Every step in the template

LinkedIn content pipeline

A weekly content pipeline where you drop raw notes in a folder, the agent drafts LinkedIn posts in your voice, you review and approve in Dock, and the publish script ships one per posting day to your LinkedIn profile.

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Outcome

Time45 min setup, ongoing ~15 min/week reviewDifficultyintermediateForFounders, operators, and execs who want a Mon/Wed/Fri LinkedIn cadence without the daily writing cost.

How this works

Open it, hand it to your agent, walk the steps.

Paste this to your agent (Claude / Cursor / Codex)

You are the agent running on the "LinkedIn content pipeline" template workspace, connected via MCP at your-org/linkedin-content-pipeline.

Your job: read the content inbox folder, draft a LinkedIn post per item using the Style guide doc, queue each draft in Post queue at Status=Draft. Never publish.

User-loop protocol:
- You propose. The operator decides. Never flip Status past Draft. Never call the LinkedIn Posts API.
- Sunday evening (or "draft posts"): list files in CONTENT_INBOX_DIR. Skip names already in processed_content.json or starting with a dot. For each new file, read the contents. If the file body starts with http://, fetch the URL and use the page text as source. Otherwise use the raw file content.
- Read Style guide (doc) for voice, topics, format preference, things to avoid, example posts. Pass everything into a single Claude prompt that returns JSON with hook, full_text, source_summary.
- Add a Post queue row: Draft (full text), Hook (first 1-2 lines), Source (filename or URL), Status=Draft, Scheduled For=blank, Posted At=blank.
- Append the file ID to processed_content.json so the same source never produces two drafts.
- End of every working session, write 1 paragraph to Status: files processed, drafts queued, next due Sunday.

Don't touch:
- Post queue.Status (Draft / Approved / Posted is the operator's flow).
- Post queue.Posted At (the publish script stamps this).
- LinkedIn credentials in .env (those are operator-only, refreshed every 60 days).

First MCP tool calls:
1. list_surfaces(workspace_slug="linkedin-content-pipeline")
2. get_doc(workspace_slug="linkedin-content-pipeline", surface_slug="style-guide")
3. get_doc(workspace_slug="linkedin-content-pipeline", surface_slug="status")

What you'll need

Pre-register or install before you start.

DockFree plan covers this template; Pro $19/mo unlocks more workspaces.

The workspace itself, the Post queue table, the Style guide doc the agent reads on every draft.

Anthropic APIPay per token, ~$0.01 per drafted post on Sonnet.

Claude drafts each post from the source material plus the Style guide.

LinkedIn Posts APIFree. Access tokens expire every 60 days; the publish script fails loudly with refresh instructions.

Official LinkedIn Posts API endpoint used by the publish script. Requires a Developer App with w_member_social + profile scopes.

CueAPI (optional)Free tier covers weekly + tri-weekly cadence.

Cloud-scheduled run so the Sunday draft and Mon/Wed/Fri publish keep working when your laptop is closed.

The template · 5 steps

Top to bottom. Each step has tasks, pointers, gotchas.

Define your voice in the Style guide

15 min

The single biggest lever on draft quality is the Style guide. The doc surface is pre-seeded with sections for VOICE (2-3 adjectives), TOPICS (3-5 you want to be known for), FORMAT (narrative / list / punchy / mix), AVOID (phrases or clichés you hate), and EXAMPLES (1-3 LinkedIn posts that match the tone you want). The agent reads this on every draft.

Tasks

Open Style guide (doc). Fill in VOICE with 2-3 adjectives (e.g. direct and opinionated, conversational and story-driven, data-focused).
List 3-5 TOPICS you want to be known for (e.g. operational scaling, building remote teams, PE portfolio management).
Pick a FORMAT preference (narrative posts, list posts, short punchy takes, or a mix).
List things to AVOID: clichés, hashtags, em dashes, generic openers, anything else.
Paste 1-3 EXAMPLE posts you like, even if they aren't yours. These do more for voice match than every other knob combined.

Gotchas

Skipping the EXAMPLES section is the #1 reason drafts feel off. Add 1-3 examples first; tune everything else after.
AVOID rules are honored when explicit. Saying 'no em dashes' is more reliable than 'don't be cringe'.

Get LinkedIn credentials

15 min

The publish script uses the official LinkedIn Posts API. You need a LinkedIn Developer App with the right scopes, an access token, and your LinkedIn person ID. Tokens expire every 60 days; the publish script fails loudly with refresh instructions.

Tasks

Go to https://www.linkedin.com/developers/apps and create a new app
Under Auth, add w_member_social and profile to OAuth 2.0 scopes
Use the OAuth 2.0 tools tab to generate an access token, both scopes selected
Get your person ID: curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' https://api.linkedin.com/v2/me, copy the id field
Set LINKEDIN_ACCESS_TOKEN and LINKEDIN_PERSON_ID in .env
Set a calendar reminder for 55 days from now to refresh the token before it expires

Gotchas

Access tokens expire after 60 days. The publish script catches 401s and prints the refresh URL, but you still need to act on the reminder.
If you get a 422 on publish, your person ID is wrong. Re-run the /v2/me curl to verify.

Wire .env + the two Python scripts

10 min

Two scripts: generate_posts.py drafts on Sunday, publish_posts.py ships on Mon/Wed/Fri. Both read .env, both run as standalone CueAPI handlers. Install Anthropic, requests, dotenv, drop the scripts from Setup guide.

