zhihu — search, read & publish on Zhihu

Two authentication layers, two scripts:

Script	Auth	Capabilities
`scripts/search.py`	`ZHIHU_DEVELOPER_TOKEN` (Bearer)	Search Zhihu, search the web, get hot topics
`scripts/blog.py`	`ZHIHU_COOKIES` (login cookie)	Read/write own articles & answers

No browser, no third-party deps — just

urllib

The connector injects credentials as env vars:

```
ZHIHU_DEVELOPER_TOKEN
```
— Zhihu Developer Platform access secret (Bearer token). Used for search and hot-list queries. Secret — never echo or print it.
```
ZHIHU_COOKIES
```
— a JSON array of
```
{name, value, domain, path, ...}
```
cookies. Used for reading/writing the user's own content. Secret — never echo or print it.

Search CLI (search.py)

scripts/search.py

— search Zhihu and the web. Requires only

ZHIHU_DEVELOPER_TOKEN

(no cookies needed).

SEARCH=$SKILL_DIR/scripts/search.py

# Search Zhihu content (站内搜索) — questions, answers, articles
python3 $SEARCH search "Python 爬虫"
python3 $SEARCH search "Python 爬虫" --count 5

# Search the entire web (全网搜索) — all indexed sites
python3 $SEARCH global "AI Agent"
python3 $SEARCH global "AI Agent" --count 15

# Filter by site or time
python3 $SEARCH global "React" --filter 'host=="github.com"'
python3 $SEARCH global "新闻" --filter 'publish_time>=1720000000'
python3 $SEARCH global "技术" --filter 'host=="github.com" AND publish_time>=1720000000'
python3 $SEARCH global "实时新闻" --db realtime

# Get Zhihu trending topics (热榜)
python3 $SEARCH hot
python3 $SEARCH hot --limit 10

Search commands

Goal	Command
Search Zhihu (max 10 results)	`python3 $SEARCH search "<query>" --count N`
Search entire web (max 20)	`python3 $SEARCH global "<query>" --count N`
Filter by site	`--filter 'host=="example.com"'`
Filter by time	`--filter 'publish_time>=<unix_ts>'`
Search only realtime/static index	`--db realtime` or `--db static`
Zhihu trending topics (max 30)	`python3 $SEARCH hot --limit N`

Search result fields

zhihu_search returns: title, type (Article/Answer), content_id, url, excerpt, vote_up (赞同), comments, author, authority level, edit_time.

global_search returns the same fields plus has_more indicator. The

url

includes utm tracking params from Zhihu's platform.

hot_list returns: rank, title, url, summary, thumbnail.

global_search Filter syntax

```
host=="example.com"
```
— filter by domain (note:
```
host=="zhihu.com"
```
not supported — use
```
search
```
command instead)
```
publish_time>=1720000000
```
— filter by publish time (unix seconds)
Logical operators:
```
AND
```
,
```
OR
```
(must be uppercase)

Parentheses for grouping:

(host=="a.com" OR host=="b.com") AND publish_time>=T

Blog CLI (blog.py)

The skill ships

scripts/blog.py

— self-contained, stdlib only. Requires

ZHIHU_COOKIES

(login cookie).

BLOG=$SKILL_DIR/scripts/blog.py

# Read (run directly)
python3 $BLOG whoami                       # who is logged in
python3 $BLOG articles --limit 20          # my published articles + stats
python3 $BLOG article <article-id>         # one article's details + stats
python3 $BLOG answers --limit 20           # my published answers + stats
python3 $BLOG answer <answer-id>           # one answer's details + stats
python3 $BLOG question <question-id>       # a question's info + whether I answered it

Verify the connection first

python3 $BLOG whoami
# → {"id": "...", "name": "崔庆才丨静觅", "url_token": "cui-qing-cai", ...}

On a

the cookie is expired — tell the user to reconnect at https://auth.acedata.cloud/user/connections (re-capture with the ACE extension). Do not retry in a loop.

Reading recipes

Goal	Command
Who am I	`python3 $BLOG whoami`
My latest articles + vote/comment counts	`python3 $BLOG articles --limit 20`
My latest answers + like/favorite/comment counts	`python3 $BLOG answers --limit 20`
Next page (any list)	add `--offset 20`
One article's stats	`python3 $BLOG article <id>`
One answer's stats (incl. 赞同 voteup)	`python3 $BLOG answer <id>`
A question's info + my answer id (if any)	`python3 $BLOG question <id>`

Article stats:

voteup_count

(赞同),

comment_count

(评论). Zhihu does not expose per-article read counts on these endpoints.

Answer stat caveat: the

answers

list endpoint does not return

voteup_count

(赞同) — it only exposes

like_count

(喜欢),

favorite_count

(收藏) and

comment_count

. For the authoritative 赞同 count of an answer, call

answer <id>

(the single-answer endpoint returns

voteup_count

question <id>

reports

already_answered

my_answer_id

so you know whether to use

answer-question

(new) or

edit-answer

(update).

Publishing — GATED (dry-run unless trailing

--confirm

)

publish

writes to the user's real account. Without a trailing

--confirm

it dry-runs (prints what it would do, changes nothing).

--confirm

is honored only as the last argument, so a title/content containing "--confirm" can never silently go live. Always show the dry-run to the user, get an explicit "yes", then re-run with

--confirm

last.

