Configuration

Flags win over environment variables, which win over defaults. xhs config show prints the resolved settings with the cookie redacted; xhs config path prints the directories.

Environment variables

Variable	Meaning
XHS_COOKIE	cookie header for login-gated surfaces
XHS_COOKIE_FILE	path to a cookie file (header line or Netscape format)
XHS_PROXY	HTTP or SOCKS proxy URL
XHS_USER_AGENT	override the default desktop UA
XHS_OUTPUT	default output format when -o is auto
XHS_CACHE_DIR	cache location (default: OS cache dir + /xhs)
XHS_CONFIG_DIR	config and session location (default: OS config dir + /xhs)

Cookies and the session

The anonymous session (the a1 cookie) is bootstrapped on first use and cached under the config dir as session.json. Inspect or reset it:

xhs session show
xhs session forget

Login-gated surfaces (the personalized homefeed, a user's liked or collected notes, the me check) need a real web_session cookie copied from a browser:

export XHS_COOKIE='web_session=...; a1=...'

The cache

Responses are cached on disk keyed by the signed request. Manage it with:

xhs cache stat     # location, file count, size
xhs cache clear    # delete every cached response
xhs cache path     # print the directory

Bypass it for a single run with --no-cache, or set the freshness window with --cache-ttl.