redditapis-mcp

Official Model Context Protocol server for redditapis.com, the Reddit API as native tools for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP client. It turns Reddit reads (search, subreddit listings, comment trees, user profiles, community metadata) into typed tools your agent can call directly, plus (since 0.2.0) managing your own redditapis.com monitors and webhooks.

Ask your agent to search Reddit for a topic, read a community's top posts of the week, pull a user's comment history, surface the redditors talking about a product, or read a subreddit's rules before you engage, and it calls the API for you. It can also set up a monitor that watches a subreddit for new posts matching a filter and delivers them to a webhook, then check what it's actually delivered. Every tool maps to a REST endpoint at https://api.redditapis.com; the server holds no state and forwards your API key on each call.

Quick start

No install needed. Run with npx. You need one thing: an API key from redditapis.com. Reads work with just that key, so there is no account login or session step to set up. Monitor/webhook management additionally requires an active monitoring plan (monitoring has no free tier).

Related MCP server: reddit-search

Setup

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json (Settings > Developer > Edit Config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reddit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "redditapis-mcp@latest"],
      "env": { "REDDITAPIS_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The reddit_* tools appear in the tool picker.

Claude Code

claude mcp add reddit --env REDDITAPIS_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY -- npx -y redditapis-mcp@latest

Cursor

~/.cursor/mcp.json (or Settings > MCP > Add New Server):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reddit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "redditapis-mcp@latest"],
      "env": { "REDDITAPIS_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reddit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "redditapis-mcp@latest"],
      "env": { "REDDITAPIS_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code (Copilot / agent mode)

.vscode/mcp.json in your workspace, or the user-level MCP settings:

{
  "servers": {
    "reddit": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "redditapis-mcp@latest"],
      "env": { "REDDITAPIS_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Authentication is a Bearer token: the server sends Authorization: Bearer <REDDITAPIS_KEY> on every request.

Tools

32 tools: 22 reads plus 10 monitor/webhook management tools. Reddit writes (posting, commenting, voting, DMs) remain a separate authenticated surface and are intentionally out of scope here -- monitor/webhook tools configure your OWN redditapis.com account (an alerting subscription), never Reddit itself. Every read works with just your API key; the 6 monitor/webhook writes additionally need an active monitoring plan (see Monitoring below).

A few conventions across the catalog:

• Subreddit names go in without the r/ prefix, and usernames without the u/ prefix. reddit_subreddit_posts takes its community as subreddit; the /sub/{name}/... tools take it as name.

• Listing and search tools return an after cursor. Pass it back as after to fetch the next page, exactly as it was returned. limit accepts 1 to 100 (the API clamps out-of-range values).

• When after comes back null there is no next page to ask for. That does not always mean you have every item: Reddit often stops serving a busy listing long before it runs out. The final response also carries listing_status, which reads complete, truncated or unknown. Only complete means nothing is missing. Treat the other two as a partial answer and widen across sorts, timeframes or search terms rather than paging deeper.

• t (hour, day, week, month, year, all) sets the time window; on subreddit listings it applies to the top and controversial sorts, and on search it bounds the whole result set.

Search and discovery

Subreddits

Posts and comments

Users

Community browse (no keyword)

Monitoring: manage your own monitors and webhooks

v1 monitors are subreddit-scoped, posts-only (no all-of-Reddit keyword watch, no comment monitoring yet). Creating or updating a monitor or webhook needs an active plan; reading your own list/health/deliveries never does.

Usage examples

Research a topic across Reddit

"What are people saying about the Rust borrow checker this month?"

The agent calls reddit_search with:

q: "borrow checker"
sort: "top"
t: "month"

Read a community's top posts of the week

"Show me the top posts in r/programming this week."

The agent calls reddit_subreddit_top with:

name: "programming"
t: "week"

To page further, pass the after cursor from the response back on the next call: { name: "programming", t: "week", after: "<after from response>" }.

Find who is talking about a product

"Which redditors are recommending mechanical keyboards, and what do they say?"

