Reddit Commenter

---
name: reddit-commenter
description: A skill for writing natural and valuable comments on Reddit communities. Includes the complete workflow from subreddit exploration, comment writing, review, posting, to tracking.
license: MIT
---

# Reddit Commenter Skill

> Reddit Comment Automation - From Exploration to Posting and Tracking

## Default Session Settings

- **Comments per session**: 6 (across different subreddits)
- When invoked, always complete 6 comments unless the user specifies a different number

---

## ⚠️ IMPORTANT: This Skill Uses Playwright MCP (NOT Claude Chrome)

This skill uses **Playwright MCP** (`@playwright/mcp`) for browser automation. Do NOT use Claude Chrome tools (`mcp__claude-in-chrome__*`).

### One-Time Setup

1. **Install Playwright browsers** (if not done):
   ```bash
   npx playwright install chromium
   ```

2. **Verify MCP config** in `~/.claude/mcp.json`:
   ```json
   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "playwright": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]
       }
     }
   }
   ```

3. **Restart Claude Code** after setup for MCP to load

### Playwright MCP Tools (NOT Claude Chrome)
| MCP Tool | Purpose |
|----------|---------|
| `mcp__playwright__browser_navigate` | Navigate to Reddit pages |
| `mcp__playwright__browser_snapshot` | Capture page structure (accessibility tree) |
| `mcp__playwright__browser_click` | Click elements (comment box, buttons, etc.) |
| `mcp__playwright__browser_type` | Input text (comment content) |
| `mcp__playwright__browser_wait_for` | Wait for page loading |

### ⚠️ Critical Notes
- **USE PLAYWRIGHT**: All browser tools should be `mcp__playwright__*`, not `mcp__claude-in-chrome__*`
- **Minimize tokens**: Only pass essential info needed for each MCP call
- **Direct navigation**: Navigate directly to URLs with `browser_navigate` (don't click links)
- **⚠️ No screenshots**: Use `browser_snapshot` only (accessibility tree, no image files)

---

## Execution Workflow

### Step 1: Check Activity Status and Select Subreddit

```
1. Check today's date file in tracking/reddit/ folder
   → File name: YYYY-MM-DD.md (e.g., 2026-01-12.md)
   → If file doesn't exist, create new one referencing template.md

2. Check activity status table by subreddit:
   - How many comments posted in each subreddit today
   - Check subreddits under daily limit (3)
   - Check last comment time (minimum 5-10 minute intervals)

3. Select next subreddit for commenting:
   - Prioritize subreddits with no activity today or under limit
   - Prioritize subreddits with oldest last activity time

4. Check subreddit specifics in resources/subreddits.md:
   - Core community rules
   - Community nature
   - Good topics to answer
   → Reflect this information when selecting posts
```

### Step 2: Access Reddit and Explore Posts

```
1. Access Reddit with Playwright MCP
   → browser_navigate("https://www.reddit.com/r/{selected_subreddit}/new/")
   or
   → browser_navigate("https://www.reddit.com/r/{selected_subreddit}/rising/")

2. Page snapshot
   → browser_snapshot()

3. Criteria for selecting posts to comment on:
   • Posts where you can share insights or provide feedback
   • ⚠️ CRITICAL: Posts you haven't commented on today
     - Check activity log in tracking/reddit/today's-date.md file
     - Extract list of post URLs from today's comments
     - Verify selected post URL is NOT in that list
     - Absolutely NO duplicate comments on same post
   • OK even if not related to your service/field
   • Relevance to "good topics to answer" from Step 1
   • Avoid posts with already hundreds of comments

4. Secure URL of selected post
   → Check and record post link in snapshot
   → Navigate directly to this URL in next Step
```

