Reddit Researcher

Search and analyze Reddit posts and comments to summarize user opinions, troubleshoot issues, and track trends across communities and topics.

Description

Research and analyze Reddit discussions by searching posts, reading comments, and summarizing community sentiment on any topic. Useful for gathering user opinions, troubleshooting insights, market research, and trend analysis.

Use Cases

• Product Research: Find user complaints, feature requests, and feedback about products or services
• Troubleshooting: Discover common issues and solutions users are discussing
• Market Analysis: Understand community sentiment about brands, technologies, or trends
• Competitive Intelligence: See what users say about competitors
• Content Research: Gather information and perspectives on specific topics

Setup

Creating a Reddit Application

To access the Reddit API with higher rate limits, you need to create a Reddit app:

1. Go to Reddit Apps Page

   • Visit: https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps
   • Log in to your Reddit account

2. Create a New App

   • Scroll to the bottom and click "Create App" or "Create Another App"
   • Select "script" as the app type (for personal/research use)

3. Fill in App Details

   • Name: Your app name (e.g., "ResearchBot")
   • Description: Brief description of what the app does
   • About URL: Your website or GitHub profile (optional)
   • Redirect URI: Use http://localhost:8080 (required but not used for script apps)

4. Get Your Credentials After creating the app, you'll see:

   • Client ID: The string under the app name (e.g., abc123def456ghi)
   • Client Secret: Click "edit" to reveal the secret (e.g., jkl789mno012pqr)

5. Configure Environment

   export REDDIT_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id_here"
   export REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret_here"
   export REDDIT_USER_AGENT="ResearchBot/1.0 by u/yourusername"
   

Environment Variables

For higher rate limits and authenticated access:

• REDDIT_CLIENT_ID - From Reddit app registration
• REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET - From Reddit app registration
• REDDIT_USER_AGENT - Custom user agent string (e.g., "MyResearchBot/1.0 by u/username")

Security Best Practices

Least-Privilege Credentials:

• Create a dedicated Reddit account for API access (do not use your personal/main account)
• Use the "script" app type which has minimal permissions (read-only by default)
• Never commit credentials to version control
• Rotate credentials periodically
• For production use, consider using a secrets manager instead of environment variables

Rate Limiting:

• Anonymous access is limited to ~30 requests/minute
• OAuth access increases to 100 requests/minute
• Implement request throttling to avoid being rate-limited or banned

Authentication

Anonymous Access (Limited):

• Base URL: https://www.reddit.com
• Rate limit: ~30 requests per minute
• Add .json to any Reddit URL to get JSON data

OAuth Access (Recommended):

# Get access token
curl -X POST https://www.reddit.com/api/v1/access_token \
  -H "User-Agent: $REDDIT_USER_AGENT" \
  --basic -u "$REDDIT_CLIENT_ID:$REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials"

Use the access token:

Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN
User-Agent: $REDDIT_USER_AGENT

API Reference

Search Posts

Search for posts across Reddit or within specific subreddits.

Search All Reddit

curl "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=OpenCore+problems&sort=new&time=week&limit=25" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Search Specific Subreddit

curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/search.json?q=OpenCore&restrict_sr=1&sort=new&time=week" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Query Parameters:

• q - Search query (required)
• sort - Sort by: relevance, new, hot, top, comments
• time - Time filter: hour, day, week, month, year, all
• limit - Number of results (1-100, default 25)
• after - Pagination token for next page
• restrict_sr=1 - Restrict to subreddit (when searching within subreddit)

Get Subreddit Posts

Hot Posts

curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/hot.json?limit=25" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

New Posts

curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/new.json?limit=25" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Top Posts (by time period)

curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/top.json?t=week&limit=25" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Time periods: hour, day, week, month, year, all

Get Post Details and Comments

curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/ABC123/post_title.json" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Response Structure:

• [0] - Post data (listing with one post)
• [1] - Comments data (listing with comment tree)

Get User Profile and Posts

curl "https://www.reddit.com/user/username/submitted.json" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Response Structure

Post Object

{
  "data": {
    "children": [{
      "data": {
        "id": "post_id",
        "title": "Post Title",
        "selftext": "Post body text",
        "author": "username",
        "subreddit": "subreddit_name",
        "score": 123,
        "num_comments": 45,
        "created_utc": 1704067200,
        "permalink": "/r/subreddit/comments/id/title/",
        "url": "https://external-link.com" // or "self" post
      }
    }]
  }
}

