How to Cross Post Markdown to dev.to API in Python

import json
from urllib import request, error


def cross_post_to_devto(markdown_content, api_key, devto_api_url="https://dev.to/api/articles"):
    """
    Mock cross-posting of markdown content to the dev.to API.
    Returns the API response or an error message.
    """
    payload = json.dumps({
        "article": {
            "title": "My Cross-Posted Article",
            "body_markdown": markdown_content,
            "published": True,
            "tags": ["python", "markdown"]
        }
    }).encode("utf-8")

    req = request.Request(
        devto_api_url,
        data=payload,
        headers={
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "api-key": api_key
        },
        method="POST"
    )

    try:
        with request.urlopen(req) as response:
            return json.loads(response.read().decode("utf-8"))
    except error.HTTPError as e:
        return {"error": f"HTTP {e.code}: {e.reason}"}
    except error.URLError as e:
        return {"error": f"Connection failed: {e.reason}"}


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sample_markdown = "# Hello World\n\nThis is a test post.\n\n- Item 1\n- Item 2"
    api_key = "test_api_key_12345"
    # Using a non-existent host to demonstrate the error handling without real API calls
    result = cross_post_to_devto(sample_markdown, api_key, "https://mock.invalid/api/articles")
    print(result)