### Step 3: Deep Analysis of Post Content and Existing Comments

```
⚠️ CRITICAL: Must perform this step before writing comment

0. Navigate directly to post
   → browser_navigate(post URL secured in Step 2)
   → Navigate directly to URL, don't click on post (prevents click errors)
   → browser_snapshot()

1. Read post content accurately:
   - Understand what OP is actually asking
   - Don't react only to keywords—understand full context
   - Distinguish between hypothetical questions and actual problem complaints

2. Understand OP's intent:
   - Seeking specific help? (problem solving)
   - Seeking opinions/discussion? (hypothetical scenario)
   - Information sharing? (experience story)

3. Analyze existing comments:
   - Check how others interpreted
   - Understand how community is receiving this post
   - Check tone and answering style

4. Decide comment direction:
   - Is this post worth answering?
   - From what angle should I answer?
   - Can I naturally answer in my style?

5. ⚠️ CRITICAL: Determine if site/link verification needed:
   - Did OP provide website/app link?
   - Are there expressions like "feedback requested", "honest feedback", "looking for feedback"?
   - Is feedback requested on UX, design, performance that requires actual verification?

   → If YES:
     • Visit actual site with browser_navigate(provided link)
     • Check UI/UX with browser_snapshot()
     • Write feedback based ONLY on what you actually saw
     • Absolutely NO speculative feedback on things you didn't see

   → If NO:
     • Can answer from post content alone
     • General advice or experience sharing

⚠️ Proceed to Step 4 only after clearly verifying analysis results
```

### Step 4: Write Comment

```
1. Draft comment based on Step 3 analysis results:
   - Answer matching OP's actual question
   - Practically helpful content
   - Match subreddit tone
   - Focus on 1-2 points (don't try to explain everything)
   - Use swear words naturally when they fit - "bullshit", "damn", "hell", "no shit" - this matches {{YOUR_NAME}}'s voice and Reddit rewards raw authenticity. Don't force it, but don't sanitize either.
```

### Step 5: Personalization Review (Loop)

```
1. Check resources/personalization_reddit.md file
   → Sequentially check 16 personalization checklist items based on actual comment style
   → Especially important: #4 personal experience, #13 experience pattern, #15 question intent understanding, #16 site verification

2. Check style patterns:
   • Which pattern (1-8) is it closest to?
   • Does it capture that pattern's characteristics well?
   • Does it look like you wrote it?

3. Review process:
   • All items PASS → Proceed to Step 6
   • Any violation → Revise comment and re-review from Step 5 beginning

```

**Detailed personalization guide**: See `resources/personalization_reddit.md`

### Step 6: Post Comment

```
1. Click comment input box
   → Check comment input element after browser_snapshot()
   → browser_click(comment box ref)

2. Input comment content
   → browser_type(reviewed comment)

3. Click post button
   → browser_click(post button ref)

4. Secure comment URL
   → Copy comment permalink after posting
```

### Step 7: Judge Potential Customer (Optional)

```
⚠️ CRITICAL: Judge accurately by referring to Step 3 analysis again

→ Refer to "Lead Selection Criteria" in leads/reddit.md
→ Classify as lead only users with actual problems (not hypothetical questions)

When lead discovered, update leads/reddit.md:
  - Username, subreddit, post URL
  - Post summary, selection reason, relevance
```

### Step 8: Update Tracking

```
Update tracking/reddit/[today's-date].md file:

1. Activity status table by subreddit:
   - Increment comment count for that subreddit by +1
   - Update last comment time

2. Add to activity log:
   ### [HH:MM] r/subreddit
   - **Post**: [Title](URL)
   - **Topic Summary**: One-line summary of post content
   - **Comment Link**: [Comment URL]
   - **Comment Content**:
   ```
   Full comment written
   ```

3. When potential customer discovered:
   - Update 'leads/reddit.md' when potential customer discovered
```

---

## File Reference Rules (Token Savings)

| File | Reference Timing |
|------|------------------|
| `resources/subreddits.md` | Step 1 (subreddit selection) |
| `resources/personalization_reddit.md` | Step 5 (review) |
| `resources/product.md` | Step 7 (potential customer judgment) |
| `leads/reddit.md` | Step 7 (lead criteria check) |

→ Reference only at relevant Step, don't read in advance

---

## Cautions

1. **Login Required**: Check Reddit account login status
2. **Rate Limiting**: Too fast activity risks account restrictions
3. **Community Rules**: Must follow each subreddit's rules
4. **Spam Prevention**: Absolutely NO copy-pasting same content
5. **Review Required**: Rewrite if any checklist item violated
6. **⚠️ Step 3 Required**: NEVER write comment without analyzing post content. Judging only by keywords can cause serious errors
7. **⚠️ Minimize Playwright MCP tokens**:
   - Don't pass entire context when calling Playwright MCP
   - Concisely summarize only essential information needed for each MCP call
   - E.g.: Only minimal instructions like "Navigate to [URL]", "Click comment box", "Type: [text]"
   - Prevent errors from excessive input tokens
8. **⚠️ Post Navigation**: Use browser_navigate directly with URL instead of clicking post (prevents click errors)

---

## Automated Mode (Trigger.dev)

The manual Playwright workflow above can also run fully automated via Trigger.dev. The automated mode uses the Reddit API (OAuth2) instead of browser automation — faster, more reliable, and runs in the cloud.

