Reddit — Post Search

Query or URL → structured post records with 40+ fields per item

Language

All process output to user (progress updates, process notifications) follows the user's language.

Objective

Collect Reddit post records from keyword search, subreddit listings, or direct Reddit URLs using Reddit's public JSON API, returning structured data ready for analysis or pipeline consumption.

Prerequisites

A reddit.com page is open in the browser

Pre-execution Checks

1. Tool Readiness

If browser-act has been confirmed available in the current session → skip this step.

Invoke browser-act via Skill tool to load usage. If installation or configuration issues arise, follow its guidance to resolve then retry.

Capability Components

This Skill's operational boundary = what the user can manually do in their browser. It only reads data already displayed to the user on the page, never bypassing authentication or access controls. Its role is equivalent to copy-pasting on the user's behalf — the data is already on screen, automation merely saves time. JS code is encapsulated in Python files under the scripts/ directory, invoked via eval "$(python scripts/xxx.py {params})". $(...) is bash syntax; it is recommended to use the bash tool for execution.

Below are all atomic capabilities discovered and verified during the exploration phase, listed by command template with parameters. Simply invoke them as needed — no need to read scripts/*.py source code or re-verify. Only inspect scripts when execution fails for troubleshooting. Combine freely as needed during execution.

API: Fetch one page of Reddit posts

eval "$(python scripts/search-posts.py --query '{keywords}' --sort relevance --timeframe all --limit 100)"

Parameters:

--query: search phrase (required when no --subreddit or --url is provided)
--subreddit: subreddit name without r/ prefix; combine with --query for subreddit-scoped search, or omit --query for full subreddit listing
--sort: ranking order — relevance (default) | hot | top | new | comments
--timeframe: Reddit time window — all (default) | year | month | week | day | hour
--limit: posts per page, 1–100 (default: 100)
--after: pagination cursor — after value from the previous response (default: empty = first page)
--include-nsfw: include NSFW posts — true | false (default: false)
--date-from: lower date bound applied at record level — ISO-8601 or YYYY-MM-DD (default: empty)
--date-to: upper date bound applied at record level — ISO-8601 or YYYY-MM-DD (default: empty)
--strict-token-filter: keep only posts whose title+body+url contain every query token — true | false (default: false)
--url: direct Reddit URL (post page, subreddit page, search page, or user page) — overrides --query and --subreddit
--query-label: custom label for the query field in output records (default: same as --query)

Output example:

{
  "posts": [
    {
      "kind": "post",
      "query": "ai tools",
      "id": "1s80pf6",
      "title": "You don't need to pay for AI tools right now",
      "body": "nobody told me how much was just sitting there for free.",
      "author": "AdCold1610",
      "score": 756,
      "upvote_ratio": 0.97,
      "num_comments": 173,
      "subreddit": "PromptEngineering",
      "created_utc": "2026-06-01T10:09:56.000Z",
      "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/PromptEngineering/comments/1s80pf6/you_dont_need_to_pay_for_ai_tools/",
      "permalink": "/r/PromptEngineering/comments/1s80pf6/you_dont_need_to_pay_for_ai_tools/",
      "canonical_url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/PromptEngineering/comments/1s80pf6/you_dont_need_to_pay_for_ai_tools/",
      "old_reddit_url": "https://old.reddit.com/r/PromptEngineering/comments/1s80pf6/you_dont_need_to_pay_for_ai_tools/",
      "flair": "Tutorials and Guides",
      "post_hint": "self",
      "over_18": false,
      "is_self": true,
      "spoiler": false,
      "locked": false,
      "is_video": false,
      "is_gallery": false,
      "hidden": false,
      "edited": false,
      "archived": false,
      "pinned": false,
      "domain": "self.PromptEngineering",
      "thumbnail": "self",
      "url_overridden_by_dest": null,
      "num_duplicates": 0,
      "subreddit_id": "t5_2rc7j",
      "subreddit_name_prefixed": "r/PromptEngineering",
      "subreddit_subscribers": 368624,
      "media": null,
      "age_hours": 312.5,
      "retrieved_at": "2026-07-14T08:20:02.983Z",
      "has_media": false,
      "gallery_count": 0,
      "outbound_url_host": null,
      "title_length": 44,
      "body_length": 512,
      "word_count": 95,
      "score_per_hour": 2.42,
      "comments_per_hour": 0.55,
      "is_deleted_or_removed": false,
      "engagement_total": 929,
      "comment_to_score_ratio": 0.2291,
      "is_high_engagement": false,
      "stickied": false,
      "distinguished": null,
      "score_hidden": false,
      "total_awards_received": 0,
      "gilded": 0,
      "num_crossposts": 0,
      "is_original_content": false,
      "author_fullname": "t2_dr3vyilor",
      "author_flair_text": null,
      "author_premium": false,
      "crosspost_parent_list": null
    }
  ],
  "after": "t3_1ujtb4c",
  "count": 100,
  "has_more": true
}

Enum Parameters

[API] sort — Hardcoded values, no API retrieval needed: relevance | hot | top | new | comments

Pagination

API Pagination: --after, type: cursor, start value: empty (omit for first page). Next page value: after field in response. Termination: has_more is false or after is null.

Success Criteria

result.count >= 1 and result.posts[0].id is a non-empty string and result.posts[0].title is non-null

Known Limitations

Reddit's public search caps practical result windows at roughly 250–1,000 posts per query/sort combination regardless of the number of pages requested; this is a Reddit platform limit, not a script limit
--timeframe narrows Reddit's source query; --date-from / --date-to apply exact filtering at the record level after fetch and may reduce returned count
Anonymous (non-logged-in) API access is subject to Reddit's 60 requests/minute rate limit; add 1–2 second delays between page requests for large batches
--sort relevance and --sort top are only meaningful when a --query is provided; for subreddit listings without a query use --sort hot or --sort new

Execution Efficiency

Batch orchestration: Write a bash script to loop through the command templates serially within a single session; do not parallelize within one browser. Add 1–2 second delays between pages to respect the rate limit. For higher throughput, distribute pages across multiple parallel browser sessions — each session maintains independent browser context and network state, so request volume spreads naturally across sessions
Test before batch execution: After writing a batch script, you must first test with 1-2 items to verify the script runs correctly; only then run the full batch. Never skip testing and execute in batch directly
Reduce redundant pre-operations: When multiple steps depend on the same prerequisite state, complete them in batch under that state to avoid repeatedly establishing the same state
Error resumption: Save results item by item during batch processing; on failure, resume from the breakpoint rather than starting over

Experience Notes

Path: {working-directory}/browser-act-skill-forge-memories/reddit-search-scraper-reddit-post-search.memory.md (working directory is determined by the Agent running the Skill, typically the project root or current working directory)

Before execution: If the file exists, read it first — it records unexpected situations encountered during past executions (e.g., a strategy has become ineffective); adjust strategy order accordingly.

After execution: If an unexpected situation is encountered (strategy became ineffective, page redesigned, anti-scraping upgraded, better path discovered), append a line: {YYYY-MM-DD}: {what happened} → {conclusion}

Normal execution does not write to the file. Do not record what keywords were used or how many results were returned — those are task outputs, not experience.