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name: reddit-automations description: How to automate Reddit operations using Chrome tools: scraping posts, extracting data with CSS selectors, and building Reddit automation workflows.

Reddit Automations

A collection of step-by-step guides for automating Reddit operations using Chrome browser tools (page_snapshot, inspect_element, extract_list, list_focusable, input, click).

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1. Get a List of Posts from the Reddit Homepage

Overview

Scrape all posts from the Reddit homepage including title, URL, upvote count, and post timestamp.

Steps

1. Navigate to Reddit

   navigate(url="https://www.reddit.com")
   

2. Take a page snapshot (optional, to verify the page loaded and inspect refs)

   page_snapshot()
   

2.5. Alternative way is to use list_focusable to know what is on the page.

3. Inspect a single post element to understand structure (do this once; skip if reusing known selectors)

   inspect_element(ref="<article_ref_from_snapshot>")
   

   Reddit uses custom web components: shreddit-post holds post metadata as attributes, faceplate-timeago holds timestamps.

4. Extract the full post list using extract_list:

   extract_list(
     container="article",
     fields=[
       "title=a[slot='title']",
       "url=a[slot='full-post-link']@href",
       "upvotes=shreddit-post@score",
       "time_posted=faceplate-timeago@ts"
     ]
   )
   

CSS Selectors Reference

Notes

• Reddit uses custom web components (shreddit-post, faceplate-timeago) — standard selectors like .score won't work.
• The container="article" selector returns ~48 items; ~13 are ad/promo placeholders with empty fields — filter those out.
• The @score attribute is a raw number (e.g. 948). Posts with 0 votes also return 0.
• The @ts timestamp is ISO format, e.g. 2026-06-26T12:37:00+00:00.
• If the extracted list is empty or returns no valid posts, the page may not be in compact view. Re-navigate with ?feedViewType=compactView appended: https://www.reddit.com/?feedViewType=compactView and retry the extraction.

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2. Fill a Post Submission Form on a Subreddit

Overview

Navigate to a subreddit's submit page, fill in the title, body text, and select a flair. Do NOT submit the post unless explicitly instructed.

Step-by-Step

2a. Open the Submit Page

navigate(url="https://www.reddit.com/r/<subreddit>/submit/")

Wait for the page to load, then use list_focusable to confirm the form is present. You should see ~26 focusable elements including the key form controls.

2b. Fill the Title

The title field is a custom element faceplate-textarea-input. Use its selector directly:

input(
  selector="faceplate-textarea-input[name=\"title\"] >> #innerTextArea",
  text="Your post title here"
)

Key detail: Always use this exact selector — faceplate-textarea-input[name="title"] >> #innerTextArea. The list_focusable output will show it as element #16 (textbox "*").

2c. Fill the Body (with Paragraphs)

The body is a contenteditable rich text editor inside shreddit-composer. Use the div[name="body"] selector and the input tool:

input(
  selector="div[name=\"body\"]",
  text="First paragraph.\n\nSecond paragraph.\n\nThird paragraph."
)

IMPORTANT — Paragraph formatting:

• Use \n\n (double newline / empty line) between paragraphs.
• The text is injected into a contenteditable div with Lexical editor, and \n\n gets converted to proper <p> tags — each paragraph becomes a separate <p> block.
• Do NOT click the Markdown toggle button (inside #post-composer_bodytext) — this causes the page to lose the form content and go blank. The button's aria-label is localized (e.g. "Перемкнутися на Markdown" in Ukrainian, "Switch to Markdown" in English), so never target it by label.
• Do NOT use Markdown formatting characters (**bold**, # Heading, etc.) — input plain text only with blank lines for paragraph separation.
• The input tool fills the contenteditable div correctly when using plain text with \n\n paragraph breaks. Verified working: empty lines between paragraphs result in separate <p> blocks with <br> elements.

