Two hours gone. That's what I used to spend on Twitter every week, scrolling through threads, trying to say something useful, getting distracted, saying nothing.
Most of it wasn't posting. It was the hunting. Finding the right conversations at the right time, threads where a thoughtful reply would actually get seen. Then switching context to write something that didn't sound robotic. Then second-guessing it. Then closing the tab.
The problem wasn't that I didn't have things to say. It was the friction between having something to say and actually saying it at the right moment.
That friction is now gone. My AI agent handles the hunting and drafting. I review and post. The whole loop takes about five minutes a day.
Here's exactly how it works.
Why Automating Replies Is Different from Automating Tweets
Scheduling tweets is a solved problem. Every social media tool does it. You write content in advance, queue it up, it goes out. Done.
Replies are harder because they're reactive. They depend on what's happening right now in your niche. You can't write them a week ahead of time. You need to be watching, and most people don't have time to watch.
That's the gap an AI agent fills well. Not posting into the void on a schedule. Watching the conversations you care about and surfacing the ones where your voice adds something real.
The Architecture (How Mine Actually Works)
The system runs on OpenClaw with a skill called reply-guy. Here's what it does on a daily schedule:
Step 1: Find relevant threads.
The agent searches Twitter for keywords tied to my topics: AI agents, solopreneur tools, OpenClaw, building in public, solo founder. It filters for threads posted in the last 24 hours with real engagement (not bots, not spam). It's not looking for viral threads. It's looking for the kind of threads where a real person is actually asking a question or sharing a problem.
Step 2: Score each thread.
Not every conversation is worth jumping into. The agent scores threads based on: engagement level, whether the topic aligns with what I build, whether a useful reply exists that isn't already there. Low-signal threads get dropped. High-signal threads go to the draft queue.
Step 3: Draft replies in my voice.
This is where the identity layer matters. My agent has a SOUL.md file that defines who I am, what I build, what I sound like, and what I never say. The reply drafts aren't generic. They reference my actual experience. They use the same directness and lack of fluff I use when I write anything.
Step 4: Deliver to Telegram for review.
Nothing goes live without me seeing it. The agent sends me the thread context plus the draft reply. I approve, edit, or skip. Most of the time I approve with a small tweak. Sometimes I skip because the thread moved on or the draft missed the mark. Occasionally I rewrite from scratch. But the hard part, finding the thread and starting the reply, is done.
Step 5: I post manually.
I haven't automated the posting step. That's intentional. Twitter's API costs, account risk, and the occasional need to look at the actual thread before posting make human-in-the-loop the right call for now. Five minutes a day to review and post is a real time investment. It's also a quality gate I trust.
What You Actually Need to Build This
If you want to set this up yourself, here's the stack:
An AI agent runtime. I use OpenClaw because the skills system is built for exactly this. But any agent platform with cron scheduling and Telegram integration works.
A reply-finding skill. The core logic is: search Twitter by keyword, filter by recency and engagement, score by relevance to your niche. You can build this in Python with the Twitter API, or use an existing skill if your agent platform has one. The reply-guy skill on Claw Mart does this for OpenClaw.
An identity file for your agent. This is what separates replies that sound like you from replies that sound like a chatbot. Before drafting anything, the agent needs to know your voice. Not a generic "write in a professional tone" instruction. A real document that covers: what you work on, what you've built, what you care about, what words you never use, what topics you avoid. I've written about how to build this in the SOUL.md post — it's the single most important piece of the whole system.
A delivery channel. Telegram is the right choice. Fast, mobile-friendly, easy to approve or skip with one tap. You can also use Slack or Discord if that's where you live, but Telegram's simplicity makes the daily review feel like nothing.
A memory layer. Over time, you want the agent to remember what replies you approved, which topics performed, and which threads you skipped and why. Persistent memory across sessions is what makes this compound. Early on the replies are good. Six months in, they're genuinely on-brand because the system has learned your patterns.
The Quality Gate Problem (and How to Solve It)
The biggest failure mode I see with automated content is that people remove themselves from the loop too early.
Auto-posting replies without review is a bad idea. Not because AI can't write well. Because it can't read context. It doesn't know that you had a public disagreement with that account last week. It doesn't know the thread has turned into a pile-on. It doesn't know that this particular phrasing, which looks fine in isolation, will read as dismissive in this conversation.
You do.
Keep yourself in the loop. The value of automating isn't removing your judgment. It's removing the hunting and the blank-page problem so your judgment can work faster.
My daily review takes five minutes. On a slow day I skip everything. On a good day I post three or four replies I'm proud of. In both cases, the time cost is the same: five minutes. The AI did the work. I just approved or skipped.
What I've Noticed After Running This for Months
A few things that surprised me:
The quality of the threads the agent surfaces is genuinely good. Better than what I'd find if I were scrolling myself, because I'd get distracted by things that don't matter to my niche. The agent is single-minded. It's only looking for what I told it to look for.
The reply quality improved significantly once I built a real identity file. Generic agent prompts produce generic replies. The SOUL.md approach changed that. Now the drafts reference real things, use my actual sentence patterns, and skip words I'd never say.
Missing a day is fine. If I'm busy and don't review the queue, the agent keeps running. The drafts just stack up. I review when I have time. The system doesn't break if I ignore it.
Engagement is measurably better. Replies that are actually relevant to a conversation get real responses. People follow up. Occasionally those turn into newsletter subscribers or customers. The volume is small but the quality is high.
Where It Fits in the Bigger System
Twitter replies aren't a standalone thing. They're part of a distribution stack.
The system I run now handles Twitter replies, daily tweets, newsletter writing, Reddit threads, and morning briefings. Each piece has its own skill, its own schedule, and its own review queue. Together they create a constant low-level presence across the channels where my potential audience lives, without me spending 20 hours a week on distribution.
Twitter replies are the cheapest entry point into that stack. Small time investment, fast feedback loop, low risk. It's a good place to start before you build out the rest.
If you want to understand how the whole thing fits together, that's what Build an AI Co-Founder covers. It's a step-by-step walkthrough of the architecture: identity layer, memory system, scheduling, distribution. Everything I've built and use daily.
The Short Version
Here's what you need to automate Twitter replies without sounding like a bot:
- An agent that searches for relevant threads on a schedule
- A real identity file that defines your voice, not just your "tone"
- A draft-and-review flow, not auto-posting
- A delivery channel you actually check (Telegram is the right answer)
- Persistent memory so the system improves over time
The goal isn't to post more. It's to be present in the right conversations without it eating your time. That's a solved problem if you build the architecture correctly.
Start with the identity file. Everything else gets easier from there.
Originally published at xeroaiagency.com
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