reddit-mcp

A small local MCP server that lets Claude read Reddit (and other JSON endpoints), refining the responses down to the fields that matter.

How it reaches Reddit: Reddit gates its Data API (new apps require a moderation use case + approval) and blocks anonymous .json access, but it still publishes public Atom/RSS feeds for reading content. This server uses those — so it needs no account, no app, no API key, no login.

Trade-off: RSS carries title, author, link, timestamp, and full post/comment text, but not scores, upvote ratios, or comment counts (those only live in the gated API).

Tools

Requirements

• uv — handles Python + deps. uv run server.py provisions an isolated env from pyproject.toml on first run. No other setup.

Install

reddit-rss-mcp is published on PyPI (the plain reddit-mcp name belongs to an unrelated project). Three ways to install it, easiest first.

From PyPI (recommended)

uvx reddit-rss-mcp fetches and runs the published package for you, no clone needed. This is the preferred install.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add reddit -s user -- uvx reddit-rss-mcp

Claude Desktop — one-click: download reddit-rss-mcp.mcpb from the latest release and drag it into Settings → Extensions. No JSON editing, no absolute paths. (It runs uvx reddit-rss-mcp, so it needs uv on your PATH.)

Claude Desktop & Cowork — manual config (fallback if you'd rather not use the extension; add to claude_desktop_config.json using the absolute path from which uvx, then follow the quit/relaunch steps below):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reddit": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/uvx",
      "args": ["reddit-rss-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

From GitHub (latest main, no clone)

To run unreleased changes, point uvx at the repo and the reddit-rss-mcp entry point. Append @v1.1.2 (or any tag) to pin a release instead of tracking main:

claude mcp add reddit -s user -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/jorgen-k/reddit-mcp reddit-rss-mcp

From a local clone

Prefer this if you want to edit the code. Clone it somewhere first:

git clone https://github.com/jorgen-k/reddit-mcp.git
cd reddit-mcp

Claude Code

claude mcp add reddit -s user -- uv --directory "$(pwd)" run server.py

Verify with claude mcp list (should show reddit: ✓ Connected). If Claude can't find uv, use its absolute path (which uv) instead of bare uv.

Claude Desktop & Cowork

Both use the same config file: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Add a mcpServers entry using absolute paths — the app doesn't inherit your shell PATH. Get the values with which uv and pwd:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reddit": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/absolute/path/to/reddit-mcp", "run", "server.py"]
    }
  }
}

If the file already has other top-level keys, add mcpServers alongside them — don't overwrite the file.

Then:

1. Fully quit the app — Cmd+Q, not just closing the window. The running app rewrites this file, so an edit made while it's open can be discarded.
2. Relaunch. It may take a couple of restarts before the server registers.
3. Grant permission when the app prompts to run the server.

The Reddit tools then appear in the app.

Don't use a Custom Connector (the "add server by URL" option) for a local server — those are dialed from Anthropic's cloud and can't reach localhost, no matter the cert or tunnel. The config-file method above spawns the server locally on your machine, which is what works.

Updating after a code change

The server runs as a long-lived process that's spawned once when the client connects. Editing server.py does not hot-reload it — the running process keeps the old code until it's restarted. After any change, restart the server so the new code takes effect:

• Claude Code: run /mcp, select reddit, and reconnect it (or restart Claude Code).
• Claude Desktop & Cowork: fully quit the app (Cmd+Q) and relaunch.

Notes

• Read-only, public content only.
• No scores/vote counts/comment counts (RSS limitation). For those you'd need Reddit's Data API, which now requires a moderation use case + approval.
• Be considerate with request volume — these are public feeds.

Rate limiting

Reddit throttles its unauthenticated RSS feeds aggressively. On an HTTP 429 the server transparently retries with backoff (honoring the Retry-After header when present, otherwise exponential backoff with jitter) and only surfaces an error after retries are exhausted. It also keeps a small minimum gap between outbound requests to avoid tripping the limit in the first place. All tools share this behavior. A 429 is retried up to 7 times, sleeping roughly 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 seconds (plus jitter) between attempts.

Search is only as good as Reddit's search

search_reddit uses Reddit's own search engine — RSS is just the output format, so results are identical to the website/API search, not a separate (weaker) index. That engine has real limits:

• It doesn't search comment text — only post titles and bodies (and community names). A term that only appears in a comment won't be found.
• Very new posts lag — search indexing isn't instant. To catch brand-new posts reliably, use browse_subreddit(sort="new") instead of search.
• It isn't exhaustive — low-relevance results get dropped or buried.

So a "no results" means "Reddit's search didn't surface it," not a guarantee it was never posted anywhere on the site.