Platform Agents and Data Skills: one source, one deterministic read path
How UnifAPI Platform Agents for X, LinkedIn, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Hacker News, and Threads use Data Skills to make public-source reads deterministic.
In short: A Platform Agent is a read-only research surface for one public source. Its Data Skill tells the assistant exactly which operations, response shapes, and platform gotchas to use for that source.
Role Agents own marketing capabilities. The Influencer Marketing Agent prices creators. The Social Listening Agent monitors public conversation. The Lead & Company Research Agent builds account briefs.
Platform Agents are different. They are source-specific. The X Agent, LinkedIn Agent, Reddit Agent, TikTok Agent, YouTube Agent, Instagram Agent, Hacker News Agent, and Threads Agent exist for users who start from a source: "read LinkedIn for this account", "research this subreddit", "scan TikTok for this trend", "track founder posts on X."
They do not own new marketing capabilities. They compose Role-Agent Skills and own exactly one Data Skill for the source.
What a Data Skill does
A Data Skill is not a generic prompt. It is a deterministic guide for reading one platform through UnifAPI.
| Data Skill section | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Operation map | Names the concrete operations to call for common jobs |
| Response notes | Explains the fields that matter in the platform's records |
| Recipes | Turns common tasks into repeatable call sequences |
| Gotchas | Documents limits, slug rules, pagination, billing, and missing surfaces |
| Boundaries | Makes the read-only scope explicit |
The value is not "go discover whatever exists." The value is "for this source and this job, use this read path."
Why Platform Agents exist
Search behavior often starts with a platform. People look for a LinkedIn agent, Reddit MCP, X data API, TikTok research agent, or YouTube data for Claude.
If UnifAPI only exposes Role Agents, those users may miss that the underlying data is available. Platform Agents solve discovery without duplicating the product.
| User searches for | Platform Agent answers |
|---|---|
| "LinkedIn agent" | Read public companies, people, jobs, and posts |
| "Reddit research agent" | Read communities, threads, comments, and users |
| "TikTok trend agent" | Read videos, creators, hashtags, and comments |
| "X MCP server" | Read profiles, posts, search, followers, and trends |
The page can then route the user into the right Role-Agent Skill. A TikTok read can support creator discovery, content strategy, social listening, or restaurant trend work.
A sample Platform Agent run
Prompt the Reddit Agent:
Research r/SaaS for founder pain around pricing. Use the Reddit Data Skill through UnifAPI MCP. Pull the subreddit profile, identify relevant recent or popular threads, read comment trees for the strongest threads, and return a voice-of-customer brief with direct themes, representative quotes, confidence, and coverage limits. Read-only.
The Data Skill keeps the assistant from pretending Reddit has every search surface available. If a route is missing or a feed is limited, the output should say so and use the best deterministic alternative.
Platform Agents compose Skills
Platform Agents are not siloed products. A LinkedIn Agent can support account research, buying-signal monitoring, competitor intelligence, and social selling. The source is LinkedIn; the work belongs to Role-Agent Skills.
That composition prevents duplicate Skills:
| Source | Data Skill | Capability Skills that can use it |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Data Skill | Account research, buying signals, competitor profiling | |
| Reddit Data Skill | Community research, social listening, customer research | |
| TikTok | TikTok Data Skill | Creator shortlist, trend discovery, restaurant demand |
| X | X Data Skill | KOL pricing, launch monitoring, social selling |
The Data Skill knows the source. The Capability Skill knows the business job.
What a good answer looks like
A Platform Agent should return a sourced source brief:
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Source scope | X public profiles and recent posts, or Reddit public threads |
| Operations used | The concrete UnifAPI calls |
| Records cited | Profiles, posts, comments, jobs, videos, or threads |
| Findings | Themes, signals, accounts, risks, or opportunities |
| Limits | Missing private data, unavailable feeds, thin evidence |
| Next Skill | The Role-Agent Skill to use next |
The "next Skill" is important. A source read is rarely the final business answer. It is evidence for a pricing decision, content plan, lead brief, or competitor memo.
What to read next
Content Strategy Agent public demand - shows how platform records become content decisions.
How SKILL.md runbooks make Agents repeatable - explains the implementation artifact behind Data Skills.
Browse Platform Agents - see the live source-specific agent pages.