Curviate Network

Curviate: connections and following

An invitation is the most consequential low-effort write on LinkedIn: it is visible, it is attributable, and a withdrawn one still leaves a trace. Preview first, de-duplicate before sending.

Command surface established against CLI 0.33.0.

Before any command

npm install -g @curviate/cli && curviate --version    # needs Node 18 or newer
curviate login --api-key <key>                        # or export CURVIATE_API_KEY
curviate account list --json                          # the acc_id for --account

• Credentials resolve flag > environment > stored profile (CURVIATE_API_KEY, CURVIATE_BASE_URL, CURVIATE_ACCOUNT).
• --profile <name> picks the stored credential set; --account <acc_id> picks which connected LinkedIn account sends the invitation. Name it explicitly on every write: an invitation from the wrong account reaches a real person as that person.
• --preview before every write. It renders the resolved request (recipient, note, acting account) without sending. On a read command it is refused with exit 2.
• --json on anything you parse; --fields a,b,c to project; --verbose when a slim response looks suspiciously empty.
• Put global flags at the end of the command.
• Branch on the exit code, never on prose. See the table at the end.
• These are not retrieval-mode commands: --mode/--max-age are refused here with unknown flag, exit 2 (see curviate-profile for the four commands that do accept them).

connect: invitations

connect accept and connect decline are preview-proven (--preview renders the correct call and body), but have never been fired against a live account. They are real, correctly wired commands. Run your own smoke test on an invitation you are prepared to act on before an unattended flow depends on either.

Traps

• De-duplicate before sending. A request against a pair already mid-flow or already connected returns CONNECTION_REQUEST_CONFLICT, exit 8. That is a clean, routine signal and the only reliable de-duplication marker for a connect loop, but check profile relations and connect sent --all first rather than probing with real invitations.
• Invitations take roughly 10 to 30 seconds to appear on the recipient's side, and a very recent one can take minutes to appear in connect sent (LinkedIn-side indexing). An absence right after sending is not proof the send failed. Do not resend on that basis.
• --note takes a string, not stdin. Write the note to a file, confirm it is non-empty, and pass --note "$(cat note.txt)". An empty note has gone out as a blank request.
• There is no idempotency key and no server-side de-duplication. A send that times out may already have landed; re-read connect sent before re-issuing.

Following and connections

• profile following is self-only. Pass me. Any other member id (including your own explicit member id) returns LINKEDIN_OPERATION_NOT_SUPPORTED, exit 8. That is a permanent platform limitation, never retryable. profile followers does not share it.
• Never write profile me relations. The command is profile relations. Older builds silently discarded relations and answered with your own profile at exit 0; current builds exit 2.
• Following is the low-consequence alternative to an invitation: it needs no acceptance, is reversible, and still surfaces the member's posts in your feed.

A connect loop that behaves

# 1. Confirm you are not already connected or already mid-flow.
curviate profile relations --all --json          # first-degree
curviate connect sent --all --json               # pending invitations

# 2. Preview the exact request, then send it.
curviate connect <slug> --note "$(cat note.txt)" --account <acc_id> --preview --json
curviate connect <slug> --note "$(cat note.txt)" --account <acc_id> --json

On exit 8 with CONNECTION_REQUEST_CONFLICT, record the pair as already handled and move on. On exit 13, stop the loop; see below.