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reddit

Read Reddit directly via Reddit's public JSON endpoints. Use for subreddit browsing, search, post/comment retrieval, user activity analysis, and common Reddit glossary lookups.

personAuthor: jakexiaohubgithub
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Reddit

Use Reddit directly over HTTP via reddit.com/*.json through the bundled cross-platform Python CLI.

Entry point

Cross-platform:

uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py ...

Set <skill-dir> to this skill directory. Do not rely on shell sourcing, executable bits, or shebang dispatch.

Environment check policy: run the documented CLI entrypoint first; it auto-loads a skill-local .env using the lookup order below. Missing REDDIT_USER_AGENT is not a hard blocker because this skill has a built-in default.

Quick start

uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py browse all hot limit=10
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py browse technology top time=week limit=10
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py search "h1b" subreddits='["cscareerquestions","immigration"]' sort=new time=month limit=10
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py post programming 1abcde comment_limit=20 comment_sort=top
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py post-url "https://reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1abcde/example/" comment_limit=20
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py user-analysis spez posts_limit=5 comments_limit=5 time_range=month
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py explain "cake day"
uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py browse all hot limit=25 raw=1

Output shape

By default HTTP commands return a compact agent-shaped JSON envelope. The shape varies per command:

  • browse / search / user-posts / user-comments: {"type": ..., "<subreddit|user|query>": ..., "sort": ..., "time": ..., "count": N, "results": [...]}. Each result keeps: id, title, subreddit, author, score, num_comments, url, permalink, created_utc, flair (when set), selftext_preview (when set, collapsed and capped), over_18, is_self.
  • post / post-url: {"type": "post", "post": {...compact listing fields...}, "comments": [{"id", "author", "score", "body", "created_utc", "permalink", "depth"}, ...]}. more placeholder comments are dropped. Comment bodies are collapsed to single-spaced text.
  • user: {"type": "user", "user": "...", "profile": {"name", "created_utc", "link_karma", "comment_karma", "total_karma", "verified", "is_gold", "is_mod"}}.
  • user-analysis: structured summary, see reference.md.
  • explain: {"term": "<normalized>", "definition": "..."}.

Pass raw=1 to receive the full upstream JSON unchanged. raw=1 works with browse, search, post, post-url, user, user-posts, user-comments. explain and user-analysis are always structured.

Errors

HTTP failures emit one-line compact JSON to stderr:

{"error":{"provider":"reddit","status":403,"message":"Reddit returned HTTP 403","body_bytes":1234,"body_preview":"...","body_truncated":true,"kind":"network_security_block"}}

Fields:

  • error.provider — "reddit"
  • error.status — HTTP status from Reddit (or null for network errors)
  • error.message — short human-readable cause
  • error.body_bytes — upstream response size
  • error.body_preview — first 500 chars of the upstream body, decoded UTF-8
  • error.body_truncated — true if the body was longer than the preview cap
  • error.kind — "network_security_block" when the body text contains blocked by network security; "network_error" for URLError; "invalid_json" for unparseable responses; omitted otherwise

HTTP errors return exit code 22. Network errors return 1. Validation errors return 2 with a concise stderr line, no traceback.

Environment

  • Keep .env beside this skill if you want a stable local User-Agent.
  • CLI lookup order:
    • REDDIT_ENV_FILE
    • skill .env
    • $SKILLS_DIR/reddit/.env
    • nearest ancestor skills/reddit/.env
  • Tracked template: .env.example
  • Common vars:
    • REDDIT_USER_AGENT
    • REDDIT_BASE_URL

Failure handling

  • Do not treat the parent shell as the source of truth for REDDIT_USER_AGENT; always run the CLI so it can load its own .env.
  • If env loading still fails, set REDDIT_ENV_FILE dynamically from the skill path rather than hard-coding a machine-specific directory.
  • Missing REDDIT_USER_AGENT after CLI lookup is not a hard blocker because the CLI has a built-in default.
  • Distinguish env lookup behavior from HTTP failures or Reddit-side blocking; report the actual request failure instead of claiming the skill lacks credentials.
  • A network_security_block error means Reddit (or an upstream proxy) refused the request, not a local config issue. Switch REDDIT_USER_AGENT or change egress before retrying.

Aliases

  • search accepts:
    • subreddits='["a","b"]' (must be a JSON list of non-empty strings; malformed values return rc=2)
    • author=<username>
    • flair=<text>
    • time= is an alias for t=
  • post / post-url accept:
    • comment_limit= → limit=
    • comment_sort= → sort=
    • comment_depth= → depth=

Validation rules

  • browse requires a subreddit; sort must be hot|new|top|rising|controversial and appear before any key=value arg. A stray positional token after key=value is rc=2.
  • post-url requires an http:// or https:// URL. Anything else is rc=2.
  • user-analysis numeric args must be non-negative integers; time_range must be day|week|month|year|all. Invalid values return rc=2 (no silent "all" fallback).
  • explain lower-cases and trims whitespace; hyphens are treated as spaces for glossary lookup. Empty / whitespace-only input is rc=2.

Required follow-up reads

| Need | Read | When | | --- | --- | --- | | Pick the right command and args for a Reddit query | reference.md (Endpoints) | Before invoking a new command | | Reuse a known query shape | assets/query-templates.json | When the request matches a known template | | Understand the compact JSON envelope or error shape | reference.md (Output shape / Errors) | When consuming structured output or stderr | | Diagnose a network_security_block | SKILL.md (Failure handling) | When error.kind is network_security_block | | Override User-Agent / base URL | .env.example | When changing HTTP identity or hitting a mirror | | Future refactor concerns, expectations, and regression traps | references/future-refactor.md | You are planning a larger refactor or changing output/error contracts |

Notes

  • Public JSON endpoints work anonymously for basic read-only use.
  • Set a custom REDDIT_USER_AGENT for better hygiene and fewer blocks.
  • Reddit also has OAuth-backed APIs, but this skill intentionally stays on public JSON endpoints for low-friction read-only access.
  • If you need authenticated/private/high-throughput access later, treat that as a separate OAuth feature instead of overloading this helper.

Query templates

See assets/query-templates.json.

Validation

uv run --script <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py --help

Reference

See reference.md.