🫚 splice

Convert social/chat archives into normalized threads and export to Markdown, OAI JSONL, JSON (normalized items), and ShareGPT. Modular TypeScript CLI and library with extensible sources → transforms → outputs.

• Idiomatic CLI (clig.dev principles)
• Modular architecture:
  • sources: Twitter/X archives and Bluesky repo CAR exports (text-first; blobs soon), ChatGPT, etc. next
  • transforms: filtering, grouping into threads/conversations, text cleaning
  • outputs: Markdown, OAI JSONL, JSONL (normalized items), ShareGPT
• Library API to compose your own pipeline or plug in proprietary adapters
• Copies referenced media into an images/ folder
• JSONL artifacts for easy inspection and future checkpointing

Why

Turn your archives into:

• Readable Markdown
• OAI-compatible JSONL for training/eval
• A normalized JSONL dump for inspection and reuse

Today it supports:

• Twitter/X — Local archive exports (ZIP extracted)
• Bluesky — AT Protocol CAR file exports with optional API enrichment
• Glowfic — Collaborative fiction threads, sections, or boards via URL

Next: ChatGPT, Reddit, Hugging Face datasets.

This library started life as a Python script. This is a TypeScript rewrite where development will continue. It has powered projects like deeperfates.com, keltham.lol, and youaretheassistantnow.com.

More context: https://deepfates.com/convert-your-twitter-archive-into-training-data

Quick start (CLI)

Requirements:

• Node.js 18+ (tested with recent LTS)
• For direct execution: tsx (installed automatically with npx)

Run with tsx (no build needed):

npx tsx splice.ts --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Run the published CLI (after install):

npx splice --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Build then run with Node:

npm install
npm run build
node dist/cli/splice.js --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Dev/watch mode:

npm run dev -- --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Usage

Help (equivalent to --help):

splice — convert a Twitter archive to Markdown, OAI JSONL, and/or JSON

Usage:
  splice --source <path> --out <dir> [--format markdown oai json sharegpt] [--system-message <text>]
         [--since <iso>] [--until <iso>] [--min-length <n>] [--exclude-rt] [--only-threads] [--with-media]
         [--enrich] [--dry-run] [--stats-json] [--log-level <level>] [--json-stdout] [--quiet|-q] [--verbose] [--version|-V]

  splice --glowfic <url> --out <dir> --assistant <name> [--assistant-regex <pattern>]
  splice --glowfic-board <url> --out <dir> --all-characters [--min-posts <n>]

Options:
  --source <path>            Path to Twitter archive directory or Bluesky .car file
  --out <dir>                Output directory
  --format <fmt...>          One or more formats: markdown, oai, json, sharegpt (default: markdown oai json)
  --system-message <text>    System message for OAI JSONL (default: "You have been uploaded to the internet")
                             Alias: --system
  --since <iso>              Include items on/after this ISO date
  --until <iso>              Include items on/before this ISO date
  --min-length <n>           Minimum text length
  --exclude-rt               Exclude retweets (RT ...)
  --only-threads             Output threads only
  --with-media               Only include items that have media
  --enrich                   Fetch thread context from API (Bluesky only)
  --dry-run, -n              Plan only; don't write files
  --stats-json               Write a stats.json summary
  --log-level <level>        debug|info|warn|error (default: info)
  --json-stdout              Emit normalized items JSONL to stdout; logs to stderr
  --quiet, -q                Errors only
  --verbose                  Debug logging
  --version, -V              Show version
  --help, -h                 Show help

Glowfic Options:
  --glowfic <url>            Glowfic thread/section/board URL to ingest
  --assistant <name>         Character name for assistant role (case-insensitive)
  --assistant-regex <pat>    Regex pattern for assistant matching
  --glowfic-board <url>      Board URL for multi-character export
  --all-characters           Export datasets for all characters on board
  --min-posts <n>            Minimum posts for character inclusion (default: 10)

Environment:
  SPLICE_SYSTEM_MESSAGE      Alternative way to set the OAI system message
                             (flag value takes precedence)

Exit codes:

• 0: success
• 1: runtime error
• 2: invalid arguments or source detection failed

Stdout/Stderr:

• Primary logs go to stderr (so you can safely pipe stdout)
• Data files are written to the output directory

Examples

Convert to both Markdown and OAI JSONL:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out

Markdown only:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format markdown

OAI only with custom system message:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format oai --system-message "You are helpful."

