reddit-research-skill

A Claude Code / Claude Desktop agent skill that does Reddit research without failing. It routes through the right tool for each job (Arctic Shift archive API, Reddit's JSON endpoints, Playwright, Tavily) and never tries methods that are known to be blocked.

Built for use cases like:

• "What does r/homelab actually think about X?"
• "What is the consensus on Y?" / "What do practitioners recommend for Z?"
• Subreddit engagement scoring (comments-to-upvotes ratio, tone, rules)
• Recovering deleted/removed posts
• Finding which subreddits a user posts in
• Shadowban detection
• Topic and subreddit discovery

What's in this repo

File	Purpose
SKILL.md	The skill itself. Frontmatter + instructions Claude reads when triggered.
README.md	Install + setup (this file).
LICENSE	MIT.

Install (Claude Code on macOS / Linux / Windows)

git clone https://github.com/Gunshipz/reddit-research-skill.git ~/.claude/skills/reddit-research

On Windows (Git Bash):

git clone https://github.com/Gunshipz/reddit-research-skill.git "$HOME/.claude/skills/reddit-research"

That's it. Claude Code auto-discovers skills in ~/.claude/skills/. No restart needed for new sessions; restart your current session to pick it up.

To update later:

cd ~/.claude/skills/reddit-research && git pull

One required edit before first use

SKILL.md uses /u/your-reddit-username as a placeholder in the Reddit User-Agent string. Reddit will rate-limit or block default User-Agents, so swap in your own Reddit handle:

sed -i 's|/u/your-reddit-username|/u/YOUR_HANDLE|g' ~/.claude/skills/reddit-research/SKILL.md

Or just open SKILL.md and find/replace your-reddit-username with your Reddit handle. You don't need a Reddit API key, just a handle.

How to ask Claude to use it

The skill auto-triggers on a wide set of phrases. You don't need to say "use the reddit skill" — just ask the question:

• "search reddit for what people are using to host static sites in 2026"
• "what's the consensus on r/selfhosted about Tailscale vs Wireguard?"
• "analyze r/homelab engagement and tone"
• "what subs does u/example_user post in"
• "find deleted posts in r/SUBNAME"
• "is u/example_user shadowbanned"
• "discover subreddits about home automation"

Explicit invocation also works:

/reddit-research analyze r/homelab engagement

Recommended: tell your Claude to remember it

So Claude reaches for this skill instead of WebFetch (which Reddit blocks), add a one-line pointer to your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md or memory:

- For any Reddit research, search, consensus question, or subreddit analysis,
  use the /reddit-research skill at ~/.claude/skills/reddit-research/SKILL.md.
  Never WebFetch reddit.com directly — it's blocked.

In Claude Code with auto-memory enabled, you can also just say once:

"Remember: for any Reddit research, use the reddit-research skill. Never WebFetch reddit.com — it's blocked."

…and it will save that as a feedback memory.

Trigger phrases (full list)

The skill activates on any of these (case-insensitive, partial match):

reddit research, search reddit, subreddit analysis, reddit metrics, reddit engagement, check reddit, reddit posts, arctic shift, subreddit rules, reddit user activity, deleted reddit posts, removed reddit posts, subreddit tone, reddit shadowban, reddit comments, subreddit discovery, find reddit threads, what is the consensus, what do people recommend, how are others doing this, what does reddit say, what's the consensus on, community consensus, popular opinion, what do practitioners use, what are people saying about, prevailing wisdom, common approach, most recommended.

How it picks tools (short version)

1. Arctic Shift API (WebFetch) — historical data, deleted/removed/spam-filtered posts, rules, user activity. Always works, no auth.
2. Reddit JSON API (curl via Bash) — live hot/new/top rankings, current subscriber counts, threaded comments, cross-sub search, subreddit discovery. ~100 req / 2 min.
3. Playwright — only if 1+2 fail or rate-limit out.
4. Tavily (when MCP connected) — broad web-indexed Reddit results.

The skill explicitly does not WebFetch reddit.com directly (Claude Code blocklists it) or use Reddit RSS feeds (403 Forbidden). Full method matrix and decision flowchart in SKILL.md.

Scope

Read-only research. No posting, commenting, voting, DMs, or modmail. If you need write actions, those have to run outside Claude Code.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.