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dev.to

Live

dev.to is a syndication target: it hosts a copy of your article on a domain you do not own. BirchSeek publishes there only after the article is live on your own site, and sends that URL as the canonical so the copy credits the original.

What BirchSeek does

  • Refuses to run until the article has a live URL on your own site - a copy on dev.to with no canonical outranks the page you own
  • Sets canonical_url to your live page on every create and every update
  • Creates the post with published false by default, so it lands as a draft in your dev.to dashboard
  • Sends the article as markdown, unconverted, with tags normalised to dev.to's rules: lowercase, alphanumeric, at most four
  • Matches your existing dev.to articles on canonical URL before creating, so a retry updates the post instead of adding a second one

Setup

  1. Generate a Forem API key

    In dev.to, open Settings → Extensions and find DEV Community API Keys. Name a key BirchSeek and generate it, then copy it - dev.to shows it once. The key grants full posting access to your account, so it is sealed at rest like every other connector secret.

    On screen: The DEV Community API Keys panel with a key named BirchSeek and the generated value shown once, above a Generate API Key button.

  2. Connect in BirchSeek

    Paste the key and set the options: leave Publish immediately off to keep posts as drafts, and optionally post under a dev.to organization you belong to or into a series. Tags come from the article.

    On screen: The connector form with the API key field, a Publish immediately switch defaulting to off, and optional organization and series fields.

  3. Check access

    BirchSeek calls dev.to as your account and reports the username it authenticated as. The check does not create an article.

    On screen: A successful result naming the connected dev.to user.

Order your connectors: your own site first, dev.to second. If both are scheduled for the same moment, the dev.to publish fails saying the article is not live yet - schedule it later, or let a refresh run pick it up.

dev.to reference

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