Reddit brand monitoring with an API

How it works

import os, time, requests

BASE = "https://api.apixstar.com/reddit/v1"
AUTH = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['APIXSTAR_API_KEY']}"}
TERMS = ['"acme analytics"', "acmeanalytics.com"]
seen = set()

def check(term):
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/search", params={"q": term, "sort": "new", "limit": 10},
                     headers=AUTH, timeout=30)
    if not r.ok:
        return                      # failed polls are not charged, try next round
    for post in r.json()["data"]["posts"]:
        if post["id"] not in seen:
            seen.add(post["id"])
            requests.post(os.environ["SLACK_WEBHOOK"],
                          json={"text": f"New mention: {post['title']} ({post['id']})"})

while True:
    for term in TERMS:
        check(term)
    time.sleep(300)                 # every 5 minutes

Run the first pass without alerting, so the existing results fill seen and you only hear about new ones.

The monthly budget

Cost depends on two numbers: how often you poll and how many searches you run. A poll that returns up to 10 results costs one request. Ask for a bigger page only if your term is busy.

Fifty keywords every 5 minutes is 10 requests per minute, comfortably below the 30 requests per second limit when requests are spread out.

Make the alerts worth reading

Monitoring questions