reddit-keyless-mcp

reddit-keyless-mcp

A read-only Reddit MCP server that needs no Reddit account, app or API key. It searches Reddit, lists a subreddit's posts and reads whole threads through Reddit's public RSS feeds, so it works for anyone, today.

Why it exists

Reddit's Responsible Builder Policy (November 2025) put new Data API apps behind manual review, so REDDIT_CLIENT_ID / REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET are no longer something you can create for yourself, and the anonymous .json endpoints now answer 403. Reddit MCP servers built on the API or .json stop working without approved credentials.

What it can do

Tool	What it does
search_reddit	Search posts by keyword across Reddit or inside one subreddit; filter by time (hour to all) and sort (relevance, new, hot, top, comments)
browse_subreddit	List a subreddit's new, hot, top or rising posts
get_thread	Read a post and its comments from any www, old or new reddit thread URL

Every result has the title, URL, subreddit, author, date and plain text (HTML and Reddit's footer stripped). All tools are read-only: nothing here can post, comment, vote or message.

What it can't do

RSS is not the API, so some things are out of reach:

• No scores or comment counts, and comments come as a flat list without reply nesting.
• At most 25 items per feed (one page; no pagination).
• No user profiles, private subreddits or quarantined content.
• Slow. Reddit rate-limits RSS per IP address, roughly one feed a minute in practice. The server queues every call, spaces requests 6 seconds apart and backs off on HTTP 429 for up to 2.5 minutes before giving up with a clear message. Ask for one thing at a time.
• Loose search. Reddit's search matches broadly; inside a busy subreddit most results can be off-topic. Restricting to a subreddit helps and is rate-limited less often than site-wide search.

Install

Requires Node.js 18 or later.

Claude Code

claude mcp add reddit -- npx -y reddit-keyless-mcp

Claude Desktop and other MCP clients (claude_desktop_config.json or .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reddit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "reddit-keyless-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

To run the latest code from GitHub instead of the npm release, use npx -y github:ToGalan/reddit-keyless-mcp.

Calls can take more than a minute when Reddit is rate-limiting. If your client times out tool calls sooner, raise its timeout (in Claude Code, MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT=300000).

Certificate errors (UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE, SELF_SIGNED_CERT_IN_CHAIN): your network inspects HTTPS. Pass your CA to the server with NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/path/to/ca.pem, or on recent Node versions NODE_USE_SYSTEM_CA=1, in the server's env. Some MCP clients start servers with a minimal environment, so set these in the server config rather than your shell.

Settings

All optional, as environment variables:

Variable	Default	Meaning
REDDIT_USER_AGENT	reddit-keyless-mcp/0.1 (...)	User-Agent sent to Reddit; set one that identifies you
REDDIT_MIN_GAP_MS	6000	Minimum gap between requests
REDDIT_MAX_WAIT_MS	150000	How long to keep retrying a rate-limited request

Example

Search r/Scams for "linkedin recruiter" from the past month, then read the most recent thread.

{
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/search.rss?q=linkedin+recruiter&t=month&sort=relevance&restrict_sr=1",
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "t3_…",
      "title": "Recruiter scam: pay for resume update",
      "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/…/",
      "subreddit": "Scams",
      "author": "…",
      "published": "2026-09-27T…",
      "text": "…"
    }
  ]
}

Use responsibly

Reddit content belongs to its authors and Reddit's terms apply. Reading threads for your own research is fine; don't store Reddit content in bulk, resell it or train models on it, and don't use what you find to spam people. If you reply to someone you found this way, do it in public, say who you are, and don't send unsolicited private messages.

Development

npm install
npm test        # mocked feeds, no network
npm start       # runs the server on stdio

License

MIT