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 Search notes xhs search "美食" --sort popular --type video xhs read Read a note by ID, URL, or short index xhs read 1 / xhs read "https://...?xsec_token=xxx" xhs comments Get comments by ID, URL, or short index xhs comments 1 / xhs comments "https://...?xsec_token=..." xhs comments --all Get ALL comments (auto-paginate) xhs comments "" --all --json xhs sub-comments Get replies to comment xhs sub-comments abc 123 xhs user View user profile xhs user 5f2e123 xhs user-posts 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 Search topics/hashtags xhs topics "旅行" xhs search-user 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 Like a note xhs like 1 / xhs like abc123 xhs like --undo Unlike a note xhs like 1 --undo xhs favorite Bookmark a note xhs favorite 1 xhs unfavorite Remove bookmark xhs unfavorite 1 xhs comment -c "text" Post a comment xhs comment 1 -c "好看！" xhs reply --comment-id ID -c "text" Reply to comment xhs reply 1 --comment-id 456 -c "谢谢" xhs delete-comment Delete own comment xhs delete-comment abc 123 -y Social Command Description Example xhs follow Follow a user xhs follow 5f2e123 xhs unfollow 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 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

:

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.