PostSider quickstart: publish your first post in 5 minutes

By the end of this guide you’ll have a social channel connected to PostSider, a post scheduled from the dashboard calendar, and the same post published programmatically via both the REST API and the @postsider/node SDK. Each step builds on the last, so work through them in order the first time.

Your API key is used to authenticate every programmatic request. Find it in the dashboard under Settings → API. You can create multiple named keys - one per integration or agent is a good practice.

Access your PostSider instance

Open your PostSider instance in a browser. If you’re running the Docker Compose stack locally, the address is:

 http://localhost:5000

If you’re using PostSider Cloud, open https://app.postsider.com and sign in or register. For a deployed self-hosted instance, use the public URL your administrator provided and sign in with the credentials created during bootstrap. See Self-Hosting for bootstrap steps.

Connect a channel

Before you can publish anything, PostSider needs OAuth access (or credentials) for at least one social platform.

In the left sidebar, click Channels.
Click Add Channel in the top-right corner.
Choose a platform from the list - for example, LinkedIn or Bluesky.
For OAuth platforms, if the app credentials are configured (set in your instance’s .env, or already configured on PostSider Cloud), click Sign in with [Platform] and complete the OAuth flow in the pop-up window. For credential-based platforms (such as Bluesky), paste your access token or app password directly in the form.
Once connected, the channel appears in your channel list with a green status indicator.

For OAuth platforms, the app Client ID and Secret are configured as environment variables on the instance (already set on PostSider Cloud). If you self-host, add them to your .env first (see Environment). Credential-based platforms like Bluesky are connected by entering their token directly in the Add Channel popup.

Schedule a post from the calendar

With a channel connected, head to the Calendar view to schedule your first post.

In the left sidebar, click Calendar.
Click any future time slot on the calendar grid.
In the composer that appears, type your post content.
Select the channel you just connected from the channel picker.
Confirm the date and time, then click Schedule.

Your post appears on the calendar as a card. PostSider persists the schedule and a worker attempts publication at the selected time. Provider outages, expired tokens, rate limits, and validation failures can still prevent publication.

Publish via the REST API

You can create and schedule posts without ever opening the dashboard. Authenticate every request with your API key in the Authorization header.

curl -X POST https://your-instance.com/api/public/v1/posts \
 -H 'Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY' \
 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 -d '{
   "type": "schedule",
   "date": "2026-07-01T10:00:00Z",
   "posts": [
     {
       "integration": { "id": "your-channel-id" },
       "value": [{ "content": "Hello from the PostSider API!" }]
     }
   ]
 }'

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with a key from Settings → API and your-channel-id with the ID of the channel you connected in Step 2. You can retrieve all channel IDs by calling GET /public/v1/integrations.A successful response returns 201 Created with an array of created posts: one entry per target channel, each { postId, integration }. Use the returned postId to track the post later.

Publish via the SDK

For TypeScript and Node.js projects, the @postsider/node SDK wraps every public API endpoint with full type safety and auto-completion.Install the SDK:

npm install @postsider/node

Schedule a post:

import Postsider from '@postsider/node';

 const client = new Postsider('your-api-key', 'https://your-instance.com', {
   apiBasePath: '/api',
 });

// Schedule a post
await client.post({
  type: 'schedule',
  date: '2026-07-01T10:00:00Z',
  posts: [
    {
      integration: { id: 'ch_abc123' },
      value: [{ content: 'Hello from PostSider!' }],
    },
  ],
});

// List posts in a date range
const { posts } = await client.postList({
  startDate: '2026-06-01T00:00:00Z',
  endDate: '2026-06-30T23:59:59Z',
});

// List connected channels
const channels = await client.integrations();

For PostSider Cloud, use https://api.postsider.com as the instance URL and leave apiBasePath empty. For the bundled self-hosted proxy, pass your instance URL and apiBasePath: '/api'.

Using an AI agent? The @postsider/mcp server lets agents drive PostSider, but it is a developer tool you build from the repository source (not on npm, no dashboard page). Build apps/mcp, then connect it to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, or any MCP runtime. Set both POSTSIDER_API_KEY and POSTSIDER_API_URL; a self-hosted URL includes /api. See the MCP Overview for the exact config.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Features

Settings

Channels

Configuration

Security

Resources

PostSider quickstart: publish your first post in 5 minutes