Why I Chose Form-Based Auth Over Dev.to's REST API

When I set out to automate Dev.to publishing, I had two options: use the official REST API with an API key, or use Dev.to's form-based submission system. Here's why I chose the latter.

The Official API

Dev.to's REST API at /api/articles works well, but requires:

Generating an API key from settings
Managing a separate credential
Knowing the API key is valid and not expired

The Form-Based Approach

The form-based approach:

Uses your existing email/password login
Works with session cookies that last weeks
Requires no additional configuration
Is actually simpler to implement

The Trade-off

The form-based approach is more fragile — if Dev.to changes their HTML structure, the CSRF token extraction might break. But for a CLI tool that you run occasionally, this trade-off is worth it for the simplicity.