reddit-search

name	reddit-search
description	Read a subreddit's pulse via the public RSS feed (no key), extract real-world reports vs hype, and fall back to web_search site:reddit.com when Reddit rate-limits.
stack	web

Reddit Search

Read community signal: what people actually report, not what the demos claim.

When to Use

• Real-world evidence: "has anyone run X?", "what do people report about Y?".
• Community consensus or sentiment around a model, tool, paper, or hardware.
• The user names a subreddit or asks "what does r/X think?".

Procedure

1. Call the tool if installed: the reddit-search user tool (see packages/coding-agent/scripts/reddit-search.mjs). Otherwise the RSS one-liner: curl -s -A "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 Chrome/126.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" "https://www.reddit.com/r/SUB/.rss?limit=8" and parse the Atom entries (title, link, author, updated, summary). Pace requests (~1 per 10s) — Reddit rate-limits hard.
2. Search fallback ladder (in order):
   • If a query is needed, try the subreddit search RSS (/r/SUB/search.rss?q=...&restrict_sr=1&sort=top&t=month) — often 429.
   • When rate-limited: run web_search with site:reddit.com/r/SUB TERMS, pick real post URLs, and web_extract the top 1-2 threads. If extraction fails on Reddit's shell, summarize from the search snippets + feed summary only, and say what you could not read.
3. Extract signal: separate FACT (numbers, configs, measured results) from OPINION. Note scores/recency when available.
4. Answer the user: 2-5 posts max — title, subreddit, date, the factual takeaway, and the link. State clearly when you only have the feed summary, not the full thread.

Pitfalls

• Reddit's anonymous JSON API is dead (403 since May 2026) — the RSS is the reliable no-key path; search is rate-limited. Do not retry the tool endlessly; use the fallback ladder.
• A high-score post is not necessarily true — it is consensus. Keep measured claims distinct from vibes.
• Do not invent comment content you did not read. Say "feed summary only" when that is all you have.
• Respect rate limits: one tool call, then the fallback; never hammer Reddit.