praw Documentation

File: README.rst

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PRAW: The Python Reddit API Wrapper
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PRAW, an acronym for "Python Reddit API Wrapper", is a Python package that allows for
simple access to Reddit's API. PRAW aims to be easy to use and internally follows all of
Reddit's API rules <https://github.com/reddit/reddit/wiki/API>_. With PRAW there's no
need to introduce sleep calls in your code. Give your client an appropriate user
agent and you're set.

.. _installation:

Installation

PRAW is supported on Python 3.10+. The recommended way to install PRAW is with uv <https://docs.astral.sh/uv/>_.

.. code-block:: bash

text

uv add praw

Alternatively, PRAW can be installed via pip <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip>_:

.. code-block:: bash

text

pip install praw

To install the latest development version of PRAW run the following instead:

.. code-block:: bash

text

pip install --upgrade https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/archive/main.zip

For instructions on installing Python and pip see "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python"
Installation Guides <https://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/installation/>_.

Quickstart

Assuming you already have a credentials for a script-type OAuth application you can
instantiate an instance of PRAW like so:

.. code-block:: python

text

import praw

reddit = praw.Reddit(
    client_id="CLIENT_ID",
    client_secret="CLIENT_SECRET",
    password="PASSWORD",
    user_agent="USERAGENT",
    username="USERNAME",
)

With the reddit instance you can then interact with Reddit:

.. code-block:: python

text

# Create a submission to r/test
reddit.subreddit("test").submit("Test Submission", url="https://reddit.com")

# Comment on a known submission
submission = reddit.submission(url="https://www.reddit.com/comments/5e1az9")
submission.reply("Super rad!")

# Reply to the first comment of a weekly top thread of a moderated community
submission = next(reddit.subreddit("mod").top(time_filter="week"))
submission.comments[0].reply("An automated reply")

# Output score for the first 256 items on the frontpage
for submission in reddit.front.hot(limit=256):
    print(submission.score)

# Obtain the moderator listing for r/test
for moderator in reddit.subreddit("test").moderator():
    print(moderator)

Please see PRAW's documentation <https://praw.readthedocs.io/>_ for more examples of
what you can do with PRAW.

Discord Bots and Asynchronous Environments

If you plan on using PRAW in an asynchronous environment, (e.g., discord.py, asyncio) it
is strongly recommended to use Async PRAW <https://asyncpraw.readthedocs.io/>_. It is
the official asynchronous version of PRAW and its usage is similar and has the same
features as PRAW.

PRAW Discussion and Support

For those new to Python, or would otherwise consider themselves a Python beginner,
please consider asking questions on the r/learnpython <https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython>_ subreddit. There are wonderful people there who
can help with general Python and simple PRAW related questions.

Otherwise, there are a few official places to ask questions about PRAW:

r/redditdev <https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev>_ is the best place on Reddit to ask
PRAW related questions. This subreddit is for all Reddit API related discussion so
please tag submissions with [PRAW]. Please perform a search on the subreddit first to
see if anyone has similar questions.

Real-time chat can be conducted via the PRAW Slack Organization <https://join.slack.com/t/praw/shared_invite/zt-3d5lbcs51-VB1xRhRok0OZ1vyYquWb2A>_
(please create an issue if that invite link has expired).

Please do not directly message any of the contributors via Reddit, email, or Slack
unless they have indicated otherwise. We strongly encourage everyone to help others with
their questions.

Please file bugs and feature requests as issues on GitHub <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/issues>_ after first searching to ensure a similar
issue was not already filed. If such an issue already exists please give it a thumbs up
reaction. Comments to issues containing additional information are certainly welcome.

.. note::

text

This project is released with a `Contributor Code of Conduct
<https://github.com/praw-dev/.github/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md>`_. By
participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

Documentation

PRAW's documentation is located at https://praw.readthedocs.io/.

History

August 2010 <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/commit/efef08a4a713fcfd7dfddf992097cf89426586ae>_:
Timothy Mellor created a github project called reddit_api.

March 2011 <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/commit/ebfc9caba5b58b9e68c77af9c8e53f5562a2ee64>_:
The Python package reddit was registered and uploaded to pypi.

December 2011 <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/commit/74bb962b3eefe04ce6acad88e6f53f43d10c8803>_:
Bryce Boe took over as maintainer of the reddit package.

June 2012 <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/commit/adaf89fe8631f41ab9913b379de104c9ef6a1e73>_:
Bryce renamed the project PRAW and the repository was relocated to the newly created
praw-dev organization on GitHub.

February 2016 <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/commit/252083ef1dbfe6ea53c2dc99ac235b4ba330b658>_:
Bryce began work on PRAW4, a complete rewrite of PRAW.

License

PRAW's source (v4.0.0+) is provided under the Simplified BSD License <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/blob/0860c11a9309c80621c267af7caeb6a993933744/LICENSE.txt>_.

Earlier versions of PRAW were released under GPLv3 <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/blob/0c88697fdc26e75f87b68e2feb11e101e90ce215/COPYING>_.

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