2d. Select a Flair

1. Click the flair button:

   click(selector="#post-flair-modal >> #reddit-post-flair-button")
   

2. After the dialog opens, use list_focusable to see available flairs and controls. The dialog will show focusable elements like:

   • #post-flair-modal >> #flair-search — search textbox
   • #post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-radio-input-no-flair — no flair
   • #post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-radio-input-0 — first flair
   • #post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-radio-input-1 — second flair
   • #post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-radio-input-2 — third flair, etc.
   • #post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-modal-cancel-button
   • #post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-modal-apply-button

3. Click the desired flair radio, e.g. for "Discussion" (index 2):

   click(selector="#post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-radio-input-2")
   

4. Click Apply to close the dialog:

   click(selector="#post-flair-modal >> #post-flair-modal-apply-button")
   

2e. Submit Button

The submit button lives inside the custom element r-post-form-submit-button. Use the shadow-piercing selector from list_focusable:

click(selector="#submit-post-button >> #inner-post-submit-button")

Verified 2026-06-30. The outer ID #submit-post-button combined with >> #inner-post-submit-button to pierce the shadow DOM reaches the clickable inner button reliably. The button sits below the viewport; the click tool handles scrolling automatically.

2f. Detect Whether the Subreddit Allows Link Posts

Not all subreddits allow link posts. Some are text-only and reject type=LINK. Reddit's behavior makes this easy to detect.

Reddit's behavior: Navigating to /r/{subreddit}/submit/?type=LINK on a text-only subreddit triggers a server-side redirect to type=TEXT. On a link-allowed subreddit, the URL stays as type=LINK.

Detection methods (prefer A — one navigation tells you everything):

Method A — URL after navigation (simplest, one step):

navigate(url="https://www.reddit.com/r/<subreddit>/submit/?type=LINK")

→ Check the final URL:

• Contains type=TEXT → link posts NOT allowed (redirected)
• Contains type=LINK → link posts allowed

Method B — Check for URL input field (most direct, post-navigation):

list_focusable()

Look for faceplate-textarea-input[name="link"] in the output. If present, link posting is allowed.

Method C — Check the post-type tabs: In the tab bar (r-post-type-select[name="type"]), the Link tab occupies nth-of-type(3) when present. In text-only subreddits, it's absent entirely (gaps in the nth-of-type numbering).

Link form fields (when allowed):

Tested subreddits:

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Form Elements Reference (from list_focusable)

Known Gotchas

• Selectors are language-independent; labels are not — Reddit UI labels, button text, and aria-label values are localized (e.g. "Публікувати" vs "Post", "Перемкнутися на Markdown" vs "Switch to Markdown"). Always use the selector from list_focusable — these are structural (based on IDs, name attributes, shadow-piercing paths) and work regardless of locale. Never build a selector that includes a localized label, title, or aria-label value.
• Do NOT click the Markdown toggle button — it breaks the form; the page goes blank and list_focusable drops to 2 elements. Stay in rich text mode. The button is inside #post-composer_bodytext but its aria-label is localized, so never target it.
• Title selector must include >> #innerTextArea — the faceplate-textarea-input alone won't work for input.
• Body uses div[name="body"] selector — not a textarea. Plain text with \n\n works correctly.
• Flair dialog is a modal — elements are scoped under #post-flair-modal >>. Always prepend that prefix.
• After submitting the page may stay on submit form — Reddit can redirect to the post or show an error banner. Check page_snapshot after submit to confirm outcome.

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Fallback Strategy: When Something Goes Wrong

Reddit's UI is complex (custom web components, dynamic rendering, focus traps). If a click, input, or navigation doesn't work as expected:

1. Call list_focusable First

list_focusable()

This is the preferred diagnostic tool — it shows exactly which elements are interactive on the current page, their labels, and CSS selectors. Use it to:

• Confirm the form/page loaded correctly (26 elements = submit form OK; 2 elements = broken/blank page).
• Find the correct selector for an element that moved or changed.
• Verify a dialog opened (flair modal shows 12 elements with #post-flair-modal >> prefix).
• Discover new interactive elements you didn't know about.

2. Then Decide

Based on list_focusable output:

• Page blank / few elements? → navigate back to the submit URL fresh.
• Element not found with known selector? → use the selector from list_focusable output instead.
• Dialog didn't open? → the click target may have changed; inspect the button selector in list_focusable and try again.
• Element present but click fails? → try page_snapshot for a ref-based click, or inspect_element to check if the element is disabled/hidden.

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Future Sections (planned)

• Get posts from a specific subreddit
• Extract post comments
• Monitor a subreddit for new posts (event-based automation)
• Filter posts by keyword or upvote threshold
• Submit post and verify result