How to Post to Social Media from a Cron Job or GitHub Actions

Not every social post starts with someone opening a scheduler. A weekly tip can go out from a cron job, and a release announcement can fire when a build finishes. OneUp's REST API makes both possible with a single curl call. Here's how to set them up.

What you need

• Your OneUp API key, from the API Access page
• A category ID and the account IDs you want to post to. Get them from the listcategory and listcategoryaccount endpoints, as shown in our command-line scheduling guide.

OneUp passes the API key as an apiKey query parameter, so treat it like a password. Keep it in a secrets store or a locked-down environment file, never in the script itself.

A reusable shell script

Save this as post.sh. It schedules a text post ten minutes from now and fails loudly if OneUp reports an error:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

response=$(curl -sS -G -X POST "https://www.oneupapp.io/api/scheduletextpost" \
  --data-urlencode "apiKey=${ONEUP_API_KEY}" \
  --data-urlencode "category_id=${ONEUP_CATEGORY_ID}" \
  --data-urlencode "social_network_id=[\"${ONEUP_ACCOUNT_ID}\"]" \
  --data-urlencode "scheduled_date_time=$(date -d '+10 minutes' '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')" \
  --data-urlencode "content=$1")

if ! echo "$response" | jq -e '.error == false' > /dev/null; then
  echo "OneUp returned an error: $response" >&2
  exit 1
fi

echo "$response"

A few notes:

• date -d is GNU date, so this works on Linux. On macOS, use date -v+10M instead.
• OneUp expects YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM. Check the API docs for how that time is interpreted against your account's timezone before relying on it for time-sensitive posts.
• The documented success response includes "error": false, which is what the jq check looks for.

Running it from cron

Put the variables in a file only your user can read:

chmod 600 /etc/oneup.env

Then call the script from your crontab, for example every Monday at 9 AM:

0 9 * * 1 . /etc/oneup.env && /usr/local/bin/post.sh "Monday tip: schedule your week in one sitting."

This keeps the key out of the crontab and out of process listings.

Running it from GitHub Actions

This workflow announces a release when it's published. The key lives in a repository secret, and the release details are passed through environment variables rather than pasted into the script:

name: Announce release
on:
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  announce:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Schedule announcement on OneUp
        env:
          ONEUP_API_KEY: ${ { secrets.ONEUP_API_KEY } }
          ONEUP_CATEGORY_ID: ${ { vars.ONEUP_CATEGORY_ID } }
          ONEUP_ACCOUNT_ID: ${ { vars.ONEUP_ACCOUNT_ID } }
          RELEASE_NAME: ${ { github.event.release.name } }
          RELEASE_URL: ${ { github.event.release.html_url } }
        run: |
          response=$(curl -sS -G -X POST "https://www.oneupapp.io/api/scheduletextpost" \
            --data-urlencode "apiKey=${ONEUP_API_KEY}" \
            --data-urlencode "category_id=${ONEUP_CATEGORY_ID}" \
            --data-urlencode "social_network_id=[\"${ONEUP_ACCOUNT_ID}\"]" \
            --data-urlencode "scheduled_date_time=$(date -d '+10 minutes' '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')" \
            --data-urlencode "content=${RELEASE_NAME} is out: ${RELEASE_URL}")
          echo "$response" | jq -e '.error == false' > /dev/null

Passing release data through env instead of interpolating it directly into the run block avoids shell injection from untrusted text like release names.

Keep the key safe

• Don't run curl with -v or other debug flags in a shared pipeline, since the key is part of the request URL.
• Rotate the key if it ever appears in a log.
• Use a repository secret or your CI's secret store, not a plain variable.

Catch failures

A scheduled post can still fail later on a specific network. After important runs, check OneUp's failed-posts endpoint (getfailedposts) or ask a connected coding agent to list failed posts and reschedule them.

Posting images and video

Swap the endpoint for scheduleimagepost (with an image_url) or schedulevideopost (with a video_url). The reference docs list the full parameters.

Ready to automate your posting? Read OneUp's API documentation.