Reddit Digest - NotebookLM ingest

A Python script to fetch top posts (and optional comments/links) from a Reddit subreddit within a defined time window, render them to Markdown, and optionally convert to a Google Doc and upload to your personal Google Drive. There is also the ability to hardcode specific subreddits in a local config file as well as specific stock, commodities and weather to embed into the Markdown. The expectation is that once the specified groups have been converted to markdown they can be uploaded into NotepadLM for analysis and podcast creation.

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Features

• Fetch posts from any single or group of public subreddits over the last N hours
• Return either all or top X posts by score, with the score stored in the resulting markdown file.
• Optionally extract top-level comments and any URLs within them, while also ignoring posted with new accounts of a specific age
• Generate a timestamped Markdown report locally to a nominated directory
• Embed specific stocks, commodites and local weather URL's into the markdown text.
• Optionally convert the Markdown to a Google Doc
• Optionally upload the Doc into a specified folder in your personal Drive

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Repository Layout

reddit-digest/
├── config.json         # Reddit + Drive configuration
├── gdrive-creds.json   # OAuth client JSON from Google
├── token.json          # Cached OAuth tokens (auto-generated)
├── reddit-notepad.py   # Main Python script
└── install.sh          # Installer script

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Prerequisites

1. Python & pip

   • Python 3.8+ (python3.12-venv)
   • pip3 installed

2. Google Cloud Project Setup (Optional)

   1. Enable APIs
      • Go to APIs & Services → Library, search for Google Drive API and Google Docs API, and click Enable on each.
   2. Configure OAuth consent screen
      • In APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen, choose External.
      • Fill in App name (e.g. “Reddit Notepad Uploader”) and User support email.
      • Under Scopes, add:

        https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file
        https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents
        

      • Under Test users, add your Google email, then Publish.
   3. Create OAuth Client ID
      • In APIs & Services → Credentials, click Create Credentials → OAuth client ID.
      • Choose Desktop app, name it, and download the JSON as gdrive-creds.json.

3. Others (for installer)

   • git
   • curl

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config.json

Create a config.json in the root of this repo with your Reddit & Drive settings:

{
  "reddit": {
    "client_id":            "",      /* Your Reddit API client ID */
    "client_secret":        "",      /* Your Reddit API client secret */
    "user_agent":           "",      /* Your app’s user agent string */
    "comment_age_threshold_days": 0  /* Ignore comments from accounts younger than this */
  },

  "subreddits": [
    /* List your subreddits here, e.g. "worldnews", "tech" */
  ],

  "default": {
    "hours":     0,  /* Look back this many hours */
    "top_posts": 0   /* Number of top posts (0 = all new posts) */
  },

  "output": {
    "local_dir":        "",      /* Where to save the .md files */
    "include_comments": false    /* true to pull comments & links */
  },

  "drive": {
    "enabled":          false,  /* true to enable Google Drive upload */
    "credentials_file": "",     /* Path to your OAuth client JSON */
    "folder_name":      ""      /* Name of the Drive folder to use */
  },

  "urls": {
    "stocks": [
      /* e.g. "https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMD/" */
    ],
    "commodities": [
      /* e.g. "https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GC=F/" */
    ],
    "fx": [
      /* e.g. "https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AUDUSD=X/" */
    ],
    "weather": ""  /* e.g. "https://www.accuweather.com/…" */
  }
}

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Python Dependencies

Install via pip:

pip3 install praw \
  google-api-python-client \
  google-auth \
  google-auth-httplib2 \
  google-auth-oauthlib

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Usage

1. Interactive Mode

python3 reddit-notepad.py

On launch you’ll be prompted for:

• Subreddit (e.g. worldnews)
• Hours back (e.g. 24)
• Top posts (0 = all, or e.g. 10)
• Fetch comments & links? (y or n)

If Drive upload is enabled in your config.json, the first time you choose to upload, a browser window will open to authorize. A token.json file will then be saved for subsequent runs.

