Reddit · subreddit/search
Search public posts within a subreddit. GET /api/v1/reddit/subreddit/search accepts your x-api-key header. This endpoint returns live public data; demo mode is unavailable.
Request parameters
Uses Reddit’s official subreddit-restricted OAuth search. The official API requires a non-empty query; that is stricter than the reference contract’s optional query. Returns allowlisted public post fields and Reddit’s `after` fullname. Requires Reddit’s written commercial-use agreement before real source calls; data is not persistently cached.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
subreddit | string | Yes | Public subreddit name only; private or quarantined communities are unavailable. |
query | string | Yes | Non-empty search query. |
sort | string | No | Reddit search sort order. Allowed: relevance, hot, top, new, comments. Default: relevance. |
timeframe | string | No | Restricts Reddit top/search results to this time range when supported by the selected sort. Allowed: hour, day, week, month, year, all. Default: day. |
cursor | string | No | Reddit listing `after` fullname returned by the previous page. |
trim | boolean | No | Accepted for compatibility; output uses a fixed public-field allowlist. |
freshness | string | No | 24h (default), 1h, 7d, or live. Accepted cache hits are free; live forces refresh except simultaneous requests may share newly fetched data. |
Code examples
Set SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL and SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY on your server.
curl "$SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL/api/v1/reddit/subreddit/search?subreddit=subreddit&query=query" \
-H "x-api-key: $SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY"const response = await fetch(process.env.SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL + "/api/v1/reddit/subreddit/search?subreddit=subreddit&query=query", {
headers: { 'x-api-key': process.env.SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY },
});
const body = await response.json();
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(body.error.message);
console.log(body.data, body.meta);import os, requests
response = requests.get(
os.environ['SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL'] + "/api/v1/reddit/subreddit/search?subreddit=subreddit&query=query",
headers={'x-api-key': os.environ['SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY']},
timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json())Response and pagination
The response contains data and meta. data includes platform, resource, sample:false, provider, and the public source payload. Lists return data.items; individual resources return data.data.
Author feeds include data.next_cursor. Return it unchanged in cursor for the next page. Feed entries can include reposts. Single-post lookups resolve the handle to a DID first. Deleted or moderated posts may be unavailable.
meta includes event_id, mode, cache, credits_charged, fetched_at, age_seconds, and duration_ms. A fresh successful result costs one credit; accepted cached results and failures cost zero.
Availability and failures
Implementation is not a continuous availability guarantee. Source rate limits, retention, deleted content, restrictions, and regional availability apply. This is an independent SignalShelf contract, not a drop-in competitor response format.
400: invalid parameters. 401: missing/revoked key. 402: insufficient credits. 404: missing public resource. 429: SignalShelf throttle. 502/503: upstream failure or rate limit, with credit restored.