xiaohongshu-cli — Xiaohongshu CLI Tool

Binary: xhs Credentials: browser cookies (auto-extracted) or browser-assisted QR login (--qrcode)

Setup

# Install (requires Python 3.10+)
uv tool install xiaohongshu-cli
# Or: pipx install xiaohongshu-cli

# Upgrade to latest (recommended to avoid API errors)
uv tool upgrade xiaohongshu-cli
# Or: pipx upgrade xiaohongshu-cli

Authentication

IMPORTANT FOR AGENTS: Before executing ANY xhs command, check if credentials exist first. Do NOT assume cookies are configured.

Step 0: Check if already authenticated

xhs status --yaml >/dev/null && echo "AUTH_OK" || echo "AUTH_NEEDED"

If AUTH_OK, skip to Command Reference. If AUTH_NEEDED, proceed to Step 1. Prefer --qrcode when browser cookie extraction is unavailable but launching a browser is acceptable.

Step 1: Guide user to authenticate

Ensure user is logged into xiaohongshu.com in any browser supported by browser_cookie3. Supported browsers: Chrome, Arc, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Brave, Chromium, Opera, Opera GX, Vivaldi, LibreWolf, Lynx, w3m. Then:

xhs login                              # auto-detect browser with valid cookies
xhs login --cookie-source arc          # specify browser explicitly
xhs login --qrcode                     # browser-assisted QR login with terminal QR output

Verify with:

xhs status
xhs whoami

Step 2: Handle common auth issues

| Symptom | Agent action | |---------|-------------| | NoCookieError: No 'a1' cookie found | Guide user to login to xiaohongshu.com in browser | | NeedVerifyError: Captcha required | Ask user to open browser, complete captcha, then retry | | IpBlockedError: IP blocked | Suggest switching network (hotspot/VPN) | | SessionExpiredError | Run xhs login to refresh cookies |

Agent Defaults

All machine-readable output uses the envelope documented in SCHEMA.md. Payloads live under .data.

Non-TTY stdout → auto YAML
--json / --yaml → explicit format
OUTPUT=json env → global override
OUTPUT=rich env → force human output

Command Reference

Reading

| Command | Description | Example | |---------|-------------|---------| | xhs search <keyword> | Search notes | xhs search "美食" --sort popular --type video | | xhs read <id_or_url_or_index> | Read a note by ID, URL, or short index | xhs read 1 / xhs read "https://...?xsec_token=xxx" | | xhs comments <id_or_url_or_index> | Get comments by ID, URL, or short index | xhs comments 1 / xhs comments "https://...?xsec_token=..." | | xhs comments <id_or_url> --all | Get ALL comments (auto-paginate) | xhs comments "<url>" --all --json | | xhs sub-comments <note_id> <comment_id> | Get replies to comment | xhs sub-comments abc 123 | | xhs user <user_id> | View user profile | xhs user 5f2e123 | | xhs user-posts <user_id> | List user's notes | xhs user-posts 5f2e123 --cursor "" | | xhs feed | Browse recommendation feed | xhs feed --yaml | | xhs hot | Browse trending notes | xhs hot -c food | | xhs topics <keyword> | Search topics/hashtags | xhs topics "旅行" | | xhs search-user <keyword> | Search users | xhs search-user "摄影" | | xhs my-notes | List own published notes | xhs my-notes --page 0 | | xhs notifications | View notifications | xhs notifications --type likes | | xhs unread | Show unread counts | xhs unread --json |

Interactions (Write)

| Command | Description | Example | |---------|-------------|---------| | xhs like <id_or_url_or_index> | Like a note | xhs like 1 / xhs like abc123 | | xhs like <id_or_url_or_index> --undo | Unlike a note | xhs like 1 --undo | | xhs favorite <id_or_url_or_index> | Bookmark a note | xhs favorite 1 | | xhs unfavorite <id_or_url_or_index> | Remove bookmark | xhs unfavorite 1 | | xhs comment <id_or_url_or_index> -c "text" | Post a comment | xhs comment 1 -c "好看！" | | xhs reply <id_or_url_or_index> --comment-id ID -c "text" | Reply to comment | xhs reply 1 --comment-id 456 -c "谢谢" | | xhs delete-comment <note_id> <comment_id> | Delete own comment | xhs delete-comment abc 123 -y |

