How to Use posterly with Poke: Text Your Agent to the First Approved Schedule

Poke is the agent you text. You do not want to open a laptop to queue LinkedIn. That is the point of wiring posterly into a custom Poke integration: you stay in iMessage or the Poke app, posterly stays the publish layer.

Poke talks to hosted HTTP MCP only. There is no npx, no file_path, no localhost. A one-click recipe has been submitted and is pending. Until it lands, you add the custom integration yourself at poke.com/integrations/new.

This is a new-user walkthrough, from that form to the first approved schedule. The long encyclopaedia is the Poke guide. Fields sit on poster.ly/poke.

Two layers, one thread

• Poke is the chat you already send from your phone. It is not Instagram.
• posterly is accounts, media, the queue, analytics. Buy Starter + API in one checkout ($10 a month). Agency API is $29 a month on Agency. See pricing.

Chat attachments in Poke never reach MCP. A photo you drop into the iMessage thread is not upload_media. For a real file, Poke must call create_media_drop, you open https://www.poster.ly/drop/<token> in the phone browser, then it calls list_media. Why: Solving the 4MB MCP limit.

1. Paste the custom integration

In Poke: Settings, Connections, or open poke.com/integrations/new.

• Name: posterly (any label)
• MCP Server URL: https://www.poster.ly/api/mcp
• API key: pst_live_...

If you do not have a key yet, text Poke first:

You: Set up posterly as my social scheduling agent. I do not have an account. Do not post anything.

Poke: Confirm the email. You will pay and set a password in the browser. I will not take the card.

2. Agent-led signup (you still pay in Safari)

Same public flow as every other client: start_signup, you open checkout, get_signup_session, password in posterly, then the key. Documented at agent signup.

Poke should text you a link, not a JSON blob. When the dashboard shows the key, you paste it into the integration form. Then:

You: Run whoami. Do not post.

Poke: Authenticated. No social accounts yet. Instagram or LinkedIn?

If whoami fails, the URL or bearer header never saved. Do not schedule.

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3. Connect Instagram from your phone (still a browser)

create_connect_session, Poke texts connect_url, you approve Meta in Safari, Poke polls until connected. 30 minutes. If you leave the tab, ask for a new session.

Bluesky and Telegram wait for a credential inside posterly, not in the iMessage thread.

4. Draft, validate, then say send

Text is terse. The contract is not.

1. Poke drafts a caption.
2. validate_post (no row).
3. It shows account, caption, time, media.
4. You reply that this exact post is ok.
5. create_post with confirm: true.

You: Draft a LinkedIn post for Thursday 10:00 UK. Validate. Do not create.

Poke: validate_post passed. No row yet. Say schedule it to queue.

You: Schedule it.

Poke: Scheduled. View in Posterly: [link]

A standing text like "post every Monday" is not confirmation for a specific caption.

5. Media from a phone

Do not attach the video to the Poke thread and hope.

You: Call create_media_drop, text me the /drop/ link, wait, then list_media and validate_post.

Open the drop page in Safari, drop the file, then tell Poke it is done. HEIC from the Camera Roll is rejected. Export JPEG or MP4 first. Plan caps still apply (Starter 500MB through Agency 4GB).

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6. After the first post

Weekly batch with create_posts_batch. Voice with get_learned_voice. Analytics with get_account_analytics. Poke is good at "nudge me at 9am with three gaps". Proposing is fine. Publishing still needs validate-then-confirm.

7. Where this usually breaks

• Stdio snippet pasted into Poke. Poke cannot launch npx. Hosted URL only.
• Photo in the chat thread. Not MCP. Use create_media_drop.
• HEIC. Export JPEG.
• Key never reached the integration form. Signup finished, Poke still cannot whoami.
• Skipped confirm. Tool refuses.

Start by texting Poke

Add the hosted URL from the MCP setup guide, walk agent signup if you are new, then approve one validated post. The short Poke setup page has the form fields.

You keep the thread. posterly keeps the queue. Nothing publishes until you say send.