Grow your X (Twitter) account using insights from the actual algorithm source code.
X open-sourced their recommendation algorithm. We analyzed it so you don't have to.
The algorithm predicts one thing: "If I show this post to this user, will they engage?"
It scores every post based on 18 different actions users might take. Your job is simple: create content people want to engage with.
| Action | Impact |
|---|---|
| Likes, Replies, Retweets, Quotes | High |
| Shares (especially via DM) | Very High |
| Profile clicks → Follows | Very High |
| Time spent reading (dwell time) | Medium |
| Action | Impact |
|---|---|
| "Not Interested" clicks | Bad |
| Mutes | Worse |
| Blocks | Very Bad |
| Reports | Worst |
- Your followers (in-network): Your posts appear at full strength
- Everyone else (out-of-network): Your posts get a penalty multiplier
This is why building a loyal follower base matters - you're always fighting uphill with non-followers.
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Optimize for shares - DM shares are weighted heavily. Create content people want to send to friends.
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Don't spam - The algorithm penalizes multiple posts from the same author. Quality > quantity.
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Post when your audience is online - Newer posts rank higher. Get early engagement.
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Avoid negative signals - A few blocks hurt more than many likes help.
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Make people curious about you - Profile clicks lead to follows, which is one of the strongest signals.
| Guide | Who It's For |
|---|---|
| Growth Guide | Anyone who wants actionable strategies to grow their account |
| Technical Breakdown | Engineers who want to understand how the system works |
| Internals | Deep dive into Kafka pipelines, ML inference, and data structures |
x-algorithm/ # The actual algorithm source code
├── phoenix/ # ML ranking model (Grok-based transformer)
├── thunder/ # In-network post storage and retrieval
├── home-mixer/ # Feed assembly and scoring pipeline
└── candidate-pipeline/# Reusable recommendation framework
This is a mirror of X's open source release with our analysis docs added.
The algorithm is sophisticated, but the strategy is simple:
Create content that makes people want to engage, share, and follow you.
Everything else is implementation details.
Analysis by Dark Research