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Dev.to Integration with SmythOS

Want to automate your content publishing workflow? Connect Dev.to to SmythOS and empower your agents to publish articles and create drafts directly on the popular developer community platform.

TL;DR

Securely link your Dev.to account to SmythOS using an API key. Then, use our components to automate the entire publishing process, from creating a draft to publishing a final article.

List of Dev.to Components

Quickly compare Dev.to components by what they do and their key I/O. Click any component name to jump directly to its detailed guide.

ComponentActionWhat it DoesInputsKey OutputsUse Case
Publish BlogWritePublishes an article directly to Dev.to.required title, body, description
optional tags
articleId, articleUrlAutomating content distribution.
Create DraftWriteSaves an article as a draft in your Dev.to account for later review.required title, body, description
optional tags
articleId, articleUrlStaging content from other systems.
INFO
Why Integrate Dev.to with Your Agent?

Dev.to is a massive community for developers. Integrating it with SmythOS allows you to programmatically manage your content and engage with the community more efficiently.

  • Automate Content Syndication: Create an agent that monitors your personal blog's RSS feed. When a new post is published, the agent can automatically re-publish it to your Dev.to account to reach a wider audience.
  • Streamline Your Writing Workflow: Build an agent that takes a Markdown file from a GitHub repository, adds the necessary frontmatter (like title and tags), and saves it as a draft on Dev.to, ready for your final review.
  • Content Generation Pipelines: Use an AI model to generate a technical article or tutorial. An agent can then take this generated content and directly create a draft in your Dev.to account.
  • Backup and Archiving: While not a primary use case for these components, you could build agents to fetch your existing articles (using a custom API component) and back them up elsewhere.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, please ensure you have the following:

  • An active SmythOS account. (Sign up here).
  • A Dev.to account.
  • Your Dev.to API Key.

Getting Started With Dev.to

The connection between SmythOS and Dev.to is configured using a secure API Key.

Step 1: Get Your Dev.to API Key

  1. Log in to your Dev.to account.
  2. Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner and go to Settings.
  3. In the left menu, navigate to Account > API Keys. The direct link is https://dev.to/settings/extensions.
  4. In the "Forem API Keys" section, give your key a description (e.g., "SmythOS Agent") and click Generate API Key.
  5. Copy the generated key to your clipboard.

Step 2: Store Your API Key in SmythOS Vault

Your API Key is a sensitive credential. Use the SmythOS Vault to store it securely.

  1. In your SmythOS dashboard, navigate to the Vault.
  2. Create a new secret and paste your Dev.to API Key as the value. Give it a memorable name, like devto_api_key.
  3. For more details, see the Vault Documentation.

Step 3: Configure a Dev.to Component

  1. In your SmythOS agent graph, drag and drop any Dev.to component.
  2. Click the component to open its Settings panel.
  3. In the API Key field, select the secret you saved in the Vault (e.g., devto_api_key).
  4. Your connection is now configured for that component.
Heads-up
You must add the API Key from the Vault to each Dev.to component you use. This ensures all your API calls are properly authenticated.

Which Dev.to Component Should I Use?

If you need to…TargetUse this ComponentWhy this one?
Immediately publish an article for everyone to seeA complete articlePublish BlogThis component makes the article live on the Dev.to platform as soon as it's executed.
Save an article for later editing and publishingAn incomplete or final draftCreate DraftThis allows you to programmatically get content into Dev.to without making it public immediately.

Component Details

This section provides detailed information for each Dev.to component.

Publish Blog

Publishes an article directly to the Dev.to platform, making it live and visible to the community.

INFO
This component requires an API Key for authentication, as detailed in the Getting Started section.

Inputs

FieldTypeRequiredNotes
titlestringYesThe title of the article.
bodystringYesThe main content of the article, written in Markdown.
descriptionstringYesA short summary of the article.
tagsArray of stringsOptionalA list of up to four tags for the article (e.g., ["javascript", "webdev"]).

