# Rsearch

> Search Reddit posts through the browser via CDP. Returns structured results (title, subreddit, author, score, comments, permalink URL, selftext, media URLs) for any query, with optional subreddit restriction and sort/time filters. Use when the user asks to search Reddit, find discussions or posts, or gauge community sentiment on a topic. Requires browser-harness-js on PATH and a Chromium-based browser with remote debugging; no Reddit API key — works logged-out, and a logged-in reddit session is used automatically if present.

- Skill: `monotykamary/rsearch` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add monotykamary/rsearch`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/monotykamary/rsearch/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Integrations & APIs
- Author: monotykamary (https://skillmd.com/u/monotykamary)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/monotykamary/rsearch

---


# Reddit Search

Search Reddit posts through the browser: a background tab opens `www.reddit.com`, then a **same-origin** `fetch('/search.json?…', { credentials: 'include' })` hits reddit's own JSON listing endpoint with the browser's cookies, UA, and referer. Adapted from [opencli](https://github.com/jackwener/opencli)'s `clis/reddit/search.js`. No Reddit API key, no OAuth app, no scraping selectors — the response is reddit's canonical listing JSON. Each call opens its own tab and WebSocket session — safe for parallel use.

## Usage

```bash
rsearch "claude code"                                 # up to 15 results, pretty
rsearch "local llm" 5                                 # 5 results
rsearch --json "stable diffusion" 10                  # raw JSON array
rsearch --subreddit programming "git tips"            # within one subreddit (r/ prefix optional)
rsearch --sort top --time week "browser automation"   # sort + time filter

rsearch "rust async" 3 &                              # parallel-safe
rsearch "go channels" 3 &
wait
```

| Flag | Values | Default |
|------|--------|---------|
| `--json` | — | pretty text |
| `--subreddit NAME` | bare name, `r/name`, or `/r/name` | all of reddit |
| `--sort S` | `relevance` `hot` `top` `new` `comments` | `relevance` |
| `--time T` | `all` `hour` `day` `week` `month` `year` | `all` |
| positional 2 | count, 1–100 | 15 |

## Result shape

`--json` returns an array of posts, adapted 1:1 from opencli's column set:

```json
[
  {
    "id": "1abc2de",
    "title": "Show r/programming: …",
    "subreddit": "r/programming",
    "author": "someuser",
    "score": 1234,
    "comments": 210,
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1abc2de/…",
    "created_utc": 1735689600,
    "selftext": "…",
    "post_hint": "link",
    "url_overridden_by_dest": "https://example.com/article",
    "preview_image_url": "https://preview.redd.it/…",
    "gallery_urls": []
  }
]
```

Link posts carry the external target in `url_overridden_by_dest` (pretty output prints it after `->`); galleries list direct `i.redd.it` images in `gallery_urls`.

## Traps

- **Ask via the page, not from Node.** Server-side `fetch`/`curl` of `reddit.com/search.json` gets bot-walled or cookie-less default results. The in-page fetch runs with the browser's reddit cookies and real UA on a committed `reddit.com` origin — that's the whole trick. A logged-in session is used automatically; logged-out searches silently filter NSFW results.
- **Don't `waitFor('networkIdle')` on reddit.** The SPA polls continuously, so the 500 ms quiet window may never open. The script waits for the `Page.frameNavigated` **commit** (which fires regardless) plus a short `document.readyState` poll — the fetch only needs the committed origin, not a fully-built page.
- **Bound the page-side fetch.** CDP calls have no built-in timeout; the eval is raced against a 20 s node-side timeout so a hung reddit request fails instead of leaking the tab.
- **Non-JSON or non-200 responses surface as errors**, not empty results — e.g. `HTTP 403: Blocked` or a "non-JSON response … block or login wall" message. This fires only after the CLI has already retried twice with backoff: a fresh cookie jar's first `/search.json` hit gets a 403 interstitial whose response sets the cookies that make the retry pass, so a persistent failure means real rate-limiting — wait a bit or check the login state.
- **Result count can be below `count`.** Reddit caps `limit` at 100 (the CLI clamps too) and often returns fewer, especially inside small subreddits.
- **Multi-flag ordering:** flags go before the query (`rsearch --sort top --time week "query"`), matching `gmaps`.