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2. Fully Non-Interactive (All Flags)

You can override every prompt via flags:

python3 reddit-notepad.py \
  --subreddits worldnews technews amiga \
  --hours 12 \
  --topn 20 \
  --comments \
  --debug

This will:

• Fetch the top 20 posts from worldnews, technews, and amiga, from the last 12 hours
• Include comments & links
• Emit debug logging to stderr
• Use your Drive settings from config.json to upload (unless you pass --no-drive)

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3. Examples

a) Just grab the last 5 new posts from r/networking, no comments, no Drive

python3 reddit-notepad.py \
  --subreddits networking \
  --hours 24 \
  --topn 5 \
  --no-drive

b) Scan multiple subreddits, include comments, upload to Drive

python3 reddit-notepad.py \
  -s worldnews networking technews \
  -H 6 \
  -n 10 \
  -c

c) Debug run for troubleshooting

python3 reddit-notepad.py --debug

You’ll see detailed logging of API calls, folder creation, etc.

d) Use defaults from config.json but disable comments

python3 reddit-notepad.py --no-drive

(This will still run against the subreddits, hours, and top_posts defined under "default" in your config, but skip both comments and Drive upload.)

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4. Output

1. Local Markdown Saved to the local_dir you set in config.json (default ./output/).

2. Google Doc (if enabled) Placed in My Drive → folder_name in your account, then in a subfolder named today’s date.

Installer Script

Install in one line:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/farsonic/reddit-digest/main/install.sh)

This will clone or update the repo, create a virtual environment, install all Python deps, and prompt you to configure config.json & place gdrive-creds.json.

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5. Create Reddit API Credentials.

1. ** Create API Key

   From https://reddit.com/prefs/apps create a personal use script using the following as an example. use the personal use script key for the client_id and the secret for client_secret in the config.json file.

6. NotebookLM ingest

You will now have the ability to create a markdown file that will be held locally as well as stored in google drive if requested. You can now take this and load into NotebookLM for analysis. If using this for creating a podcast this is my current working prompt to cusotmise the output.

You are a production-grade podcast writer. Your input is:
  • A list of stock URLs use 
  • A list of commodity URLs
  • A list of FX URLs
  • One weather forecast URL
  • A set of Reddit post URLs grouped by community
  • Read all the URL links provided and use these for analysis of all components.
  • Extract every link from the post, perform deep research on the articles linked and use this as the basis for discussion. The article content is primary concern followed by the comments and sentiment. 


Your job is to output a 10-minute podcast in four parts:

1️⃣ **Quick Markets & Weather (≈30 s)**  
   - State each stock name and say it is trading at the provided amount and the trend for the day  
   - Do the same for commodities and FX.  
   - Read the weather URL once: “Today's weather is..." 

2️⃣ **Headline Segments**  
   For each group (World News → Tech News → Niche Communities → Hobbies):  
   - **Segment title**  
   - **Bullet 1:** “Top story at URL: …” + a one‐sentence **fact** summary pulled **only** from the article title or first line.  
   - **Bullet 2:** Community sentiment (positive/negative/mixed) based on upvotes & comments count—do **not** dive into the comments themselves here.  
   - **Bullet 3 (only if AMD mentioned):** Name the URL and say “AMD mention detected here.”
   - **Pick up to two standout user comments (accounts ≥ 30 days old) that illustrate community reaction briefly—one sentence each.

4️⃣ **Outro Teaser**  
   - One sentence: “See you tomorrow, when we’ll cover…”

**Formatting & Tone**
- Never say hashtag anything
- Reference the site where the story comes from. 
- Use spoken-audio phrasing (“Up first…,” “Listeners are reacting…”).  
- Get immediately to the point of discussion within 5 seconds. 
- Keep each bullet super-tight.    
- Script length: ~10 minutes. 

License

MIT © Your Name