Reddit Modlog Wiki Publisher

Publishes a subreddit's moderation log to a wiki page as daily markdown tables. Each row links to the post or comment (never a user profile), shows the removal reason text, and carries a prefilled modmail inquiry link. A SQLite database handles deduplication and retention, and one database can serve several subreddits.

Deprecated. The supported runtime is now the Reddit-hosted Devvit app autowikimod in devvit/. It needs no self-hosting, no bot password and no SQLite. Install it from the Devvit app directory and set the wiki page in the app's subreddit settings. The Python bot documented below gets no new features and only critical fixes. It depends on password-grant Data API access, which Reddit is closing for unregistered scripts. See devvit/README.md and devvit-migration/docs/STATUS.md.

Quick start (Docker)

The bot account needs moderator access to the subreddit, including wiki edit permission. Create a Reddit app of type "script" at https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps to get a client ID and secret.

mkdir -p ./config/data ./config/logs
cp config_template.json ./config/config.json   # edit credentials and source_subreddit
docker run -d --name reddit-modlog \
  -e PUID=1000 -e PGID=1000 \
  -v ./config:/config \
  ghcr.io/baker-scripts/redditmodlog:1

The container runs modlog_wiki_publisher.py --config /config/config.json --continuous. With no /config/config.json, it starts from environment variables alone and exits if REDDIT_CLIENT_ID, REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET, REDDIT_USERNAME, REDDIT_PASSWORD, or SOURCE_SUBREDDIT is unset.

Compose, one service per subreddit:

services:
  redditmodlog-example:
    image: ghcr.io/baker-scripts/redditmodlog:1
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
    volumes:
      - ./example:/config
    mem_limit: 256m
    cpus: 0.5

The repo's docker-compose.yml configures a single instance from environment variables and mounts ./data and ./logs.

/config holds config.json (rewritten with new defaults on upgrade, with a .backup copy), data/modlog.db, and logs/.

Quick start (Python)

pip install -r requirements.txt   # praw>=8.0.3
cp config_template.json config.json
python modlog_wiki_publisher.py --test                 # check config and Reddit API access
python modlog_wiki_publisher.py                        # run once
python modlog_wiki_publisher.py --continuous           # run as a daemon

Configuration

Precedence: CLI arguments, then environment variables, then the JSON config file. Out-of-range values are clamped to the limit with a warning. python modlog_wiki_publisher.py --show-config-limits prints the limits.

Reddit credentials live under a reddit object in config.json (client_id, client_secret, username, password).

Config key	CLI flag	Env var	Default	Range
source_subreddit	--source-subreddit	SOURCE_SUBREDDIT	required
wiki_page	--wiki-page	WIKI_PAGE	modlog
retention_days	--retention-days	RETENTION_DAYS	90	1-365
batch_size	--batch-size	BATCH_SIZE	50	10-500
update_interval	--interval	UPDATE_INTERVAL	600	60-3600
anonymize_moderators		ANONYMIZE_MODERATORS	true	must be true
wiki_actions		WIKI_ACTIONS (comma-separated)	removal, spam, addremovalreason, and approval actions
ignored_moderators		IGNORED_MODERATORS (comma-separated)	none in code; the template ships ["AutoModerator"]
max_wiki_entries_per_page			1000	100-2000
max_continuous_errors			5	1-50
rate_limit_buffer			60	30-300
max_batch_retries			3	1-10
archive_threshold_days			7	1-30
		REDDIT_CLIENT_ID, REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET, REDDIT_USERNAME, REDDIT_PASSWORD
		DATABASE_PATH	modlog.db (/config/data/modlog.db in Docker)
		LOGS_DIR	logs (/config/logs in Docker); created at startup
		PUID, PGID (Docker only)	1000

The app refuses to start when anonymize_moderators is false: moderator names are replaced with AutoModerator or HumanModerator. The database_path and display_format keys in config_template.json are not read by the code; use DATABASE_PATH.

docker-compose.yml sets its own defaults for RETENTION_DAYS (30), BATCH_SIZE (100), and UPDATE_INTERVAL (300).

Usage

python modlog_wiki_publisher.py [options]
  --config FILE            config file (default: config.json)
  --source-subreddit NAME
  --wiki-page NAME
  --retention-days N
  --batch-size N
  --interval N             seconds between updates in daemon mode
  --continuous             run until stopped
  --test                   test config and Reddit API access, then exit
  --debug                  verbose logging
  --show-config-limits     print limits and defaults
  --force-migrate          force database migration
  --no-auto-update-config  do not rewrite the config file with new defaults
  --force-modlog           fetch all modlog actions from Reddit and rebuild the wiki
  --force-wiki             rewrite the wiki even if the content hash is unchanged
  --force-all              --force-modlog plus --force-wiki

Use --force-wiki after a format change and --force-modlog to rebuild from scratch.

Info logs go to stdout and warnings to stderr. The database migrates to the current schema on startup.

Sample database queries:

sqlite3 modlog.db "SELECT action_id, action_type, moderator, removal_reason, subreddit, created_at FROM processed_actions ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 10;"
sqlite3 modlog.db "DELETE FROM processed_actions WHERE created_at < strftime('%s','now','-30 days');"

Wiki output

## 2025-08-09

| Time | Action | ID | Moderator | Content | Reason | Inquire |
|------|--------|----|-----------|---------|--------|---------|
| 08:15:42 UTC | removecomment | n7ravg2 | AutoModerator | [Comment by u/user123](https://www.reddit.com/r/example/comments/1ab2cd3/title/n7ravg2/) | Rule text | [Contact Mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/example&subject=Comment%20Removal%20Inquiry...) |

Comments show comment IDs and posts show post IDs. Pipe characters in reasons are replaced with spaces so tables render.

Docker image

ghcr.io/baker-scripts/redditmodlog, built for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 on a tag push.

Tag	Tracks
1	Latest 1.x release (recommended)
1.6	Patch releases of 1.6
1.6.2	Pinned release
latest	Latest build of main
sha-<commit>	One commit

The image uses s6-overlay v3, applies PUID/PGID to the modlogbot user, and has a healthcheck that tests for the database file.

Systemd

systemd/ provides a template unit for several subreddits. The unit expects the repo at /opt/RedditModLog and a virtualenv at /opt/.venv/redditbot.

cd systemd && sudo ./install.sh
sudo cp /etc/redditmodlog/usenet.json.example /etc/redditmodlog/<subreddit>.json   # edit credentials and subreddit
sudo systemctl enable --now modlog@<subreddit>
tail -f /var/log/redditmodlog/<subreddit>.log

install.sh creates the modlogbot user, /etc/redditmodlog, /var/log/redditmodlog, /opt/RedditModLog/data, and a daily logrotate rule (30 files, 100 MB max). Per-instance credentials can go in /etc/redditmodlog/<subreddit>.env. The unit sets ProtectSystem=strict and allows writes only to /opt/RedditModLog/data and /var/log/redditmodlog, so set DATABASE_PATH=/opt/RedditModLog/data/modlog.db and LOGS_DIR=/var/log/redditmodlog in that env file. Limits: 256 MB memory and 25% CPU.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Auth failed	Check credentials; for 2FA accounts use an app password
Wiki edit denied	Give the bot wiki edit permission on the subreddit
Rate limiting	Raise --interval and lower --batch-size
Database grows	Lower --retention-days

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome. See the contributing guidelines and open an issue to discuss larger changes. Include test runs and changes to CLI help output.

Disclaimer

Provided as-is with no warranty. Review the bot's Reddit credentials and permissions before deployment. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Reddit.

License

GPL-3.0