<![CDATA[Say hello to `threadcat`!]]>Say hello to `threadcat`! 🧢🐱

It's a little Rust tool which takes the URL to a Mastodon thread, and converts it to a Markdown file. It also downloads all attached media files (and their alt texts)!

That way, it's really easy to get a "first draft" for a blog post from a thread you wrote!

Installation: `cargo install threadcat`

➑️ https://codeberg.org/blinry/threadcat ⬅️

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/4d8b65a2-44d5-4c47-8a4f-34a1d5ce2c78/say-hello-to-threadcatRSS for NodeFri, 01 May 2026 05:25:53 GMTFri, 10 Apr 2026 15:56:36 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:37:15 GMT]]>@blinry my terrible memory recalls something like that, but I never really trust β€œflash in the pan” abandonware, so I was casually hopeful that yours might serve πŸ™‚

Anyways, congrats on the new project!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.yttrx.com/users/waffles/statuses/116421731021053735https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.yttrx.com/users/waffles/statuses/116421731021053735Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:37:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:25:14 GMT]]>@irrlicht The Rust library I'm using even support Pleroma directly, so adding support wouldn't be that hard, I hope! \o/ https://docs.rs/megalodon/latest/megalodon/

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116421211868535152https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116421211868535152Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:25:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:19:49 GMT]]>@blinry

So many of movie poster bot images would be "photo-montage.jpg" or "painted-montage.jpg"

@films

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fed.qaz.red/users/elithebearded/statuses/116421190563916661https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fed.qaz.red/users/elithebearded/statuses/116421190563916661Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:19:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:50:19 GMT]]>@blinry@chaos.social
Freakin nice tool

I'm on Pleroma so I'm gotta keep an eye out for when that's available πŸ‘€

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.lithio.fr/objects/04cb6735-f4d4-4574-9c02-9a95c05f4853https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.lithio.fr/objects/04cb6735-f4d4-4574-9c02-9a95c05f4853Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:50:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:32:03 GMT]]>@blinry I was looking for a tool like this one 2 days ago lol

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://shelter.moe/users/Fangh/statuses/116420294990016149https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://shelter.moe/users/Fangh/statuses/116420294990016149Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:32:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:29:46 GMT]]>@blinry @chrismarquardt

Uhm, the poster nick before the alt-text would allow you to group images by the author, too.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.cisti.org/users/GustavinoBevilacqua/statuses/116420285992366322https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.cisti.org/users/GustavinoBevilacqua/statuses/116420285992366322Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:29:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:22:37 GMT]]>@blinry oh, I built just half an hour or so ago; must have missed it

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jpmens/statuses/116420257845470091https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jpmens/statuses/116420257845470091Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:22:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:15:46 GMT]]>@chrismarquardt Jup!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116420230922325726https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116420230922325726Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:15:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:14:08 GMT]]>@jpmens Already added that today! πŸ™‚ https://codeberg.org/blinry/threadcat/commit/7aaa4daec08bc3cb1da35bf3c0cb9ac58a390953

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116420224505675560https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116420224505675560Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:14:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:13:04 GMT]]>@blinry grand little tool, and just what I need to help in copy/pasting text from toots!

Could do with a Usage message, if I may say so. πŸ™‚

$ ~/.cargo/bin/threadcat

thread 'main' (89252287) panicked at

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jpmens/statuses/116420220347309439https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jpmens/statuses/116420220347309439Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:13:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:12:03 GMT]]>@blinry throwing the post id in there sounds reasonable. Will threadcat also download someone else’s threads if my account is allowed to read them?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/chrismarquardt/statuses/116420216345190522https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/chrismarquardt/statuses/116420216345190522Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:12:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:30:04 GMT]]>@jer @blinry I like that too! (I have a script to generate message IDs for mails which does a similiar thing πŸ˜„ https://github.com/rohieb/dotfiles/blob/master/.neomutt/gen-msgid.sh )

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/daniel_bohrer/statuses/116420051220911792https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/daniel_bohrer/statuses/116420051220911792Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:30:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:19:23 GMT]]>@blinry I have not tried using threadcat yet, but my hunch would be to keep the original filename (ensures there are no collisions) and add some metadata.
Depending on how you handle individual posts, maybe add the post ID or the ID of the anchor in your output. Having all media from a specific post in a dedicated subdirectory might be useful?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.infra.de/users/galaxis/statuses/116420009225782878https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.infra.de/users/galaxis/statuses/116420009225782878Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:19:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:15:30 GMT]]>@blinry those alt text filenames are a fun and useful feature! i think a combo could be good sense, either [post-id]-colourful-circles.jpg or [timestamp]-colourful-circles.jpg - that way it's both in some useful order and readable as well

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://critter.cafe/users/irina/statuses/116419993975190178https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://critter.cafe/users/irina/statuses/116419993975190178Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:15:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:07:51 GMT]]>@blinry this sounds awesome. i keep wasting time copying and pasting my threads into my notes app, i will definitely try this next time

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chitter.xyz/users/codl/statuses/116419963878376951https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chitter.xyz/users/codl/statuses/116419963878376951Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:07:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:06:05 GMT]]>@khzimmer2 lol. read the post again. the fourth sentence

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chitter.xyz/users/codl/statuses/116419956944000251https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chitter.xyz/users/codl/statuses/116419956944000251Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:06:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:01:26 GMT]]>@blinry I like "non-filler words from alt text", but maybe prefix with an incremental ID so they are sorted the same as in the post?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/jer/statuses/116419938638505022https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/jer/statuses/116419938638505022Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:01:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:58:07 GMT]]>@glitcx I think it's worth learning! \o/ I tried to make the code easy to read, and there's not a lot of it in this li'l project! :3

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116419925589858336https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116419925589858336Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:58:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:57:05 GMT]]>@blinry that makes me want to learn Rust

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.art/ap/users/116296946749125064/statuses/116419921547265555https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.art/ap/users/116296946749125064/statuses/116419921547265555Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:57:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:56:19 GMT]]>`threadcat` downloads files using their original filename on the Mastodon server. So you'll end up with a lot of files like "f55dbddca60e64cb.jpg"…

I tried deriving better filenames from the alt text – for example, taking the first two "non-filler" words from the alt text. That gives you filenames like "colorful-circles.jpg", "small-grey.jpg" or "drawing-snow.jpg", and possibly "drawing-snow-2.jpg".

Another option would just be using timestamps: "2026-04-17T13:54Z.jpg"

What do you think?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116419918552724376https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116419918552724376Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:56:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:33:36 GMT]]>@waffles That sounds like a tool I'd love, as well, but it seems out of scope for threadcat. Maybe something like that even already exists?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116419829224304113https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blinry/statuses/116419829224304113Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:33:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:34:48 GMT]]>@blinry Oh! for a change it's a Rust tool!!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116235329588946370/statuses/116412520128458955https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116235329588946370/statuses/116412520128458955Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:34:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:40:21 GMT]]>@blinry@chaos.social Thanks for this app. I thought there was a web-based version somewhere. I used it sometime ago.

Do you want to make it a plugin/extension/webapp/Mastodon feature?
]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ngportal.com/maoshin/p/1776040821.658008https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ngportal.com/maoshin/p/1776040821.658008Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:40:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Say hello to `threadcat`! on Sun, 12 Apr 2026 21:31:42 GMT]]>@khzimmer2 Yeah it is and I'm stealing your reply with my eye-tools as we speak!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/8000mark/statuses/116393869461819900https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/8000mark/statuses/116393869461819900Sun, 12 Apr 2026 21:31:42 GMT