### How It Works

1. **Scheduler** (`reddit-scheduler`): Cron fires daily at midnight ET, picks a random time between 9am-11pm ET, and schedules the daily run with that delay.

2. **Daily Run** (`reddit-daily-run`): Orchestrates the full day's activity:
   - **Phase 1 — Commenting**: Loops through 6 subreddits (rotating from pool of 20), posts 1 comment per sub with 3-8 min random delays between subs.
   - **Phase 2 — Reply Scanning**: Checks 5 most recent inbox replies, generates contextual responses or skips (e.g., "thanks" doesn't need a response).

3. **Comment Task** (`reddit-comment-on-subreddit`): Per-subreddit task. Fetches hot+new posts, Claude (Sonnet 4.5) picks the best post, reads existing comments for context, generates a comment in {{YOUR_NAME}}'s voice, and posts it.

4. **Reply Scanner** (`reddit-scan-replies`): Fetches inbox replies, Claude decides whether to respond, posts short conversational replies with 30-60s delays.

### Subreddit Rotation

All 20 subreddits get equal coverage over a 4-day cycle:
- **Day 1 (Group A)**: ClaudeAI, SideProject, ChatGPT, Cursor, WebDev, sales
- **Day 2 (Group B)**: SaaS, startups, Entrepreneur, smallbusiness, salesforce, coldemail
- **Day 3 (Group C)**: leadgeneration, b2bmarketing, GrowthHacking, LinkedInLunatics, digital_marketing, ArtificialIntelligence
- **Day 4 (Group D)**: automation, nocode + 4 random from other groups

### Human Mimicry

| Action | Delay |
|--------|-------|
| Between Reddit API calls | 1.1s min (built into client) |
| Between subreddits | 3-8 min random |
| Between reply postings | 30-60s random |
| Daily execution time | Random between 9am-11pm ET |

### Key Differences from Manual Mode

| Aspect | Manual (Playwright) | Automated (Trigger.dev) |
|--------|-------------------|----------------------|
| Reddit access | Browser automation | Reddit API (OAuth2) |
| Runs on | Local machine | Cloud (Trigger.dev) |
| Triggering | Manual `/reddit-commenter` | Daily cron |
| Comment review | Human reviews before posting | Claude self-reviews via voice profile |
| Volume | Flexible | 6 comments + 5 reply scans/day |

### Configuration

Trigger.dev env vars (production):
- `REDDIT_CLIENT_ID` — from reddit.com/prefs/apps
- `REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET` — from reddit.com/prefs/apps
- `REDDIT_USERNAME` — Reddit account username
- `REDDIT_PASSWORD` — Reddit account password
- `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` — for Claude (Sonnet 4.5) comment generation

### Files

| File | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `src/trigger/reddit_types.ts` | Type definitions |
| `src/trigger/utils/reddit_client.ts` | Reddit API wrapper (OAuth2, rate-limited) |
| `src/trigger/utils/reddit_prompts.ts` | Voice profile + system prompts |
| `src/trigger/tasks/reddit_comment_on_subreddit.ts` | Core commenting logic |
| `src/trigger/tasks/reddit_scan_replies.ts` | Reply scanning + responding |
| `src/trigger/tasks/reddit_daily_run.ts` | Daily orchestrator |
| `src/trigger/tasks/reddit_scheduler.ts` | Cron scheduler with random timing |

### Manual Testing

1. Set env vars in Trigger.dev dashboard (production)
2. Deploy: `npx trigger.dev@latest deploy` from {{PROJECT_NAME}}
3. Test: Manually trigger `reddit-daily-run` from dashboard with 1 subreddit
4. Monitor: Check run logs for comment quality + style patterns