# Content is HTML. For Markdown, convert to HTML first (e.g. `pandoc -f gfm -t html`).
python3 $BLOG publish --title "标题" --content-file article.html               # dry-run
python3 $BLOG publish --title "标题" --content-file article.html --draft-only --confirm  # save a private draft
python3 $BLOG publish --title "标题" --content-file article.html --confirm     # PUBLIC, goes live

```
--draft-only
```
stops after saving a private draft (safe — nothing public).
Without
```
--draft-only
```
, the article is published publicly under the user's name. Default to
```
--draft-only
```
unless the user clearly asked to go live.
Images are auto-hosted. Zhihu strips any
```
<img>
```
whose
```
src
```
is not on its own CDN, so on
```
--confirm
```
the CLI re-uploads every external image (HTML
```
<img src>
```
and Markdown
```
![](url)
```
, plus
```
data:
```
URIs) to Zhihu's image service and rewrites the URLs first — images already on
```
*.zhimg.com
```
are left untouched. The result reports
```
images: {found, rehosted, failed}
```
; the dry-run reports
```
images_found
```
. Pass
```
--no-images
```
to skip this. So you can hand the CLI HTML/Markdown with normal public image URLs and the pictures survive.

Answering questions — GATED (dry-run unless trailing

--confirm

)

Two write commands cover the question/answer side. Both gate exactly like

publish

: no trailing

--confirm

→ dry-run;

--confirm

is honored only as the last argument. Always show the dry-run, get an explicit "yes", then re-run with

--confirm

last.

# Content is HTML (same as articles). For Markdown, convert to HTML first.

# Post a NEW answer to a question
python3 $BLOG answer-question --question <qid> --content-file ans.html                       # dry-run
python3 $BLOG answer-question --question <qid> --content-file ans.html --draft-only --confirm  # PRIVATE draft (safe)
python3 $BLOG answer-question --question <qid> --content-file ans.html --confirm               # PUBLIC, goes live

# Edit an EXISTING answer (replaces its live, public content)
python3 $BLOG edit-answer --id <answer-id> --content-file ans.html             # dry-run
python3 $BLOG edit-answer --id <answer-id> --content-file ans.html --confirm   # overwrites live answer

One answer per question. Zhihu allows a single answer per user per question. If the user already answered,
```
answer-question --confirm
```
returns a clear error telling you to use
```
edit-answer
```
instead — find the existing answer id with
```
answers
```
or
```
question <qid>
```
(which reports
```
my_answer_id
```
).
--draft-only
is the safe path for new answers — it saves a private draft on the question (nothing public). The user reviews it on Zhihu, then you re-run without
```
--draft-only
```
(with
```
--confirm
```
) to publish. Prefer this unless the user clearly asked to go live immediately.
edit-answer
has no private mode — the answer is already public, so any
```
--confirm
```
edit is live immediately. It preserves the answer's current repost setting unless you override with
```
--repost allowed|disallowed
```
.
转载授权 (
```
--repost allowed|disallowed
```
): new answers default to
```
disallowed
```
(don't grant repost rights); editing keeps the current setting.
Images are auto-hosted for answers too — same behavior and
```
--no-images
```
flag as
```
publish
```
.

Gotchas — surface before the user is surprised

This is the user's real Zhihu account. Confirm before any publish / answer / edit; reading exposes their own private drafts.
Cookie expiry: Zhihu cookies are short-lived. A
```
401
```
/
```
403
```
means reconnect at auth.acedata.cloud/user/connections — never loop-retry.
ToS: cookie automation is against most platforms' terms. This only ever acts on the user's own account with their own captured cookie; the user owns that risk. Never use it to scrape other people's content at scale.
Never print
ZHIHU_COOKIES
— it is full account access.
Scope: Zhihu only. Other Chinese platforms (掘金 / CSDN / …) ship as their own per-platform skills (e.g.
```
csdn
```
,
```
juejin
```
), each with its own connector — not a
```
--platform
```
switch here.

Record the output

After you successfully publish and obtain the live result URL, call the built-in

publish_artifact

tool ONCE so the user can track this deliverable in My Outputs:

publish_artifact(kind="article", channel="zhihu", title="<title>", url="<the REAL returned URL>", status="delivered")

Use the real returned URL — never fabricate one. Call it once per published item, only after delivery is confirmed; skip it (or use

status="failed"

) if publishing failed. See

_shared/artifacts.md

zhihu

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

zhihu — search, read & publish on Zhihu

Search CLI (search.py)

Search commands

Search result fields

global_search Filter syntax

Blog CLI (blog.py)

Verify the connection first

Reading recipes

Publishing — GATED (dry-run unless trailing
`--confirm`
)

Answering questions — GATED (dry-run unless trailing
`--confirm`
)

Gotchas — surface before the user is surprised

Record the output

zhihu

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

zhihu — search, read & publish on Zhihu

Search CLI (search.py)

Search commands

Search result fields

global_search Filter syntax

Blog CLI (blog.py)

Verify the connection first

Reading recipes

Publishing — GATED (dry-run unless trailing --confirm)

Answering questions — GATED (dry-run unless trailing --confirm)

Gotchas — surface before the user is surprised

Record the output

Publishing — GATED (dry-run unless trailing
`--confirm`
)

Answering questions — GATED (dry-run unless trailing
`--confirm`
)