How to Publish to Dev.to from Claude Code

The copy-paste problem

If you write technical content in Claude Code, you already know the workflow. You spend 30 minutes crafting an article, iterating on structure and wording, getting everything right. Then the actual publishing begins.

You copy the markdown. You open Dev.to. You click “New Post.” You paste. Half the formatting breaks because Dev.to's editor handles markdown slightly differently. You manually fix code blocks. You add a cover image URL. You type in tags one by one. You preview. You fix more formatting. You finally click “Save Draft.”

This takes 10-15 minutes every time. For something that should take seconds.

Pipepost eliminates this entirely. It's an MCP server that gives Claude Code direct access to the Dev.to API. You write, you publish, you never leave the terminal.

Step 1: Install Pipepost

Add Pipepost to your Claude Code MCP configuration. Open ~/.claude/settings.json and add the server:

Restart Claude Code. That's it — Pipepost's tools are now available in every session. No global install, no dependencies to manage.

Step 2: Configure your Dev.to API key

You need a Dev.to API key. Go to dev.to/settings/extensions, generate one, and hand it to Claude:

Your key is stored locally at ~/.pipepost/config.json. It never gets sent anywhere except Dev.to's own API when you explicitly publish.

Step 3: Score your content for SEO

Before publishing, run a quick SEO check. This is free on all tiers and catches obvious issues before your article goes live.

The score checks readability (Flesch-Kincaid), keyword density (0.5-2.5% is the sweet spot), word count, and heading structure. It takes about two seconds and gives you actionable suggestions. Not a replacement for Ahrefs, but a solid sanity check before you publish.

Step 4: Publish as a draft

Now the part that used to take 15 minutes:

That's it. Your article is now a draft on Dev.to with the correct title, tags, and markdown formatting — all handled by the API, so no formatting weirdness from copy-paste.

Step 5: Review and go live

Open the draft URL in your browser. Everything should look right because it was sent through the API, not pasted into an editor. Do a final visual check, then click “Publish” on Dev.to.

Or, if you trust the process, publish directly:

Goes live immediately. No browser required.

The full workflow: 30 seconds

Here's what the entire flow looks like in practice:

• Write— Draft your article in Claude Code as you normally would
• Score— “Score this for SEO targeting ‘your keyword’” (2 seconds)
• Fix— Address any SEO suggestions Claude surfaces
• Publish— “Publish to Dev.to as a draft” (3 seconds)
• Promote— “Generate social posts for Twitter and Reddit” (2 seconds)

Total time from finished markdown to published draft: about 30 seconds. Compare that to the 10-15 minutes of manual copy-paste-fix-tag-preview-publish.

What about other platforms?

Dev.to publishing is available on the free tier (3 articles per month). If you publish to multiple platforms, the Pro tier ($19/mo) adds Ghost, Hashnode, WordPress, and Medium — all from the same terminal workflow.

You can also cross-publish a single article to all five platforms at once using the cross_publish tool. But that's a topic for another post.

Try it

If you write in Claude Code and publish to Dev.to, this saves real time on every article. Set it up once, use it forever:

Pipepost is MIT licensed and open source. Dev.to publishing is free — no credit card required.