So, like all good things, the idea for this post comes from a tweet:

Tierney @NodeConfCo

@bitandbang

@irreverentmike @amber1ey @CEO_Noor @gatsbyjs @ThePracticalDev Now that there's a @ThePracticalDev API... has anyone built a Gatsby plugin or something that automatically posts new posts?

03:14 AM - 19 Jun 2019

0 4

This is something I've been ruminating on for a bit. I've even tried to build it - a few rtimes! I keep starting in on the work and getting lost in the millions of directions I could take it.

Here's what I'd like: When I publish a new post to my gatsby site, I'd like for that post to appear here on dev.to automatically.

It should:

• recreate my post verbatim, from its original markdown source
• use the canonical_url frontmatter field to make sure I retain SEO goodness on my post
• happen without my intervention
• be agnostic of where my posts are coming from. I use takeshape.io as a headless CMS for my site, so my individual posts aren't in source control
• only take posts from my master branch, since I use feature branches for draft posts from time to time
• use the dev.to API, of course

Nice to have:

• maybe posts should be set to published: false at first, so I can preview/review/update them as needed for dev.to?

Possible approaches for this:

1. Tap into GitHub's webhooks somehow, and fire off a post here
2. Come from a job kicked off after CI, maybe? I use CircleCI, but would like this feature to be fairly implementation agnostic.
3. Use a GitHub App?
4. or a GitHub Action?
5. Perhaps just a lamba function deployed to AWS or Netlify Functions.

So - here's where I ask for your help. Surely there's a simple approach here I haven't thought of, or maybe it's a matter of collecting a few scenarios and building something based on 80/20.

What else am I missing here? I'd love your help. What use cases would you have for a crossposter from your gatsby site? How would you implement it? How can we help each other?