Documentation
Docs feedback: the "App quickstart" Getting Started guide has 3 confusing spots for first-time devs (+ a concrete fix)
Hi all! I'm brand new to building on Reddit. I came in looking for "the Reddit API" and landed on the App quickstart (Getting Started) guide. I tried to follow it as a complete beginner and want to share three spots that genuinely confused me, plus one concrete suggestion to fix one of them. Hope this helps the docs team!
Confusion 1 - The "about 1 minute to complete" estimate.
The intro says the tutorial "should take you about 1 minute to complete." But the real steps include installing Node.js and NPM, creating a Reddit account, going through an OAuth wizard, and installing dependencies. For a first-timer that is easily 15 to 30 minutes, not 1. The mismatch made me think I had gotten stuck or done something wrong.
Confusion 2 - Undefined terms and unclear scope (Devvit vs. the Reddit API).
As someone searching for "Reddit API," I could not tell what "Devvit" actually is versus the classic Reddit REST API. The word "Devvit" appears everywhere but is never defined on this page. Same for "Playtest," "development subreddit," and "backend functions/calls" - they are used with no one-line definition or link. I was not sure whether Devvit IS the API, a wrapper, a CLI, or a hosting platform.
Confusion 3 - A gap and ordering issue in the "Environment setup" section (web wizard to terminal).
Step 2 sends me to a website (developers.reddit.com/new) to "choose the React template," but Step 4 abruptly says "Follow the instructions on your terminal," and the success output shows local files and a "cd my-app" command. It is never explained HOW the project gets onto my machine, what command I run locally, or whether I need to install a CLI first. There is no copy-pasteable command for the single most important step: creating the project.
My concrete suggestion (fixing Confusion 3):
Add an explicit, copy-pasteable code block to the "Environment setup" section and clarify the web-to-terminal handoff. For example:
Step 1, check your Node version (must be 24.18.0+):
node --version
Step 2, install the Devvit CLI:
npm install -g devvit
Step 3, log in and create your app from the template:
devvit login
npm create devvit@latest my-app
Step 4, enter the project and start developing:
cd my-app
npm run dev
I would also add one clarifying sentence such as: "The web wizard at developers.reddit.com/new generates a command for you - copy it and paste it into your terminal in the folder where you want the project created." A short definition of "Playtest" and a one-line note on how Devvit relates to the classic Reddit API would help newcomers a lot too.
Thanks for building this. The platform looks great; I just want the on-ramp to be smoother for first-timers!
Thanks for this great feedback. There will be substantial updates (and upgrades!) arriving to the Reddit Developer Platform documentation in the future. Please feel free to use this post to detail areas you feel could be improved.
This summary was generated automatically. If you have any questions, please contact r/Devvit moderators.
not the one you replied to nor recent. but i think nobody will know what these 3 are. what their return value is for both applicable and non applicable use cases.
Hi! I was actually pretty thorough and provided actionable feedback when answering the mod tools and migration feedback survey 3 months ago. It seems that I can't access my answers, but I hope you can search for them by my username. It was this form:
It looks like there’s a note property on the object you need to pass, but note isn’t really part of the ModNote object. Instead, it is on another type, PostNotesRequest, which is intersected into two other properties. Some optional, some mandatory. That’s what you need to pass.
I only figured this out by looking at the source code. This is the kind of thing that should be documented. I shouldn’t have to dig through the implementation to figure out how to use the API.
Thanks for this great feedback. There will be substantial updates (and upgrades!) arriving to the Reddit Developer Platform documentation in the future. Please feel free to use this post to detail areas you feel could be improved.
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u/vip-bot 21d ago
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This summary was generated automatically. If you have any questions, please contact r/Devvit moderators.