The agent calls reddit_deep_comment_search with:

q: "mechanical keyboard"
group_by: "author"
sort: "top"

Research mode returns the distinct people who mentioned the query, ranked by how many of their comments matched, each with their top comment and the subreddits they matched in.

Vet a subreddit, then read a thread

"Find a discussion about API rate limiting in r/webdev, check the sub's rules, and read the full thread."

The agent calls reddit_search scoped to the community:

q: "rate limiting"
subreddit: "webdev"
sort: "relevance"
t: "year"

Then reddit_subreddit_rules with { name: "webdev" }, and finally reddit_post_comments with the permalink from a search result, for example { permalink: "/r/webdev/comments/abc123/some_title/" }, to pull the post and its comment tree.

Set up brand monitoring and check what came in

"Watch r/SaaS and r/startups for mentions of my product, send matches to my Slack, and show me what's come in so far."

The agent calls reddit_monitor_webhook_create with:

url: "https://hooks.slack.com/services/..."
kind: "slack"

Then reddit_monitor_add with:

subreddit: ["SaaS", "startups"]
q: "my product name"

Later, reddit_monitor_deliveries with { id: "<monitor id from the add response>" } returns the actual matching posts sent so far, or reddit_monitor_health for just the counts.

No session needed for reads; monitor/webhook writes need an active plan

Reads need nothing but your API key -- no account linking, login, or cookie step. Reddit write actions (posting, commenting, voting, sending DMs) are handled by a separate authenticated surface outside this package and remain deliberately not exposed here, so an agent using this server can never post, vote, or DM as you on Reddit. Monitor/webhook management tools are a different kind of write: they configure your OWN redditapis.com account (an alerting subscription) and require an active monitoring plan for anything that creates or changes state (reddit_monitor_add/update/remove, reddit_monitor_webhook_create/test/delete); reading your own list, health, or delivery history never does.

Troubleshooting

HTTP 401 (invalid or missing API key) Check that REDDITAPIS_KEY is set correctly in your MCP client config and matches the key from redditapis.com.

HTTP 402 (insufficient credits) Top up your account at redditapis.com. For a monitor/webhook write specifically, a 402 body of subscription_required means there is no active monitoring plan (monitoring has no free tier); monitor_slots_exhausted means the plan's monitor slot limit is already in use -- reddit_monitor_list's slots field shows used vs total.

HTTP 403 (access forbidden) The subreddit or user may be private, banned, or quarantined, or your plan may not include this endpoint.

HTTP 404 (not found) The subreddit, post id, user, or permalink may be wrong or the content may have been deleted or removed.

HTTP 429 (rate limited) Wait a few seconds and retry, or reduce request frequency. For bulk work, space out calls and raise REDDITAPIS_TIMEOUT_MS.

Request failed: timed out after 30000ms The default timeout is 30 seconds. For large reddit_deep_comment_search or paginated fetches, set REDDITAPIS_TIMEOUT_MS higher (for example 60000).

Tools do not appear in Claude / Cursor Ensure npx is on your PATH and Node.js 18+ is installed (node --version). Check your MCP client logs for startup errors.

Development

npm install
npm run check   # syntax-check both source files
npm test        # unit-test the tool catalog + query/path builders (no network)
npm start       # run the stdio server (needs REDDITAPIS_KEY)

Links

• Site and API keys: redditapis.com

• REST API base URL (call it directly, without MCP): https://api.redditapis.com

FAQ

Do I need a Reddit developer account? No. Get an API key at redditapis.com; there is no application or approval step.

Can it post, comment, or vote? No. All 22 Reddit-facing tools read Reddit; posting, commenting, voting, and DMs are a separate authenticated surface and are not exposed here. The other 10 tools manage your OWN redditapis.com monitors/webhooks, which is a write, but never a write to Reddit itself.

Which clients are supported? Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code (Copilot agent mode), or any Model Context Protocol client.

Does it store my key or data? No. The server holds no state and forwards your API key on each call.

License

MIT