Tasks

Open Setup guide (doc) and copy generate_posts.py + publish_posts.py into a local folder
Run pip install anthropic requests python-dotenv
Create .env with DOCK_API_KEY, DOCK_WORKSPACE_SLUG, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, LINKEDIN_ACCESS_TOKEN, LINKEDIN_PERSON_ID, CONTENT_INBOX_DIR=./content-inbox, STYLE_GUIDE_FILE=./style_guide.txt, MAX_POSTS_PER_RUN=1, CLAUDE_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-6
Generate a Dock API key at trydock.ai/settings/api
mkdir content-inbox; drop 1-2 test files (a short note, a URL on its own line)
Run python generate_posts.py once. Confirm Post queue rows appear at Status=Draft.

Gotchas

MAX_POSTS_PER_RUN defaults to 1 on purpose. Bumping it to 5 means you can rapid-fire 5 posts per run, which reads like a bot to LinkedIn's algorithm. Keep it at 1.
CONTENT_INBOX_DIR must exist before the first run. The script creates it if missing, but the run that creates it has nothing to draft.

Agent prompt for this step

Run a first draft of the inbox. Read every new file in CONTENT_INBOX_DIR (skip names in processed_content.json or starting with a dot). For URL files, fetch the page and use the text as source. For text files, use the raw content. Read Style guide doc for voice + format. Draft a post per file via Claude. Add each as a Post queue row at Status=Draft. Append file IDs to processed_content.json. Post a Status entry summarizing: files processed, drafts queued.

Schedule the Sunday draft + Mon/Wed/Fri publish

10 min

Two cron tasks: generate weekly on Sunday at 6 PM, publish Mon/Wed/Fri at 9 AM. With MAX_POSTS_PER_RUN=1, this gives a natural 3 posts/week even if more are approved. CueAPI is the right pick for cloud-scheduled runs.

Tasks

Option A, cron: crontab -e, add `0 18 * * 0 cd /path && source .env && python3 generate_posts.py >> generate.log 2>&1` and `0 9 * * 1,3,5 cd /path && source .env && python3 publish_posts.py >> publish.log 2>&1`
Option B, CueAPI: pip install cueapi cueapi-worker, then cueapi create --schedule '0 18 * * 0' --name 'LinkedIn Generate' and cueapi create --schedule '0 9 * * 1,3,5' --name 'LinkedIn Publish'. Start the worker pointing at each handler.
Confirm next Sunday: Status has a fresh session entry, Post queue has fresh Draft rows for everything you dropped that week.
Confirm next Monday: one Approved row flips to Posted + Posted At gets stamped + the post appears on your LinkedIn profile.

Gotchas

If you've approved 5 posts and only want 3 to ship that week, the script handles that automatically with MAX_POSTS_PER_RUN=1 + the Mon/Wed/Fri schedule. Approved posts wait their turn.
Scheduled For is optional. Blank means publish on the next eligible run. Setting a future date means the post waits until that date.

Set the weekly batch + review cadence

15 min/week ongoing

The whole pipeline assumes one batch session per week. Sunday evening is the typical pattern: drop 5 files in the inbox, the agent drafts everything overnight, you spend 15 minutes Monday reviewing and approving. Then Mon/Wed/Fri ship without further input.

Tasks

Block 15 min on the calendar Sunday evening to drop content + 15 min Monday morning to review
Drop 3-5 inbox files: a meeting insight as a .txt note, an article URL on its own line in a .txt file, etc.
Monday morning: open Post queue. Read the drafts. Edit Draft in place if needed. Set Scheduled For if you want a specific date. Flip Status to Approved.
Walk away. Mon/Wed/Fri 9 AM the publish script does the rest.
Tune Style guide as the drafts go live: notice a phrasing pattern you don't like, add it to AVOID. Drafts feel generic, add another EXAMPLE post.

Gotchas

Skipping the Monday review means nothing ships. The publish script no-ops when nothing is Approved.
Editing a draft after it's been published does nothing (LinkedIn doesn't sync from Dock). Edit before the publish day.

FAQ

Common questions on this template.

How do I get the voice right?: Add 1-3 example LinkedIn posts you like to the EXAMPLES section of the Style guide. They don't have to be yours, but they should match the tone you want. Examples beat every other knob (adjectives, AVOID rules, format pref) for voice match. Read drafts after a few weeks; if a phrase keeps appearing that you'd never say, add it to AVOID.
Does the agent post to LinkedIn on its own?: No. The agent drafts and queues. You read, edit, optionally set a date, flip Status to Approved. Only then does the publish script ship via the LinkedIn Posts API. The agent never calls the LinkedIn API directly.
What if I want more than 3 posts per week?: Bump MAX_POSTS_PER_RUN above 1, or change the publish cron to fire daily instead of Mon/Wed/Fri. Keep MAX_POSTS_PER_RUN low though, posting 5 in one run reads as bot-like. The default is deliberately conservative.
Can I drop URLs in the inbox instead of writing notes?: Yes. A file containing only a URL (one line, starts with http://) gets fetched. The script strips HTML and uses the page text as source material for the draft. Useful for riffing on articles without copy-pasting them yourself.
What happens when my LinkedIn token expires?: Tokens expire every 60 days. The publish script catches 401s and prints the exact refresh URL plus next steps. Generate a new token from your LinkedIn Developer App, paste into LINKEDIN_ACCESS_TOKEN, re-run. Set a 55-day calendar reminder so the token never lapses without you noticing.

Open this template as a workspace.

We mint a fresh copy in your org with the steps as table rows, the pointers as a separate table, and the brief as a doc. Bring your agents, start checking off boxes.

Open in Dock