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ContextMod

Operator

An Operator is the user running the ContextMod software.

They are responsible for configuring the software at a high-level and managing associated infrastructure such as:

  • Creating cache/database servers and configuring their connections in CM
  • Provisioning the Reddit Clients needed to run bots and the CM UI
  • Providing global-level configuration that affects general bot/subreddit behavior
  • Onboarding new bots/subreddits

Table of Contents

Overview

CM is composed of two applications that operate independently but are packaged together such that they act as one piece of software:

  • Server – Responsible for running the bot(s) and providing an API to retrieve information on and interact with them EX start/stop bot, reload config, retrieve operational status, etc.
  • Client – Responsible for serving the web interface and handling the bot oauth authentication flow between operators and subreddits/bots.

Both applications authenticate, and are primarily operated, by using Reddit’s API through OAuth. The Client uses OAuth to verify the identity of moderators logging into the web interface. The Server uses oauth tokens to interact with Reddit’s API and operate all the configured bots.

In its default mode of operation CM takes care of all the interaction between Server and Client for you so that you can effectively treat it as a monolithic application. Learn more about CM’s architecture and other operation modes in the Server-Client Architecture documentation.

Getting Started

The Getting Started guide serves as a straight-forward “how-to” for standing up a CM server from scratch with minimal explanation.

Installation

CM has many installation options:

  • Locally, from source, as a typescript project
  • Built/pulled from a Docker image hosted on Dockerhub
  • Deployed to Heroku with a Quick Deploy template (experimental)

Refer to the Installation docs for more information.

Provisioning A Reddit Client

As mentioning in the Overview, CM operates primarily using Reddit’s API through OAuth. You must create a Reddit Client in order to interact with the API.

Create Application

Visit your reddit preferences and at the bottom of the page go through the create an(other) app process.

  • Give it a name
  • Choose web app
  • If you know what you will use for redirect uri go ahead and use it, otherwise use http://localhost:8085/callback

Click create app.

Then write down your Client ID, Client Secret, and Redirect Uri somewhere

Configuration

The Configuration documentation covers:

  • How CM’s configuration can be defined
  • How to create and define location for a config file
  • Running CM from the command line
  • Documentation for configuration on Bots, the web client, API, and more…

Adding A Bot

The Adding A Bot documentation covers:

  • What is a Bot?
  • What is needed to add a Bot to CM?
  • Different approaches to authenticating and adding a Bot to CM