Dataclawd Reddit Data Collector

A reliable Actor that collects Reddit data through the Dataclawd API — a managed social-data API with API-key authentication, usage reporting and prepaid credits. This Actor is a thin client: it calls the endpoint you choose (or maps a friendly task to the right endpoint automatically), follows after pagination automatically, extracts each item, and writes one row per item into the default Dataset (each successful row is also the pay-per-event billing event).

It covers 32 endpoints: subreddit hot/new/top/controversial posts, subreddit info/rules/similar, post details & comments, global popular posts, post/user/subreddit search, and user profiles / activity / comments / posts.

Powered by Dataclawd API · Not affiliated with Reddit, Inc.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor's Input tab.
2. Pick a task (collection task), e.g. subredditHot — the endpoint is selected automatically.
3. Fill subreddit, e.g. java.
4. Optionally set limit (per-page count, max 100), maxItems / maxPages to control volume, or add multiple objects to targets to batch-collect several subreddits.
5. Click Run and open the Dataset tab when it finishes — every collected post is one row with the raw JSON in the data field.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
task	enum	—	Recommended. Collection intent, auto-maps to an endpoint (see Tasks below). Leave empty only if you set endpoint explicitly.
endpoint	enum	auto	Advanced. auto = resolve from task; or set an explicit endpoint to override.
subreddit	string	—	Subreddit name without r/ (e.g. java). Needed by postDetail/postComments/postDuplicates and all subreddit* endpoints.
username	string	—	Reddit username without u/ (e.g. elonmusk). Needed by all user* endpoints.
article	string	—	Post ID from the comments path (e.g. 1b7abcd). Needed by postDetail/postComments/postDuplicates.
q	string	—	Search keyword. Needed by search / searchSubreddits / searchUsers.
sort	string	—	Listing sort: hot/new/top/rising/best (popular) or confidence/top/new/controversial/old/random/qa/live (comments).
country	string	—	ISO country code (e.g. US) for popularCountry.
restrictSr	string	—	Set true to restrict search to a subreddit (with subreddit).
after	string	(empty)	Reddit pagination cursor (e.g. t3_1b7abcd) to start from.
limit	integer	25	Items per page, max 100.
t	enum	(empty)	Time filter for top endpoints: hour / day / week / month / year / all.
targets	array of object	(empty)	Batch mode: each element is a param set, collected one after another.
proxyUrl	string	(empty)	Proxy used by Dataclawd's server when fetching Reddit.
httpMethod	enum	GET	Dataclawd Reddit endpoints are GET-only; POST returns 501.
maxItems	integer	100	Stop after this many items in total (max 100 000).
maxPages	integer	10	Max pages per target (max 100).
startCursor	string	(empty)	Alias for after; resume from a previous cursor.
itemsPath	string	(empty)	Dot-path to the item list, e.g. data.children. Leave empty for auto-detection (Reddit Listing children are auto-unwrapped).
nextCursorPath	string	(empty)	Dot-path to the next-page cursor. Leave empty for auto-detection (data.after).
paginationParam	enum	auto	Query param used for paging: auto (after), cursor, or none.

Endpoints

Tasks

Pick a task and the Actor selects the endpoint for you. Fill the params below (subreddit / username / article / q …).

Task	Endpoint	Required params
popular Global hot	popular	—
subredditHot Subreddit hot	subredditHot	subreddit
subredditNew Subreddit new	subredditNew	subreddit
subredditTop Subreddit top	subredditTop	subreddit
postDetail Post detail	postDetail	subreddit + article
postComments Post comments	postComments	subreddit + article
search Search	search	q
searchSubreddits Search subreddits	searchSubreddits	q
searchUsers Search users	searchUsers	q
userProfile User profile	userProfile	username
userPosts User posts	userPosts	username
userComments User comments	userComments	username

Posts — postDetail, postComments, postDuplicates Popular / homepage — popular, popularBest, popularCountry, popularRising, popularTop Search — search, searchSubreddits, searchUsers Subreddit — subredditHot, subredditNew, subredditTop, subredditAbout, subredditComments, subredditControversial, subredditPosts, subredditRules, subredditSimilar, subredditsNew, subredditsPopular User — userAbout, userActivity, userComments, userCommentsTop, userOverview, userPosts, userPostsHot, userPostsNew, userPostsTop, userProfile

Output (Dataset — one row per collected item)

Field	Description
platform	Always reddit.
endpoint	The endpoint that produced this row.
status	completed (data collected) or failed (request-level failure).
target	Human-readable target summary, e.g. subreddit=java.
page	Page number this item came from (1-based).
itemIndex	Sequential index within the run (1-based).
cursor	Cursor used to fetch that page (-1 = first page).
data	The collected item — the raw JSON returned by Dataclawd (a post or user object; Reddit Listing wrappers are unwrapped).
errorStage	Where a failure happened: connect_failed / server_error / auth_error / rate_limited / request_error / parse_error / empty_result.
errorCode	HTTP status code (if any), e.g. 429.
error	Error message on failed rows.

Run status & status message

While running, the Actor's status message is updated periodically (Collecting … → Collecting …: wrote n items → Done: …). The run succeeds (SUCCEEDED) as soon as at least one item is collected. If every target fails or returns nothing, the run ends FAILED with an explanatory message. Billing happens only for completed rows.

How to verify the results

1. Run status: the run is SUCCEEDED when at least one item was written; the status message shows live progress.
2. Per-item state: open the run's Dataset — every collected item has status=completed with the raw JSON in data; failed rows explain why (errorStage / errorCode / error).
3. Spot-check against the API: re-run one target in the Dataclawd API Console and compare with the row's data.
4. Billing: only completed rows carry the item-collected pay-per-event charge.

Developer note: for automated checks (run status, row schema, optional Dataclawd API replay), use python3 tools/verify_output.py --run <RUN_ID> [--api].

Pricing

Pay-per-event (PPE): one item-collected event per successfully collected item. Failed rows do not carry this event.

Publishing note: define an item-collected event with your price in the Actor's Monetization tab. The platform's built-in synthetic event apify-default-dataset-item is charged automatically per default-dataset item when PPE is enabled; set its price to 0 if you don't want a per-item base fee.

Configuration (publisher)

The following environment variables are configured on the Actor's version settings and are not visible to end users:

• DATACLAWD_API_HOST — Dataclawd API base URL (e.g. https://api.dataclawd.example).
• DATACLAWD_API_KEY — Dataclawd API key (sent as X-API-Key).

Disclaimer

This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Reddit, Inc. Collect only data you are authorized to collect, and comply with Reddit's Terms of Service, the Dataclawd service terms, and applicable law.

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