How to Make a Twitter Bot in Python With Tweepy – Real Python

Hello Tweepy

To start, here’s how you can use Tweepy to create a tweet saying Hello Tweepy:

import tweepy

# Authenticate to Twitter
auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler("CONSUMER_KEY", "CONSUMER_SECRET")
auth.set_access_token("ACCESS_TOKEN", "ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET")

# Create API object
api = tweepy.API(auth)

# Create a tweet
api.update_status("Hello Tweepy")

This is a short example, but it shows the four steps common to all Tweepy programs:

1. Import the tweepy package
2. Set the authentication credentials
3. Create a new tweepy.API object
4. Use the api object to call the Twitter API

Objects belonging to the tweepy.API class offer a vast set of methods that you can use to access almost all Twitter functionality. In the code snippet, we used update_status() to create a new Tweet.

We will see later in this article how the authentication works and how you can create the required authentication key, token, and secrets.

This is just a little example of what you can do with Tweepy. Through this article, you’ll learn how to build programs that interact with Twitter in much more interesting and complex ways.

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Twitter API

The Twitter API gives developers access to most of Twitter’s functionality. You can use the API to read and write information related to Twitter entities such as tweets, users, and trends.

Technically, the API exposes dozens of HTTP endpoints related to:

• Tweets
• Retweets
• Likes
• Direct messages
• Favorites
• Trends
• Media

Tweepy, as we’ll see later, provides a way to invoke those HTTP endpoints without dealing with low-level details.

The Twitter API uses OAuth, a widely used open authorization protocol, to authenticate all the requests. Before making any call to the Twitter API, you need to create and configure your authentication credentials. Later in this article, you’ll find detailed instructions for this.

You can leverage the Twitter API to build different kinds of automations, such as bots, analytics, and other tools. Keep in mind that Twitter imposes certain restrictions and policies about what you can and cannot build using its API. This is done to guarantee users a good experience. The development of tools to spam, mislead users, and so on is forbidden.

The Twitter API also imposes rate limits about how frequently you’re allowed to invoke API methods. If you exceed these limits, you’ll have to wait between 5 and 15 minutes to be able to use the API again. You must consider this while designing and implementing bots to avoid unnecessary waits.

You can find more information about the Twitter API’s policies and limits in its official documentation:

• Twitter Automation
• Rate limits