Platforms

How to save an X (Twitter) thread as Markdown

Updated October 14, 2026 · 4 min read

A good thread on X is an essay cut into thirty pieces. To save an X thread as Markdown you want the pieces back in order, as one file, with the images and without the reply noise. X offers a bookmark, which keeps a link and nothing more. The usual workarounds each have a catch.

The options, compared

Method	Cost	What you get	Catch
Bookmark on X	Free	A link inside X	Gone if the post is deleted, not searchable in your notes
Tweet to Markdown (Obsidian plugin)	X API Basic plan	A note per tweet or thread	Needs your own X API token, no videos or GIFs
Markforge	Free	One `.md` file per thread	Reads what the page has loaded, Chrome only

The Obsidian plugin deserves a word, because many guides still recommend it. Tweet to Markdown fetches tweets through the X API. Its README states that the free access method "has stopped working as of April 27, 2023" and that you now need your own bearer token, with at least a Basic plan, because the free plan cannot look up tweets. The repository has not been updated since May 2023.

Reading the thread from the page avoids the API question entirely.

Save an X thread to Markdown with Markforge

Markforge is a free Chrome extension with a parser written for X posts.

Install Markforge from the Chrome Web Store.
Open the first post of the thread on x.com. The address looks like x.com/author/status/....
Click the Markforge icon, or press Alt+M.
Rename the note in the title field, then click Copy or Download .md.

The parser does several things a generic clipper does not:

It keeps the posts written by the thread's author, in order, and sets the other replies aside.
It clicks the "Show more" links first, so long posts are exported in full.
It keeps attached photos and turns quoted posts into Markdown quotes.
It rewrites hashtags and mentions as full links, and emoji as real characters.

The title field deserves a second of attention. A thread has no title, so Markforge proposes the first few words of the first post. Replace it with something you will recognize in six months.

What the Markdown file looks like

---
title: "Three things I learned shipping"
author: "Jane Maker (@janemaker)"
date: 2026-09-30
source: "X (Twitter)"
url: "https://x.com/janemaker/status/..."
description: "Three things I learned shipping a browser extension to 10,000 users."
---

# Three things I learned shipping

Three things I learned shipping a browser extension to 10,000 users.

* * *

The store listing matters more than the landing page.

* * *

Nobody reads the onboarding. Make the first click do something.

Posts are separated by a horizontal rule. The frontmatter records the author's display name and handle, and the date of the last post in the thread.

Including the replies

Turn on Include replies at the top of the popup and the export gains a Replies section after the thread. Each reply shows its author in bold and its date, then the text. Use it when the discussion under a thread is the valuable part.

Sending threads to Obsidian

Set a folder of your vault as Markforge's download folder, and Download .md writes the thread there as a note. The frontmatter becomes Obsidian properties, so author and source are searchable. The setup is the same as for AI chats, described in saving AI conversations to Obsidian.

With image download turned on, the thread's photos are saved in an images folder next to the note, which protects them if the post is deleted.

X articles

Long-form articles published on X have their own parser. It extracts the title, the cover image and the body with bold and italic text. Structure inside the article is simplified: headings and list items are exported as ordinary paragraphs.

Limits worth knowing

Loaded posts only. X keeps only the posts near your scroll position in the page. On a very long thread, check that the export ends where the thread does. If it stops early, export again from further down and join the two files.
No videos or GIFs. Photos only.
Quoted posts are text. The quoted post's words are kept, not its images or author.
You need to see the thread. X shows full threads to signed-in users. Markforge exports what your browser displays.
Chrome only.

Reddit threads raise the same problem, with nesting on top: see how to save a Reddit thread as Markdown.

Frequently asked questions

How do I save a Twitter thread to Obsidian?

Open the thread on x.com, convert it with Markforge, and save the file into a folder of your vault. Markforge can write directly to a vault folder, so the thread appears in Obsidian as a note with author, date and source URL in its properties.

Do I need an X API key?

No. Markforge reads the thread from the page open in your browser. The Obsidian plugin Tweet to Markdown works through the X API, and its documentation says a Basic plan is required, since the free plan cannot look up tweets.

Are replies from other people included?

Not by default. The export contains the posts written by the thread's author. Turn on Include replies in the popup to add the other replies loaded in the page, each with its author and date.

Are videos saved?

No. Photos attached to posts are kept as images. Videos and GIFs are not exported in version 1.0.0.

Does it work on long-form X articles?

Yes, through a separate parser that extracts the article title, the cover image and the text with bold and italics. Headings and lists inside an article come out as plain paragraphs.