Quickstart

This guide walks you through everything you need to schedule your first post. By the end, you'll have:

Created a profile to organize your accounts
Connected a social media account
Scheduled a post to publish

Prerequisites: Make sure you have your API key ready.

Step 1: Create a Profile

Profiles group your social accounts together. For example, you might have a "Personal Brand" profile with your Twitter and LinkedIn, and a "Company" profile with your business accounts.

curl -X POST https://getlate.dev/api/v1/profiles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "My First Profile",
    "description": "Testing the Late API"
  }'

Response:

{
  "_id": "prof_abc123",
  "name": "My First Profile",
  "description": "Testing the Late API",
  "createdAt": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Save the _id value — you'll need it for the next steps.

Now connect a social media account to your profile. This uses OAuth, so it will redirect to the platform for authorization.

curl "https://getlate.dev/api/v1/connect/twitter?profileId=prof_abc123" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

This returns a URL. Open it in a browser to authorize Late to access your Twitter account. After authorization, you'll be redirected back and the account will be connected.

Available Platforms

Replace twitter with any of these:

twitter — Twitter/X
instagram — Instagram (requires Facebook Business)
facebook — Facebook Pages
linkedin — LinkedIn (personal or company)
tiktok — TikTok
youtube — YouTube
pinterest — Pinterest
reddit — Reddit
bluesky — Bluesky
threads — Threads
google_business — Google Business

Step 3: Get Your Connected Accounts

After connecting, list your accounts to get the account ID:

curl "https://getlate.dev/api/v1/accounts" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response:

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "_id": "acc_xyz789",
      "platform": "twitter",
      "username": "yourhandle",
      "profileId": "prof_abc123"
    }
  ]
}

Save the account _id — you need it to create posts.

Step 4: Schedule Your First Post

Now you can schedule a post! Here's how to schedule a tweet for tomorrow at noon:

curl -X POST https://getlate.dev/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "Hello world! This is my first post from the Late API 🚀",
    "scheduledFor": "2024-01-16T12:00:00",
    "timezone": "America/New_York",
    "platforms": [
      {
        "platform": "twitter",
        "accountId": "acc_xyz789"
      }
    ]
  }'

Response:

{
  "_id": "post_123abc",
  "content": "Hello world! This is my first post from the Late API 🚀",
  "status": "scheduled",
  "scheduledFor": "2024-01-16T17:00:00.000Z",
  "platforms": [
    {
      "platform": "twitter",
      "accountId": "acc_xyz789",
      "status": "pending"
    }
  ]
}

Your post is now scheduled and will publish automatically at the specified time.

Posting to Multiple Platforms

You can post to multiple platforms at once. Just add more entries to the platforms array:

curl -X POST https://getlate.dev/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "Cross-posting to all my accounts!",
    "scheduledFor": "2024-01-16T12:00:00",
    "timezone": "America/New_York",
    "platforms": [
      {"platform": "twitter", "accountId": "acc_twitter123"},
      {"platform": "linkedin", "accountId": "acc_linkedin456"},
      {"platform": "bluesky", "accountId": "acc_bluesky789"}
    ]
  }'

Publishing Immediately

To publish right now instead of scheduling, omit scheduledFor and set status to published:

curl -X POST https://getlate.dev/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "This posts immediately!",
    "status": "published",
    "platforms": [
      {"platform": "twitter", "accountId": "acc_xyz789"}
    ]
  }'

Creating a Draft

To save a post without publishing or scheduling:

curl -X POST https://getlate.dev/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "I will finish this later...",
    "status": "draft",
    "platforms": [
      {"platform": "twitter", "accountId": "acc_xyz789"}
    ]
  }'

What's Next?

Now that you've scheduled your first post, explore more features:

Upload media — Add images and videos to your posts
Set up a queue — Create recurring posting schedules
View analytics — Track how your posts perform
Invite team members — Collaborate with your team

Need Help?

Questions? Contact us at miki@getlate.dev

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