Comment Object

{
  "data": {
    "body": "Comment text",
    "author": "username",
    "score": 10,
    "created_utc": 1704067200,
    "replies": {
      "data": {
        "children": [...] // Nested replies
      }
    }
  }
}

Research Workflow

Step 1: Define Research Query

Identify:

• Search terms and keywords
• Relevant subreddits
• Time period of interest
• Sort preference (new for recent, top for popular)

Step 2: Search and Filter Posts

# Example: Find recent OpenCore problems
curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/search.json?q=OpenCore+issue+OR+problem+OR+error&sort=new&time=week&limit=50" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0" | jq '.data.children[].data | {title, score, num_comments, permalink, created_utc}'

Step 3: Fetch Top Post Comments

# Get full post with comments
curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/POST_ID.json" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Step 4: Analyze and Summarize

Extract:

• Common Issues: Recurring problems mentioned
• Solutions: Fixes and workarounds suggested
• Sentiment: Overall community attitude
• Key Insights: Notable observations or patterns
• Specific Examples: Direct quotes or user experiences

Example Research Queries

Product Issues Research

# Find problems with a product in the last month
curl "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=ProductName+issue+OR+bug+OR+problem&sort=new&time=month&limit=50" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Feature Requests Analysis

# Find feature requests in a specific subreddit
curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/search.json?q=feature+request+OR+wish+OR+please+add&sort=top&time=month&restrict_sr=1" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Troubleshooting Research

# Find solutions to common problems
curl "https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/search.json?q=WiFi+disconnecting+fixed+OR+solved&sort=relevance&time=week" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Competitive Analysis

# Compare two products
curl "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=ProductA+vs+ProductB&sort=top&time=month&limit=25" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Advanced Search Operators

Reddit supports search operators:

• title:keyword - Search in titles only
• selftext:keyword - Search in post body only
• author:username - Posts by specific user
• subreddit:name - Posts in specific subreddit
• site:example.com - Posts linking to specific domain
• url:text - Posts with URL containing text
• nsfw:no - Exclude NSFW content

Example:

curl "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=title:OpenCore+selftext:problem&sort=new&time=week" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0"

Rate Limiting

• Anonymous: ~30 requests per minute
• OAuth: 100 requests per minute
• Response headers include rate limit info (when using OAuth)

Best Practices:

• Add delays between requests (1-2 seconds)
• Use OAuth for better limits
• Respect 429 responses and back off
• Cache results when possible

Data Processing with jq

Extract Post Summaries

curl -s "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/new.json?limit=10" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0" | \
  jq '.data.children[].data | {title, score, num_comments, url: "https://reddit.com" + .permalink}'

Extract Comment Threads

curl -s "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/POST_ID.json" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0" | \
  jq '.[1].data.children[].data | {author, body, score, replies: (.replies.data.children | length)}'

Filter by Score

curl -s "https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/hot.json?limit=100" \
  -H "User-Agent: RedditResearchBot/1.0" | \
  jq '.data.children[].data | select(.score > 50) | {title, score, num_comments}'

Research Output Format

When summarizing research, structure findings as:

## Research Summary: [Topic]

### Overview
Brief description of what was researched and scope.

### Key Findings
1. **Finding 1**: Description with supporting evidence
2. **Finding 2**: Description with supporting evidence
3. **Finding 3**: Description with supporting evidence

### Common Issues/Sentiments
- **Issue 1**: Frequency and context
- **Issue 2**: Frequency and context

### Notable Discussions
1. **[Post Title](link)** - r/subreddit, X comments
   - Key insight or quote
   
2. **[Post Title](link)** - r/subreddit, X comments
   - Key insight or quote

### Recommendations/Conclusions
Based on the research, actionable insights or conclusions.

### Data Points
- Posts analyzed: X
- Comments analyzed: X
- Time period: [dates]
- Primary subreddits: r/x, r/y

Changelog

v1.0.0

• Initial release
• Search posts across Reddit and subreddits
• Read post details and comment threads
• Analyze and summarize community discussions
• Support for anonymous and OAuth authentication
• Advanced search operators and filtering