reddit-research

name	reddit-research
description	Search Reddit for subreddits, posts, and comments. Use when researching what Reddit thinks about a topic, finding relevant communities, searching discussions, or analyzing post comments. Supports broad searches across all of Reddit, targeted searches within specific subreddits, or discovering relevant subreddits first then drilling down.

Reddit Research

Search Reddit for subreddits, posts, and comments. Results written to markdown files for grep/glob searching.

No API key required (uses public JSON API).

Quick Start

# Search all of Reddit for posts
python scripts/reddit_search.py search -q "cursor ide" -o ./research

# Search specific subreddits
python scripts/reddit_search.py search -q "cursor ide" -s "programming,vscode" -o ./research

# Find relevant subreddits first
python scripts/reddit_search.py subreddits -q "code editor" -o ./research

# Get comments from a post
python scripts/reddit_search.py comments -p POST_ID -o ./research

# Grep through results
grep -r "vscode" ./research/

Search Strategies

Choose based on your research needs:

1. Broad Search (all of Reddit)

python scripts/reddit_search.py search -q "keyword"

Best for: Initial exploration, finding where discussions happen.

2. Targeted Search (specific subreddits)

python scripts/reddit_search.py search -q "keyword" -s "sub1,sub2,sub3"

Best for: When you know the relevant communities.

3. Discovery → Targeted

# Step 1: Find relevant subreddits
python scripts/reddit_search.py subreddits -q "topic"

# Step 2: Search within discovered subreddits
python scripts/reddit_search.py search -q "keyword" -s "discovered,subs"

Best for: Comprehensive research on unfamiliar topics.

Commands

Command	Description
subreddits -q QUERY	Find subreddits matching topic
info -r SUBREDDIT	Get subreddit details + related subs
popular --type [popular|new]	List trending subreddits
posts -r SUBREDDIT	Get posts from a subreddit
search -q QUERY [-s SUBS]	Search posts (all or specific subs)
comments -p POST_ID	Get post comments

Output Files

All results written to --output-dir (default: ./reddit_research/):

File Pattern	Contents
reddit_subs_*.md	Subreddit search results
reddit_info_*.md	Subreddit details
reddit_posts_*.md	Posts from a subreddit
reddit_search_*.md	Post search results (grouped by sub)
reddit_comments_*.md	Post with comments

Examples

# Research what Reddit thinks about a product
python scripts/reddit_search.py search -q "notion vs obsidian" -o ./research

# Find AI/ML communities
python scripts/reddit_search.py subreddits -q "machine learning" -n 30 -o ./research

# Get top posts from a subreddit
python scripts/reddit_search.py posts -r programming --sort top --time week -o ./research

# Deep dive into a discussion
python scripts/reddit_search.py comments -p abc123 -o ./research

API Reference

See references/api_reference.md for endpoint details.