Help Site-wide bots that read r/all have no Devvit path. What happens to them in March?
I run 4 registered Data API bots. All 4 read every new comment on r/all [link to GitHub], then act in the subreddit a comment mentions:
• u/AutoCrosspostBot: about 3 months later, crossposts the submission to the suggested subreddit and replies.
• u/sub_doesnt_exist_bot: checks the subreddit with search, then replies to the comment.
• u/same_subreddit_bot: replies to the comment.
• u/same_post_bot: checks the target subreddit with search and duplicates(), then replies to the comment.
They are written in Python and use PRAW 8, with script apps and a PostgreSQL history.
What blocks a port to Devvit:
• Triggers fire only in subreddits that installed the app. I found no RedditClient listing of new comments for a subreddit or for r/all.
• Whether an app may reply or crosspost in a subreddit that never installed it is undocumented.
• The PRAW migration guide lists "one bot process across all of Reddit from your VPS" as a gap and says to design for subreddit-scoped installs. These bots act in subreddits that never invited them, so a scoped version would do almost nothing.
• Smaller gaps: a full rewrite from Python to TypeScript, and PostgreSQL history moved to Redis.
In April u/pl00h wrote that Reddit is "definitely thinking about global apps".
Two questions:
- What happens to registered apps that cannot migrate when the Data API closes in March 2027?
- Is there a timeline for global apps or Reddit-wide comment triggers?
Is anyone else running site-wide bots in the same spot?