JSON only (normalized items):

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format json

All formats:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format markdown oai json sharegpt

Filters and selection:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format markdown --since 2024-01-01 --until 2024-12-31 --min-length 40 --exclude-rt --only-threads --with-media

Stats JSON summary:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format oai --stats-json

Stream normalized items to stdout:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --json-stdout | head -n 5

Use environment variable for system message:

SPLICE_SYSTEM_MESSAGE="Be concise." npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --format oai

Dry run with debug logs (no files written):

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-twitter-archive --out ./out --dry-run --log-level debug

Bluesky CAR export:

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-bsky-repo.car --out ./out

Bluesky with thread context enrichment (fetches parent posts from API):

npx tsx splice.ts --source ~/Downloads/my-bsky-repo.car --out ./out --enrich

Glowfic thread (single character as assistant):

npx tsx splice.ts --glowfic https://glowfic.com/posts/5506 --out ./out --assistant "Carissa"

Glowfic board (all characters, HuggingFace dataset format):

npx tsx splice.ts --glowfic-board https://glowfic.com/boards/215 --out ./out --all-characters --min-posts 20

Sources

Twitter/X

Extract the archive ZIP to a directory containing:

• data/manifest.js
• data/tweets_media/ (optional, for media assets)
• YTD .js files for tweets and like data

We ingest tweets, likes, and media files prefixed with <tweetId>-*.

Bluesky

Export your repository from Settings → Advanced → Export Content. Pass --source path/to/repo.car.

• Use --enrich to fetch parent posts from the public API for full conversation context
• Media blobs are referenced but not downloaded yet

Glowfic

Pass a thread, section, or board URL: --glowfic https://glowfic.com/posts/5506

• Requires --assistant <name> to specify which character is the assistant
• For multi-character datasets: --glowfic-board <url> --all-characters

Output layout

On a successful run, you’ll see:

• out/threads/ — one Markdown file per detected thread, named like YYYYMMDD-thread-<slug>.md
• out/tweets/ — one Markdown file per non-thread tweet, named like YYYYMMDD-tweet-<slug>.md
• out/images/ — copied media files referenced by the Markdown
• out/conversations_oai.jsonl — OAI JSONL file with conversations built from threads and reply chains
• out/normalized_items.jsonl — JSONL dump of normalized ContentItem records (one item per line)
• out/sharegpt.json — ShareGPT export (array) for loaders that expect ShareGPT format
• out/stats.json — summary (counts, threads/conversations, date range)

Notes:

• Thread filenames are derived from the top post’s first words (sanitized).
• The OAI JSONL file includes a top-level “system” message (configurable).

Architecture (for contributors)

• src/core — shared types, arg parsing, logger, utilities
• src/sources — input adapters (twitter.ts)
• src/transforms — filters, grouping, conversation mapping
• src/outputs — writers for markdown/oai/json/sharegpt/stats
• src/cli — CLI entrypoint wiring sources → transforms → outputs

The code is structured so you can add new sources, transforms, or outputs without touching unrelated parts.

Library usage

You can import and compose pieces in your own app:

import {
  ingestTwitter,
  applyFilters,
  indexById,
  groupThreadsAndConversations,
  writeOAI,
} from "@deepfates/splice";

const items = await ingestTwitter("/path/to/archive", (l, m) => console.error(`[${l}] ${m}`));
const filtered = applyFilters(items, { minLength: 20, excludeRt: true, withMedia: false });
const all = indexById(filtered);
const { threads, conversations } = groupThreadsAndConversations(all);
await writeOAI(threads, conversations, "./out", "You have been uploaded to the internet", (l, m) => console.error(`[${l}] ${m}`), false);

Pluggable adapters (build proprietary ones privately and upstream later if you want):

• SourceAdapter: detect(pathOrUri), ingest(pathOrUri, logger) → ContentItem[]
• OutputAdapter: write(args, ctx) where args may include items, threads, conversations, systemMessage, and ctx provides outDir, dryRun, and logger

Development

Install deps:

npm install

Run with tsx:

npm run start -- --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Watch mode:

npm run dev -- --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Build (emits dist/cli/splice.js and sets up the splice bin; library API at dist/index.js):

npm run build

Run the built CLI:

node dist/cli/splice.js --source /path/to/twitter-archive --out ./out

Testing

Run the full test suite (includes integration tests for Markdown, OAI JSONL with system message, media copying, and normalized JSONL):

npm test

Watch tests:

npm run test:watch

Roadmap (short)

• More inputs: Reddit, ChatGPT, HF datasets
• Checkpointing and resumable pipelines (JSONL-based manifests)
• More outputs: SQLite/Parquet/CSV
• Blob fetching for Bluesky media
• Better selection: persona/character filters, time ranges
• Improved role attribution and metadata preservation

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Acknowledgements

See the blog post above for context. CLI UX follows clig.dev-style conventions.