How to Build a Reddit Bot with OpenClaw (Step by Step)

What the Reddit Skill Does

The reddit-openclaw skill, created by ajitesh-kuppa-sivakumar on GitHub, gives your OpenClaw agent read-only access to Reddit without requiring any API keys or OAuth credentials.

It works by appending .json to standard Reddit URLs, which returns structured JSON data from Reddit's public endpoints. This means your agent can:

• Read posts and comments from any public subreddit.
• Search for keywords across Reddit or within specific subreddits.
• Browse hot, new, top, and rising posts in any subreddit.
• Read full comment threads on specific posts.
• Monitor mentions of your brand, product, or competitors.

The skill does not support posting, commenting, voting, or any write operations. It is strictly read-only, which means it cannot violate Reddit's terms of service around bot posting and also requires no credential management on your end.

For general skill installation and management, see our OpenClaw skills complete guide.

Step 1: Install the Reddit Skill

Install via ClawHub

The fastest installation method uses ClawHub, OpenClaw's skill marketplace:

# Install the reddit-openclaw skill from ClawHub
openclaw skill install reddit-openclaw

Install from GitHub

Alternatively, install directly from the GitHub repository:

# Clone the skill into your OpenClaw skills directory
cd ~/.openclaw/skills/
git clone https://github.com/ajitesh-kuppa-sivakumar/reddit-openclaw.git

# Verify the skill is detected
openclaw skill list

Verify Installation

After installation, verify the skill is loaded and functional:

# Test the skill with a simple subreddit read
openclaw run "Read the top 5 posts from r/technology"

You should see the agent return the titles, scores, and comment counts from the top posts. If you get an error about the skill not being found, check that the skill directory is correctly placed in ~/.openclaw/skills/ and restart OpenClaw.

If tools are disabled after a recent update, see our tools disabled fix guide.

Step 2: Configure Keyword Monitoring

Create a Monitoring Configuration

Create a file at ~/.openclaw/skills/reddit-openclaw/config.json to define the keywords and subreddits you want to monitor:

{
  "monitors": [
    {
      "name": "competitor_tracking",
      "subreddits": ["entrepreneur", "startups", "SaaS", "smallbusiness"],
      "keywords": ["your-competitor-name", "your-product-name", "your-industry-term"],
      "sort": "new",
      "limit": 25
    },
    {
      "name": "market_research",
      "subreddits": ["artificial", "MachineLearning", "ChatGPT", "LocalLLaMA"],
      "keywords": ["ai agent", "autonomous agent", "openclaw"],
      "sort": "hot",
      "limit": 15
    },
    {
      "name": "reputation",
      "subreddits": ["all"],
      "keywords": ["your-brand-name", "your-product-name"],
      "sort": "new",
      "limit": 50
    }
  ]
}

Add Monitoring Instructions to SOUL.md

Add a section to your agent's SOUL.md that tells it how to process Reddit monitoring results:

## Reddit Monitoring

When running Reddit keyword monitoring:
1. Check each configured subreddit for posts matching the keywords
2. Filter out posts older than 24 hours
3. Rank results by relevance (keyword in title > keyword in body > keyword in comments)
4. Summarize each relevant post: title, subreddit, score, key discussion points
5. Flag any posts that mention [your brand] with sentiment analysis
6. Deliver results as a formatted digest to Telegram

Step 3: Set Up the Daily Digest

Create a Cron Job

Schedule a daily Reddit digest that runs every morning before you start work:

# Edit your crontab
crontab -e

# Add daily Reddit digest at 7:30 AM
30 7 * * * cd ~/.openclaw && openclaw run "Run the daily Reddit monitoring digest. Check all configured subreddits and keywords. Send the formatted digest to Telegram."

Digest Format

Configure your agent to deliver digests in a structured format. Add this to your SOUL.md:

## Daily Reddit Digest Format

When delivering the Reddit digest, use this format:

**Reddit Digest — [Date]**

**Competitor Mentions (X posts)**
- [Post title] — r/[subreddit] — [score] points — [key takeaway]

**Market Trends (X posts)**
- [Post title] — r/[subreddit] — [score] points — [key takeaway]

**Brand Mentions (X posts)**
- [Post title] — r/[subreddit] — [sentiment: positive/negative/neutral] — [key takeaway]

**Action Items**
- [Any posts that need a response or attention]

Cost Estimate

A daily Reddit digest that checks 10 subreddits for 5 keywords and summarizes the results costs approximately $0.02-0.05 per run in LLM API tokens (using Claude Sonnet). That is roughly $0.60-1.50 per month for a daily digest — significantly cheaper than any commercial Reddit monitoring tool.

Step 4: Browse Subreddits Programmatically

Ad-Hoc Subreddit Browsing

Beyond scheduled monitoring, you can ask your agent to browse Reddit on demand through any connected messaging channel:

# Via Telegram or any connected channel:
"What are the top posts on r/startups this week about AI tools?"

"Summarize the discussion in r/SaaS about pricing strategies from the last 3 days."

"Find Reddit threads where people complain about [competitor product]."

"What questions are people asking about AI agents in r/entrepreneur?"

Deep Thread Analysis

The skill can read full comment threads, which is valuable for understanding nuanced discussions:

# Ask your agent to analyze a specific thread
"Read this Reddit thread and summarize the main arguments:
https://reddit.com/r/startups/comments/[post-id]/[title]/"

# Or find and analyze threads on a topic
"Find the most discussed thread about AI pricing in r/SaaS this month
and summarize the top 20 comments."

# Competitor research prompt
"Search r/SaaS, r/startups, and r/entrepreneur for posts mentioning
[Competitor A] or [Competitor B] from the last 7 days. For each post:
1. What problem is the user describing?
2. What is their sentiment toward the competitor?
3. Is there an opportunity for our product?
Compile the results into a competitive intelligence brief."

# In config.json, add a delay between requests
{
  "rateLimiting": {
    "requestsPerMinute": 20,
    "delayBetweenRequests": 3000
  }
}

{
  "filters": {
    "minScore": 5,
    "minComments": 3,
    "excludeFlairs": ["Meme", "Shitpost"],
    "maxAge": "24h"
  }
}