https://linkdigest.dev/api/v1/digest" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINKDIGEST_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.xiaohongshu.com/explore/<note-id>", "format": "json"}'

Request fields (only url is required):

Step 3: Collect a long job

A short post or a cached link returns 200 with the digest. A long video returns 202 with a jobId. Poll with the job id; do not resend the url, that starts the work again and charges twice.

curl -sS "https://linkdigest.dev/api/v1/digest/<jobId>?format=json&wait=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINKDIGEST_API_KEY"

wait=20 holds the request open up to 20 seconds; repeat until the status is 200. Read coverage and degraded before quoting anything.

Step 4: Or use the MCP server instead

Claude Code:

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