How Cadence works
No hidden automation. Here is everything you can set, everything you do, and everything Cadence does on its own, with the exact rules it uses to change a draft. The app uses these same numbers.
- settings you choose once
- 12
- things you do each week
- 5
- routines that run for you
- 11
Set once, about 8 minutes
1.What you do
Your role, in a line. Every draft is written as you.
2.Who you want to reach
The audience drafts are aimed at.
3.What posting should do for you
Your goal steers the angle of each post.
4.Facts list
The only numbers, employers, results and credentials Cadence may state. Anything else is held.
5.Three of your posts
Teach your voice: sentence length, tone, what you never say.
6.Topics
What you want to be known for. Drafts stay inside these.
7.Never write about
Names, subjects or employers that must not appear. A match holds the draft.
8.Posts per week
1 to 5.
9.Posting days
Which weekdays posts go out.
10.Time of day
In your own time zone.
11.Writing model
Claude Sonnet 5 (default) or Claude Opus 5.
12.Automatic posting
Off by default. Unlocks after 5 clean approvals; any held check still waits for you.
Each week, about 2 minutes
1.Check in
Two minutes of rough notes: what you worked on, learned, shipped or noticed.
2.Approve
Locks the exact text and schedules it into your next slot.
3.Edit
Change anything. An edited draft needs approving again, and it is re-checked.
4.Skip
Drop a draft. Nothing is posted.
5.Post now
Send an approved post straight away instead of waiting for its slot.
What runs for you
1.Drafting
Right after each check-in
Writes 2 variants in your voice from your notes, facts and topics, and keeps the one that passes the most checks.
2.LinkedIn formatting
Every draft
Strips markdown LinkedIn doesn't render, caps hashtags at 3, tidies line breaks and escapes characters LinkedIn treats as markup.
3.Quality check
Every draft
Hook under 140 characters, under 1300 characters overall, no stock phrases. A miss means one rewrite.
4.Fact check
Every draft
Every number, company and credential must come from your facts list or this week's notes. Otherwise the draft is held for you.
5.Repeat and no-go check
Every draft
Holds a draft that mentions a never-write-about item or is 60%+ similar to one of your last 20 posts.
6.Monthly cost cap
Before every model call
Stops drafting at $5 of model use in a month and tells you, instead of charging more.
7.Scheduling
On approval
Puts the post into your next free posting slot, in your time zone.
8.Publishing
At the scheduled time
Posts the exact approved text through LinkedIn's official API, once. A post that might have gone out is marked for review, never retried.
9.Results check
24 and 72 hours after each post
Records impressions, reactions, comments and reshares for the Results charts. Starts once LinkedIn approves analytics access; until then the charts say so.
10.Check-in reminder
The day before your first posting day
An email if you haven't checked in that week.
11.Connection reminder
7 days and 1 day before LinkedIn access expires
LinkedIn access lasts about 60 days. Signing in again renews it.
How a draft gets adjusted
Cadence writes 2 versions of each post and keeps the one that passes the most checks. Then every draft goes through the same checks, in this order. Open "Why this draft" on any draft to see which applied to it.
Fixed automatically
- Markdown removed (LinkedIn shows it as raw symbols)
- Hashtags cut to 3
- Line breaks normalised
- Characters LinkedIn treats as markup escaped
Rewritten once
- First line over 140 characters
- A stock phrase from the banned list
- Longer than 1300 characters
Held for you, never auto-posted
- A number, company or credential not in your facts or notes
- A never-write-about match
- 60%+ similar to a recent post
- Still failing after the rewrite
Coming next
1.Learning from results
Once LinkedIn approves analytics access: which hooks, topics and times work for you, fed back into drafting.
Want something else? Suggest it on GitHub: every setting above started as a question like yours.
Questions
Does Cadence log in to my LinkedIn account?
No. You sign in with LinkedIn's official sign-in, and Cadence posts through LinkedIn's official API with the 'share on LinkedIn' permission. It never uses your password, a browser extension or automated clicking.
Will it post without asking me?
Not unless you choose that. Every draft waits for your approval. After 5 clean approvals you can switch on automatic posting for drafts that pass every check; anything held still waits for you.
Can it make things up about me?
Every number, company and credential in a draft must come from your facts list or that week's notes. Anything else is held for you, with the exact claim named.
How does Cadence decide to change a draft?
It fixes formatting automatically (markdown, extra hashtags, line breaks), rewrites once for a weak opening line, a stock phrase or a draft over 1300 characters, and holds anything with an unsupported claim, a never-write-about match, or 60%+ similarity to a recent post. Each draft shows which of these happened.
Which AI writes the drafts?
Anthropic's Claude. Claude Sonnet 5 by default; you can switch to Claude Opus 5 for richer drafts.
What does it cost?
$20 a month after a 7-day free trial, card first. Cancel anytime in Settings.
Does it comment, send connection requests or messages?
No. LinkedIn's API doesn't allow apps to do those things for members, and Cadence only does what the official API allows: posting.
Can I run it myself?
Yes. The code is open source under the MIT licence. `pnpm demo` runs the whole product locally with no keys; the README covers self-hosting.
Will it support other platforms?
LinkedIn first. Every post, account and result is already tagged with its platform, so adding one is an adapter, not a rebuild. Tell us which you want in GitHub Discussions.