Reddit MCP Server

# Technology Stack - Reddit MCP Server **Version:** 1.0 MVP **Last Updated:** 2025-11-05 **Focus:** Week 1-2 MVP essentials only --- ## Overview This document defines the minimal technology stack for the Reddit MCP Server MVP. Following KISS and YAGNI principles, we only include dependencies essential for core functionality. --- ## Core Technologies ### 1. Runtime & Language **Python 3.11+** - **Why**: Official MCP SDK support, mature Reddit API client (PRAW), async/await native support - **Version**: 3.11+ (for improved performance and type hints) - **Key Features Used**: asyncio, type hints, dataclasses ### 2. MCP Framework **FastMCP 1.0+** - **Why**: Official Anthropic framework, decorator-based tool registration, minimal boilerplate - **Purpose**: Handles JSON-RPC protocol, request routing, transport (stdio/HTTP) - **MVP Usage**: Tool registration, input validation integration - **Installation**: `pip install mcp` ### 3. Reddit API Client **PRAW 7.7+** (Python Reddit API Wrapper) - **Why**: Battle-tested (10+ years), auto rate limiting, OAuth2 handling, Pythonic API - **Purpose**: All Reddit API interactions (search, posts, comments, subreddit data) - **Key Benefits**: Built-in 30s caching, automatic token refresh, connection pooling - **Installation**: `pip install praw` ### 4. Caching Layer **Redis 7.0+** (via redis-py) - **Why**: Sub-millisecond reads, built-in TTL, atomic operations, Apify-compatible - **Purpose**: Cache Reddit API responses to minimize rate limit usage - **Client Library**: `redis[asyncio]` (async support) - **MVP Usage**: Simple GET/SET with TTL, no advanced features needed - **Installation**: `pip install redis[asyncio]` ### 5. Data Validation **Pydantic 2.0+** - **Why**: FastMCP integration, runtime validation, auto JSON schema generation - **Purpose**: Input/output validation for all MCP tools - **Key Features**: Field validators, type coercion, clear error messages - **Installation**: `pip install pydantic` ### 6. Apify SDK **Apify Python SDK (latest)** - **Why**: Required for Apify Actor deployment, monitoring, dataset logging - **Purpose**: Actor lifecycle management, usage tracking, standby mode - **Installation**: `pip install apify` --- ## Supporting Libraries ### HTTP Server **Uvicorn 0.25+** (ASGI server) - **Purpose**: Production HTTP server for standby mode - **Why**: High performance, async support, widely adopted - **Installation**: `pip install uvicorn` ### Logging **structlog 23.0+** - **Purpose**: Structured JSON logging for better monitoring - **Why**: Machine-readable logs, context preservation, Apify-friendly - **Installation**: `pip install structlog` --- ## Optional: Post-MVP (v1.0) ### Sentiment Analysis **vaderSentiment 3.3+** - **Purpose**: Social media sentiment analysis for `analyze_sentiment` tool - **Why**: Fast (rule-based), social media optimized, no ML model needed - **When**: Add in Week 3 for v1.0 release - **Installation**: `pip install vaderSentiment` ### Rate Limiting **Built-in** (Python asyncio + Redis) - **Purpose**: Token bucket rate limiter for Reddit API - **Why**: No external library needed, simple implementation - **Implementation**: Custom TokenBucketRateLimiter class --- ## Complete Requirements.txt (MVP) ```txt # Core Framework mcp>=1.0.0 # Reddit Integration praw>=7.7.0 # Caching redis[asyncio]>=5.0.0 # Data Validation pydantic>=2.0.0 # Apify Platform apify>=1.6.0 # HTTP Server uvicorn>=0.25.0 # Logging structlog>=23.0.0 # Python Standard Enhancements python-dotenv>=1.0.0 # Environment variable management ``` **Total Core Dependencies: 8 packages** --- ## Infrastructure Dependencies ### Redis Instance - **Provider**: Redis Cloud (free tier) or Apify-compatible Redis - **Plan**: 250MB free tier (sufficient for MVP) - **Configuration**: allkeys-lru eviction, AOF persistence - **Cost**: $0 (free tier) ### Reddit API Credentials - **Type**: Application OAuth2 (read-only) - **Rate Limit**: 100 requests/minute (free tier) - **Storage**: Apify Actor secrets (encrypted) - **Cost**: $0 --- ## Development Tools (Not in Production) ```txt # Testing pytest>=7.4.0 pytest-asyncio>=0.21.0 # Code Quality black>=23.0.0 # Code formatting mypy>=1.5.0 # Type checking ruff>=0.1.0 # Fast linting ``` --- ## Technology Decisions & Rationale ### Why NOT Include These? **Excluded from MVP:** - ~~Transformer models~~ - Too slow, requires GPU (add in v2.0 if needed) - ~~Celery/RQ~~ - No background jobs in MVP (add for watch_keywords in v1.0) - ~~SQLAlchemy/database~~ - No persistent storage needed in MVP (Redis is sufficient) - ~~Prometheus~~ - Use Apify built-in monitoring for MVP - ~~Docker Compose~~ - Apify handles deployment - ~~GraphQL~~ - MCP uses JSON-RPC, no need for GraphQL ### Why These Specific Versions? - **Python 3.11+**: Performance improvements, better error messages - **Pydantic 2.x**: 5-50x faster than v1 (Rust core) - **Redis 7.x**: Improved memory efficiency, better persistence - **PRAW 7.7+**: Latest Reddit API compatibility --- ## Performance Characteristics | Component | Memory (MB) | Startup Time | Throughput | |-----------|-------------|--------------|------------| | Python 3.11 | ~50 | <1s | N/A | | FastMCP | ~10 | <0.5s | 1000+ req/s | | PRAW | ~20 | <0.5s | 100 req/min (API limit) | | Redis Client | ~5 | <0.1s | 100K ops/s | | Pydantic | ~5 | <0.1s | 10K validations/s | | **Total MVP** | ~**100MB** | ~**2s** | **100 req/min** | --- ## Deployment Stack (Apify) ### Dockerfile Base ```dockerfile FROM apify/actor-python:3.11 ``` - Pre-configured Python 3.11 environment - Apify SDK pre-installed - Optimized for fast startup ### Environment Variables - `REDDIT_CLIENT_ID` (secret) - `REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET` (secret) - `REDIS_URL` (connection string) - `LOG_LEVEL` (default: INFO) --- ## Migration Path (Future) ### To v1.0 (Week 3-4) - Add: `vaderSentiment` (sentiment analysis) - Add: Background job processing (simple asyncio tasks) - Add: User authentication (API keys) ### To v2.0 (Month 2+) - Consider: Task queue (Celery/RQ) for watch_keywords - Consider: PostgreSQL for analytics (if Apify datasets insufficient) - Consider: Advanced NLP (BERT) for better sentiment (if customers request) --- ## Security Considerations ### Dependency Management - Pin all versions in requirements.txt - Regular security audits with `pip-audit` - Update dependencies monthly (security patches) ### Secrets Management - Never commit credentials to git - Use Apify Actor secrets for all sensitive data - Rotate Reddit API credentials quarterly --- ## Summary This minimal tech stack provides everything needed for a production-ready MVP while maintaining: - **Simplicity**: 8 core dependencies - **Performance**: <2s startup, 100MB memory - **Reliability**: Battle-tested libraries only - **Cost**: $0 infrastructure for MVP - **Scalability**: Ready for 5,000+ MAU **Next Step**: See `source-tree.md` for project structure and `coding-standards.md` for implementation guidelines.