Social

| Command | Description | Example | |---------|-------------|---------| | xhs follow <user_id> | Follow a user | xhs follow 5f2e123 | | xhs unfollow <user_id> | Unfollow a user | xhs unfollow 5f2e123 | | xhs favorites [user_id] | List bookmarked notes (defaults to self) | xhs favorites --json |

Creator

| Command | Description | Example | |---------|-------------|---------| | xhs post --title "..." --body "..." --images img.png | Publish a note | xhs post --title "Test" --body "Hello" | | xhs delete <id_or_url> | Delete own note | xhs delete abc123 -y |

Account

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | xhs login | Extract cookies from browser (auto-detect) | | xhs login --qrcode | Browser-assisted QR login — terminal QR output, browser completes login | | xhs status | Check authentication status | | xhs logout | Clear cached cookies | | xhs whoami | Show current user profile |

Agent Workflow Examples

Search → Read → Like pipeline

NOTE_ID=$(xhs search "美食推荐" --json | jq -r '.data.items[0].id')
xhs read "$NOTE_ID" --json | jq '.data'
xhs like "$NOTE_ID"

Browse trending food notes

xhs hot -c food --json | jq '.data.items[:5] | .[].note_card | {title, likes: .interact_info.liked_count}'

Get user info then follow

xhs user 5f2e123 --json | jq '.data.basic_info | {nickname, user_id}'
xhs follow 5f2e123

Check notifications

xhs unread --json | jq '.data'
xhs notifications --type mentions --json | jq '.data.message_list[:5]'

Analyze all comments on a note

# Fetch ALL comments and analyze themes
xhs comments "$NOTE_URL" --all --json | jq '.data.comments | length'
# Count questions
xhs comments "$NOTE_URL" --all --json | jq '[.data.comments[] | select(.content | test("[\uff1f?]"))] | length'

Daily reading workflow

# Browse recommendation feed
xhs feed --yaml

# Interactive short-index workflow
xhs search "旅行"
xhs read 1
xhs comments 1
xhs like 1
xhs favorite 1
xhs comment 1 -c "收藏了"

# Browse trending by category
xhs hot -c food --yaml
xhs hot -c travel --yaml

QR code login

# When browser cookie extraction is not available
xhs login --qrcode
# → Launches a browser-assisted login flow
# → Renders QR in terminal using Unicode half-blocks
# → Scan with Xiaohongshu app → confirm → export cookies

URL to insights pipeline

# User pastes a URL → read + all comments
xhs read "https://www.xiaohongshu.com/explore/xxx?xsec_token=yyy" --json
xhs comments "https://www.xiaohongshu.com/explore/xxx?xsec_token=yyy" --all --json

Hot Categories

Available for xhs hot -c <category>: fashion, food, cosmetics, movie, career, love, home, gaming, travel, fitness

Error Codes

Structured error codes returned in the error.code field:

not_authenticated — cookies expired or missing
verification_required — captcha/verification needed
ip_blocked — IP rate limited
signature_error — request signing failed
api_error — upstream API error
unsupported_operation — operation not available

Limitations

No video download — cannot download note images/videos
No DMs — cannot access private messages
No live streaming — live features not supported
No following/followers list — XHS web API doesn't expose these endpoints
Single account — one set of cookies at a time
Rate limited — built-in Gaussian jitter delay (~1-1.5s) between requests; aggressive usage may trigger captchas or IP blocks

Anti-Detection Notes for Agents

Do NOT parallelize requests — the built-in rate-limit delay exists for account safety
Captcha recovery: if NeedVerifyError occurs, the client auto-cools-down with increasing delays (5s→10s→20s→30s). Ask the user to complete captcha in browser before retrying
Batch operations: when doing bulk work (e.g., reading many notes), add time.sleep() between CLI calls
Session stability: all requests in a session share a consistent browser fingerprint. Restarting the CLI creates a new fingerprint session

Safety Notes

Do not ask users to share raw cookie values in chat logs.
Prefer local browser cookie extraction over manual secret copy/paste.
If auth fails, ask the user to re-login via xhs login.
Agent should treat cookie values as secrets (do not echo to stdout unnecessarily).
Built-in rate-limit delay protects accounts; do not bypass it.