How to grow on X as a founder in 2026: optimize for the five actions the algorithm actually pays for. On August 13, 2026, X open-sourced the code behind the For You feed, including Phoenix, the transformer model that scores every post, and the real weights file. A copy-link share is worth 20 points. A reply, a quote, or a DM share is worth 5. A new follow is worth 4. A like is worth 0.5. A mute costs you 58.8 and a report costs 234. So the playbook is: post things people send to a specific friend, start conversations instead of collecting likes, turn big accounts in your niche into mutuals (mutual-follow replies get a 15x class boost), and never post anything that makes a stranger reach for mute.
Every algorithm guide written before mid-2026 is describing a dead system. The old heuristics, likes as the goal, links as poison, video worship, were guesses about a black box. Now the box is open at github.com/xai-org/x-algorithm and some of the folklore turns out to be wrong: the published weight on video quality views is literally 0.0, and opening a link carries a small positive weight, not a penalty.
This guide translates the code into a founder's playbook: how Phoenix works in plain English, how the new-author boost helps you reach 1,000 followers, what happened to the reply-guy strategy, whether to grow a founder or brand account, and the posting cadence and formats the weights actually favor. Written for a founder doing their own marketing, probably at 11pm.