Adding A Bot

Table of Contents

• What is a Bot?
• Prerequisites
• Adding a Bot to CM
  • Using CM OAuth Helper (Recommended)
  • Using Aardvark OAuth Helper

What is a Bot?

A reddit bot is composed of two components:

• A normal reddit account like u/MyRedditAccount
• Software that performs actions on behalf of that reddit account using Reddit’s API

There is nothing special about the account! What’s special is how its used – through the API with bot software like ContextMod.

Prerequisites

These things need to be done before a Bot can be added to CM:

• Provisioned a Reddit Client
• You or the person who controls the Bot account must have account credentials (username/password). Logging in to reddit is part of the setup process.
  • If the bot does not exist create a reddit account for it.
  • If the bot does exist make sure you are in communication with the owner of the account.

Adding A Bot to CM

CM OAuth Helper (Recommended)

This method will use CM’s built in oauth flow. It is recommended because:

• It’s easy!
• Will ensure your bot is authenticated with the correct oauth permissions

Start CM with the Minimum Configuration (Initial Setup)

If this is your first time adding a bot you must make sure you have

• done the prerequisites
• created a minimum operator configuration
  • that specifies the client id/secret from provisioning your reddit client
  • specified Operator Name in the configuration

It is important you define Operator Name because the auth route is protected. You must login to CM’s web interface in order to access the route.

Create A Bot Invite

Open the CM web interface (default is http://localhost:8085) and login with the reddit account specified in Operator Name.

If this is your first time setting up a bot you should be automatically redirected to the auth page. Otherwise, visit http://localhost:8085/auth/helper

Follow the directions in the helper to create a Bot Invite Link.

Onboard the Bot

Visit the Bot Invite Link while logged in to reddit as the bot account to begin the onboarding process. Refer to the Onboarding Your Bot subreddit documentation for more information on this process.

At the end of the onboarding process the bot should be automatically added to your operator configuration. If there is an issue with automatically adding it then the oauth credentials will be displayed at the end of onboarding and can be manually added to the configuration.

Aardvark OAuth Helper

This method should only be used if you cannot use the CM OAuth Helper method.

• Visit https://not-an-aardvark.github.io/reddit-oauth-helper/ and follow the instructions given.
  • Note: You will need to update the redirect uri you set when provisioning your reddit client.
• Input your Client ID and Client Secret in the text boxes with those names.
• Choose scopes. It is very important you check everything on this list or CM may not work correctly
  • edit
  • flair
  • history
  • identity
  • modcontributors
  • modflair
  • modposts
  • modself
  • modnote
  • mysubreddits
  • read
  • report
  • submit
  • wikiread
  • wikiedit (if you are using Toolbox User Notes)
• Click Generate tokens, you will get a popup asking you to approve access (or login) – the account you approve access with is the account that Bot will control.
• After approving an Access Token and Refresh Token will be shown at the bottom of the page. Use these to manually add a bot to your operator configuration.
  • After adding the bot you will need to restart CM.