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Every 10 minutes

Forward Reddit inbox messages and replies to Gmail

New Reddit private messages, comment replies and username mentions are emailed to you from Gmail with a link back to the thread.

Runs
Every 10 minutes
Apps
Gmail, Reddit
AI
Not needed
Access
Reddit privatemessages, identity; Gmail send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 10 minutes, check my Reddit inbox for unread messages, comment replies and mentions, and email each one to me from my Gmail with the sender, subreddit and link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Reddit's own notifications are easy to miss. If you run a brand account, answer support questions in a subreddit or moderate a community, a reply that sits for two days looks like you stopped caring.

This forwards each new item in your Reddit inbox to your email, using your own Gmail account to send it. Each email says who wrote it, where, and links straight to the comment in context.

It suits founders who post on Reddit now and then and do not keep the app open, and teams who want Reddit replies to land in the same inbox as other customer questions.

What you get out of it

  • Replies land where you already work

    Email is open all day for most people, the Reddit inbox is not. Forwarding means a question under your post gets seen in the same place as any other customer message.

  • Mentions are not lost

    When someone tags your username in a thread you never visited, Reddit only shows it in the inbox. The email puts that mention in front of you with the subreddit name in the subject line.

  • Searchable history

    Every forwarded item stays in your mail archive. Months later you can search for a username or product name and find the thread without scrolling Reddit's inbox.

  • Shared handling for teams

    Sending the emails to a team inbox lets whoever is on duty answer the Reddit reply. Nobody needs to share the Reddit login just to keep an eye on it.

  • Nothing changes on Reddit

    The automation only reads. It does not mark items as read, reply or delete anything, so your Reddit account behaves exactly as before.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 10 minutes ClickRuntime reads the unread items in your Reddit inbox.

  2. It skips anything it has already forwarded.

  3. Each new message, reply or mention is sent to your email address from your Gmail, with who wrote it and a link to the thread.

  4. Your Reddit inbox is left as it is, so items stay unread until you open them.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect Reddit

What you get

RunsEvery 10 minutes
Forward Reddit inbox messages and replies to Gmailtoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · Reddit reply from u/kettle_engineer in r/selfhostedu/kettle_engineer replied to your comment in r/selfhosted: "Did you ever get the backup job working on ARM? Same error here." Open the thread: https://reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1abc2d/_/kx9f3e1/

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Gmail and Reddit steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
forward_reddit_inbox_messages_and_replies_to_gmail.pyexample
import base64
from email.message import EmailMessage
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, report_fetched

ME = "me@example.com"

def reddit_unread():
    headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + credentials.connection("reddit", "main"), "User-Agent": "clickruntime/1.0"}
    r = http.get("https://oauth.reddit.com/message/unread", headers=headers, params={"limit": 50})
    return [c["data"] for c in r.json()["data"]["children"]]

def send_email(subject, text):
    msg = EmailMessage()
    msg["To"], msg["Subject"] = ME, subject
    msg.set_content(text)
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
    gmail.users().messages().send(userId="me", body={"raw": base64.urlsafe_b64encode(msg.as_bytes()).decode()}).execute()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    seen = state.get("seen") or []
    items = [m for m in reddit_unread() if m["name"] not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(items))
    for m in reversed(items):
        if m.get("was_comment"):
            kind = "mentioned you" if m["subject"] == "username mention" else "replied to you"
            subject = f"Reddit: u/{m['author']} {kind} in r/{m['subreddit']}"
            link = f"https://reddit.com{m['context']}"
        else:
            subject = f"Reddit message from u/{m['author']}: {m['subject']}"
            link = "https://www.reddit.com/message/messages/" + m["id"]
        send_email(subject, f"{m['body']}\n\nOpen it: {link}")
    state.set("seen", (seen + [m["name"] for m in items])[-1000:])
    return {"forwarded": len(items)}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it mark the messages as read on Reddit?
No. It only reads the unread list, so Reddit still shows them as unread until you open them there. It remembers what it has already emailed so you do not get the same item twice.
Can I send them to a shared inbox instead of my own?
Yes. Change the To address to a team inbox such as community@ and the emails go there from your Gmail. Anyone on that inbox can then pick up the reply.
Will it include chat messages?
No. Reddit chat is separate from the inbox and has no public API. Private messages, comment replies, post replies and username mentions are all covered.
What permissions does it need?
Reddit privatemessages, identity; Gmail send. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Forward Reddit inbox messages and replies to Gmail” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.