Outputs

FieldTypeDescription
articleIdintegerThe unique ID of the newly published article.
articleUrlstringThe direct URL to the live article on Dev.to.
ResponseobjectThe full, raw JSON response from the Dev.to API.
HeadersobjectThe HTTP headers from the API response.
Use Case

An agent takes the final, approved version of a blog post from a Notion database and uses this component to publish it directly to Dev.to, cross-posting it for a wider audience.

{
"component": "devto.publishBlog",
"title": "A Guide to Building AI Agents",
"body": "## Introduction\\n\\nBuilding AI agents is easier than ever...",
"description": "Learn the fundamentals of creating powerful AI agents with this step-by-step guide.",
"tags": ["ai", "development", "tutorial"]
}
Immediate Publication

This action is immediate. As soon as the component runs successfully, your article will be live on Dev.to. For a staged approach, use the "Create Draft" component first.

Create Draft

Saves an article as a private draft in your Dev.to account. It will not be visible to the public until you manually publish it.

INFO
This component requires an API Key for authentication, as detailed in the Getting Started section.

Inputs

FieldTypeRequiredNotes
titlestringYesThe title of the article draft.
bodystringYesThe Markdown content for the draft.
descriptionstringYesA short summary for the draft.
tagsArray of stringsOptionalA list of tags to associate with the draft.

Outputs

FieldTypeDescription
articleIdintegerThe unique ID of the newly created draft.
articleUrlstringThe direct URL to view and edit the draft in your Dev.to dashboard.
ResponseobjectThe full, raw JSON response from the Dev.to API.
HeadersobjectThe HTTP headers from the API response.
Use Case

An agent generates a first draft of a technical tutorial using an AI model. It then saves this content to Dev.to as a draft, allowing a human editor to review, refine, and manually publish it later.

{
"component": "devto.createDraft",
"title": "DRAFT: Understanding Serverless Computing",
"body": "Serverless computing is a cloud execution model...",
"description": "A draft exploring the pros and cons of serverless.",
"tags": ["serverless", "cloud", "architecture"]
}

Best Practices & Advanced Tips

  • Secure Your API Key: Always store your Dev.to API key in the SmythOS Vault.
  • Use Markdown: The body input for both components uses Markdown. Your agent can be designed to generate or format content into Markdown before passing it to the component.
  • Frontmatter: The Dev.to API uses a JSON payload. However, if you were to structure your body input with YAML frontmatter (the metadata at the top of a Markdown file), the API can often parse it to set the title, tags, and other properties, which can be an alternative way to structure your input.
  • Update Articles: To update an existing article, you would need to use a PUT request to the /api/articles/{id} endpoint. This would require a custom API call component in SmythOS where you provide the articleId obtained from creating the article.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

  • Error: 401 Unauthorized

    • Cause: The API Key is incorrect, has been revoked, or is missing from the request header.
    • Solution: Verify that the API Key in your SmythOS Vault is correct and active. Ensure it is correctly selected in the component settings.
  • Error: 422 Unprocessable Entity

    • Cause: The request body is malformed. This typically means the title or body is missing, or the tags are not in the correct format (e.g., not an array of strings).
    • Solution: Check that all required inputs are provided and correctly formatted. Ensure the body contains valid Markdown.
  • Article Appears with "Invalid User"

    • Cause: This can sometimes happen if the API key is invalid or has issues.
    • Solution: Regenerate your API key on Dev.to and update the secret in your SmythOS Vault.

What's Next?

You are now ready to build powerful content automation pipelines with the SmythOS Dev.to Integration!

Consider these ideas:

  • Build an Agent That...

    • Connects to your GitHub repository. When you merge a new Markdown file into your blog folder, the agent automatically takes the content and creates a draft on Dev.to.
    • Generates a weekly "Top 5 AI News" summary using an LLM component and a search tool, then publishes the summary as a blog post.
  • Explore Other Integrations:

    • After an agent publishes a new article using Publish Blog, it can take the articleUrl and share it across all your social channels using the Ayrshare Integration.
    • Keep a log of all published articles by having your agent write the articleId and articleUrl to a Google Sheet.