Reddit Access

reddit-access

Access Reddit content by parsing old.reddit.com HTML pages.

Prerequisites

• Python 3
• uv (dependencies are managed inline via script metadata)

Commands

Get subreddit posts

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py posts <subreddit> [limit] [sort]

• subreddit: Subreddit name (without r/)
• limit: Number of posts (default: 25, max: 100)
• sort: Sort order - hot, new, top, rising (default: hot)

Example:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py posts python 10 hot

Output:

[
  {
    "id": "abc123",
    "title": "Post title",
    "author": "username",
    "score": 42,
    "num_comments": 15,
    "url": "https://old.reddit.com/r/python/comments/abc123/...",
    "created_utc": 1234567890
  }
]

Get post details with comments

With post ID:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py details <post_id> [subreddit]

With URL:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py details <url>

• post_id: Reddit post ID
• subreddit: Optional subreddit name for faster lookup (when using post ID)
• url: Full Reddit URL (new or old Reddit format)

Example with post ID:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py details abc123 python

Example with new Reddit URL:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py details "https://www.reddit.com/r/python/comments/abc123/post_title/"

Output:

{
  "post": {
    "title": "Post title",
    "selftext": "Post content...",
    "author": "username",
    "score": 42
  },
  "comments": [
    {
      "author": "commenter",
      "body": "Comment text",
      "score": 10
    }
  ]
}

Search within subreddit

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py search <subreddit> <query> [limit]

• subreddit: Subreddit to search in
• query: Search query
• limit: Number of results (default: 25)

Example:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py search python "async await" 10

Get user posts

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py user <username> [limit]

• username: Reddit username (without u/)
• limit: Number of posts (default: 25)

Example:

uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py user rewselab 10

Common Workflows

Read a Reddit post from URL

# Simply pass the Reddit URL (new or old Reddit)
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py details "https://www.reddit.com/r/python/comments/abc123/post_title/"

Read discussion

# Get post and read comments
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py details abc123 python

Monitor trending topics

# Get hot posts from multiple subreddits
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py posts programming 15 hot
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py posts python 15 hot
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py posts MachineLearning 15 hot

Research a topic

# Search across relevant subreddits
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py search python "type hints" 20
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py search learnpython "type hints" 20

Track user activity

# Get recent posts from a user
uv run ~/.agents/skills/reddit-access/scripts/reddit.py user username 25

Notes

• Parses old.reddit.com HTML pages (no API key or auth required)
• Rate limiting: Be respectful, avoid rapid requests
• User-Agent is set to a browser string to avoid blocks
• All output is JSON format
• Dependencies managed inline via uv script metadata (beautifulsoup4)
• Works with public content only (no private subreddits or user data)

Error Handling

Errors are returned as JSON to stderr:

{
  "error": "Error message"
}

Common errors:

• Subreddit not found (404)
• Post not found (404)
• Rate limited (429) - wait and retry
• Network timeout - retry with exponential backoff