reddit-fetch

name	reddit-fetch
description	Fetch content from Reddit using Gemini CLI or curl JSON API fallback. Use when accessing Reddit URLs, researching topics on Reddit, or when Reddit returns 403/blocked errors.

Reddit Fetch

Method 1: Gemini CLI (Try First)

Use Gemini CLI via tmux. It can browse, summarize, and answer complex questions about Reddit content.

Pick a unique session name (e.g., gemini_abc123) and use it consistently throughout.

Setup

tmux new-session -d -s <session_name> -x 200 -y 50
tmux send-keys -t <session_name> 'gemini -m gemini-3-pro-preview' Enter
sleep 3  # wait for Gemini CLI to load

Send query and capture output

tmux send-keys -t <session_name> 'Your Reddit query here' Enter
sleep 30  # wait for response (adjust as needed, up to 90s for complex searches)
tmux capture-pane -t <session_name> -p -S -500  # capture output

If the captured output shows an API error (e.g., quota exceeded, model unavailable), kill the session and retry without the -m flag (just gemini with no model argument). This falls back to the default model.

How to tell if Enter was sent

Look for YOUR QUERY TEXT specifically. Is it inside or outside the bordered box?

Enter NOT sent - your query is INSIDE the box:

╭─────────────────────────────────────╮
│ > Your actual query text here       │
╰─────────────────────────────────────╯

Enter WAS sent - your query is OUTSIDE the box, followed by activity:

> Your actual query text here

⠋ Our hamsters are working... (processing)

╭────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ >   Type your message or @path/to/file     │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Note: The empty prompt Type your message or @path/to/file always appears in the box - that's normal. What matters is whether YOUR query text is inside or outside the box.

If your query is inside the box, run tmux send-keys -t <session_name> Enter to submit.

Cleanup when done

tmux kill-session -t <session_name>

If Gemini fails completely

If retrying without -m also fails, fall back to Method 2 below.

---

Method 2: curl with Reddit JSON API (Fallback)

Reddit's public JSON API works by appending .json to any Reddit URL. Use this when Gemini is unavailable (quota exhausted, API errors, etc.).

Listing hot/new/top posts

curl -s -L -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" \
  "https://old.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/hot.json?limit=15"

Replace hot with new, top, or rising as needed. For top, add &t=day (or week, month, year, all).

Fetching a specific post + comments

curl -s -L -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" \
  "https://old.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/comments/POST_ID.json?limit=20"

The response is a JSON array: [0] is the post, [1] is the comment tree.

Searching within a subreddit

curl -s -L -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" \
  "https://old.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/search.json?q=QUERY&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&limit=15"

Parsing the JSON

Use jq to extract what you need:

# List posts
curl -s -L -o /tmp/reddit_result.txt -w "%{http_code}" \
  -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" \
  'https://old.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/hot.json?limit=15'

jq -r '.data.children[] | .data | "\(.title)\n   \(.score) pts | \(.num_comments) comments | u/\(.author) | id: \(.id)\n"' /tmp/reddit_result.txt

# List comments from a specific post (the [1] element has comments)
jq -r '.[1].data.children[] | select(.kind == "t1") | .data | "u/\(.author) (\(.score) pts):\n  \(.body[:300])\n"' /tmp/reddit_thread.txt

Key details:

• Fetch to temp file first, then parse - avoids pipe-related encoding issues
• -o /tmp/file and -w "%{http_code}" saves the response and prints the HTTP status (useful for debugging empty responses)
• -L follows redirects (old.reddit.com sometimes redirects)
• Single-quoted URL avoids shell interpretation of & in query strings
• .body[:300] truncates long comment bodies (jq 1.7+)

Rate limiting

Reddit's JSON API rate-limits aggressively:

• Don't fire parallel requests. Make them sequentially with sleep 2 or sleep 3 between each.
• If a request returns empty (0 bytes), wait 3-5 seconds and retry.
• If you get HTTP 429, back off for 10-15 seconds.
• A good pattern: fetch one search result listing, parse it, then fetch individual threads one at a time with delays.