subreddit-announcer/README.md

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# subreddit-announcer
A Discord bot that watches subreddits and posts an embed to a Discord channel
whenever a new submission appears. Built with [discord.py] and [asyncpraw];
state is a local SQLite DB. One long-running process polls Reddit on an
interval — no webhooks, no external scheduler.
## How it works
- A background loop polls each watched subreddit's `/new` every
`ANNOUNCER_POLL_INTERVAL` seconds (default 60).
- The first time a subreddit is watched it's **bootstrapped silently**: the
posts already on `/new` are recorded as "seen" without being announced, so
adding a busy subreddit doesn't dump its backlog into the channel. Only posts
created afterwards are announced.
- Seen submission ids are stored in SQLite for dedup and pruned to the most
recent 500 per subreddit.
## Setup
### 1. Discord application
1. Create an app at <https://discord.com/developers/applications>.
2. **Bot** tab → reset/copy the token → put it in `config.env` as `DISCORD_TOKEN`.
3. Invite the bot to your server with the **`bot`** and **`applications.commands`**
scopes, and the **Send Messages** + **Embed Links** permissions.
No privileged intents are required (the bot never reads message content).
### 2. Reddit app (read-only)
1. Go to <https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps>**create another app**.
2. Choose type **script**. The client id is the string shown under the app
name; the secret is labelled **secret**.
3. Put both into `config.env` (`REDDIT_CLIENT_ID`, `REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET`).
### 3. Config + run
```bash
cp config.example.env config.env
$EDITOR config.env # fill in the tokens
# uv handles the venv + deps from pyproject.toml
set -a; source config.env; set +a
uv run bot.py
```
## Commands
Slash commands (server-only; replies are ephemeral):
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| `/watch <subreddit> [channel]` | Announce a subreddit's new posts in a channel (defaults to the current one). |
| `/unwatch <subreddit>` | Stop announcing that subreddit in this server. |
| `/watching` | List the subreddits announced in this server. |
| `/setinterval <seconds>` | Change the global poll interval (min 15s). |
## Running it persistently
It's a single foreground process; keep it alive however you like — `systemd`,
`tmux`, `pm2`, or a container. A minimal systemd unit:
```ini
[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/megaproxy/claude/projects/subreddit-announcer
EnvironmentFile=/home/megaproxy/claude/projects/subreddit-announcer/config.env
ExecStart=/home/megaproxy/.local/bin/uv run bot.py
Restart=always
```
## Notes
- `config.env` and `announcer.db` are gitignored — secrets and state stay local.
- Syntax check: `uv run python -m py_compile bot.py`.
[discord.py]: https://discordpy.readthedocs.io/
[asyncpraw]: https://asyncpraw.readthedocs.io/