Reddit Triage

Reddit triage

Turn a Reddit thread or the community's recent activity into: tracked GitHub issues, Fider feature requests, and a drafts file of replies for the maintainer to approve. Nothing is ever posted to Reddit without explicit human approval of the exact text.

Step 0. Preconditions

The private maintainer tooling must be cloned as a sibling of this repo:

ls ../reddit-triage/client.py || git clone git@github.com:Apollo-Reborn/reddit-triage.git ../reddit-triage

It requires maintainer access and a one-time OAuth setup — follow that repo's README (config.json from the example template, then auth.py). If the clone, config.json, or the auth token is missing, stop and tell the user exactly which setup step is needed; don't attempt the OAuth dance unattended.

The tooling enforces its own request pacing and reply caps — never work around them.

Step 1. Fetch

Two modes — pick based on what was asked:

Digest cycle (inbox + subreddit + watched threads; marks items seen in state.json so the next run only surfaces new activity):

cd ../reddit-triage && uv run fetch.py        # digest → digests/<ts>.md

Ad-hoc thread (e.g. "triage the comments on this announcement post"). Deliberately does NOT go through fetch.py, so seen-state and digests are untouched:

cd ../reddit-triage && uv run --with requests python - <<'EOF'
import client as c

rc = c.RedditClient()
resp = rc.get("/comments/THREAD_ID", limit=500, sort="top", depth=10)
post = resp[0]["data"]["children"][0]["data"]
print(f"POST: {post['title']}  (score={post['score']}, {post['num_comments']} comments)")

out, mores = [], []
def walk(children, depth=0):
    for ch in children:
        if ch["kind"] == "t1":
            d = ch["data"]
            out.append((depth, d))
            replies = d.get("replies")
            if isinstance(replies, dict):
                walk(replies["data"]["children"], depth + 1)
        elif ch["kind"] == "more":
            mores.append(ch["data"])

walk(resp[1]["data"]["children"])
for depth, d in out:
    indent = "  " * depth
    body = (d.get("body") or "").replace("\n", f"\n{indent}| ")
    print(f"{indent}[{d['name']}] u/{d.get('author')} (score {d.get('score')}):")
    print(f"{indent}| {body}\n")
print(f"TOTAL comments fetched: {len(out)}")
for m in mores:
    print(f"MORE stub: count={m.get('count')} children={m.get('children')}")
EOF

If any MORE stub lines print, fetch those children too (/api/morechildren?link_id=t3_<id>&children=<csv>) before triaging — never report a thread as fully reviewed while stubs are unexpanded.

Step 2. Classify

Bucket every item:

• bug report — something broke, ideally with a version/regression window
• feature request — new behavior or restoring removed behavior
• support question — answerable from docs/code, no tracker entry needed
• praise / chatter — no action
• self-resolved — reporter fixed it in-thread; no action, note the fix

Step 3. Cross-check before filing anything

• GitHub issues — check open AND closed; reports filed via report.apolloreborn.app arrive as anonymous GitHub issues whose text often matches a Reddit comment verbatim (same reporter):

  gh issue list --repo Apollo-Reborn/Apollo-Reborn --state open --limit 200 \
    --json number,title,labels
  gh issue list --repo Apollo-Reborn/Apollo-Reborn --state closed --limit 40 \
    --search "<keywords>" --json number,title
  gh pr list --repo Apollo-Reborn/Apollo-Reborn --state open --limit 100 \
    --json number,title,author
  

• Fider request board (listing/search is public, no auth):

  curl -s "https://apolloreborn.fider.io/api/v1/posts?limit=100"
  curl -s "https://apolloreborn.fider.io/api/v1/posts?query=<keywords>"
  

• The codebase — when a comment makes a claim about app/tweak behavior ("this option was removed", "does X need an API key?"), verify against the source before answering or filing. Past examples: a settings mode that was deliberately retired (feature request, not bug), asset fallbacks that are intentionally stripped, an API key that only gates composing rather than viewing.

Step 4. File untracked items

Bugs with enough substance → GitHub:

gh issue create --repo Apollo-Reborn/Apollo-Reborn --label bug \
  --title "[Bug]: <symptom>" --body "<body>"

Body: summary, quoted comment, the Reddit permalink, the version/regression window, and any likely-cause notes. For thin reports (one sentence, no environment or logs), prefer a reply asking the reporter to submit via report.apolloreborn.app — that auto-creates a far richer issue (environment table + crash attachments) than a hand-filed stub.

Feature requests → Fider. If the repo root has a .env with FIDER_API_KEY (gitignored; never print the key):

# Show the drafted title/body to the user and get explicit approval FIRST —
# the post publishes under the key owner's account.
curl -s -X POST "https://apolloreborn.fider.io/api/v1/posts" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(grep '^FIDER_API_KEY=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "<title>", "description": "<body>"}'

Credit the requester with their u/username and the comment permalink in the body. Without a key, write paste-ready title/body blocks to ../reddit-triage/drafts/fider-<date>.md for the maintainer to post manually.

Step 5. Draft replies

Write ../reddit-triage/drafts/<date>-<slug>.md, one section per reply:

### reply-to: t1_abc123
Reply text in markdown. Everything until the next section header.

### reply-to: t1_xyz789
SKIP

t1_ = comment, t3_ = post, t4_ = private message; a SKIP (or empty) body skips the item. Max 10 replies per run — split larger batches into multiple files. Typical replies: answers to support questions (verified against the code), links to the issues/requests just filed, and asks for report.apolloreborn.app submissions or missing details.

Validate the file:

cd ../reddit-triage && uv run reply.py drafts/<file>.md --dry

Step 6. Hard rules

• Never run reply.py without --dry unless the human has reviewed and approved the exact drafts file. Posting is always the human's call.
• Never post, vote, or send anything on Reddit outside the approved drafts flow.
• Fider posts and GitHub issues that a reply links to must exist before that reply is posted — publish in dependency order.
• Drafts and digests contain user content — they stay in the gitignored drafts//digests/ directories, never in a commit.

Step 7. Wrap up

End with a summary the maintainer can act on at a glance:

• a table of every actionable thread item → already tracked (where) / newly filed (link) / reply drafted / no action (why)
• paths of every file created, and the exact reply.py command to post the drafts after review
• any posting-order dependencies (e.g. "paste the Fider drafts before sending reply 3, which links to them")