reddit-wipe

Bulk-delete your own Reddit chat messages and comments from the command line. Dry-run by default, deletes only what you authored, and logs every action.

---

Why two tools?

Reddit chat and Reddit comments live on completely different backends, so each needs its own script and its own token:

Tool	What it deletes	Backend
redact_reddit_chat.py	Your messages in Reddit chat	Matrix (matrix.redditspace.com)
delete_reddit_comments.py	Your comments	Reddit Data API (oauth.reddit.com)

Reddit chat runs on Matrix, where "delete" is called redaction — it strips a message's content. Comments use Reddit's OAuth Data API. The two tokens are not interchangeable.

Features

• Dry run by default — every tool counts and previews before touching anything. You opt into destruction with --execute and a typed confirmation.
• Only your own content — enforced server-side by both Reddit and Matrix.
• Optional overwrite — scrub comment text to a placeholder before deleting, to defeat archive mirrors.
• Handles the ~1000-comment cap — feed a Reddit data-export CSV to reach everything on older accounts.
• Clear the chat list — --leave / --leave-all drop emptied threads.
• Rate-limit aware — honors Retry-After / X-Ratelimit-* and backs off.
• Audit log — every action is appended to a *_log.jsonl file.

⚠️ Deletion is irreversible. For chat, redaction removes the message for everyone in the conversation, not just your view. Always run the dry run first.

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• aiohttp

pip install aiohttp        # or: uv pip install aiohttp

Getting your tokens

Both scripts authenticate with a token you copy out of your own logged-in browser session — no passwords, nothing stored remotely. Full step-by-step instructions (with screenshots of where to look in devtools) are in GETTING_TOKENS.md.

Short version:

• Chat: copy the Authorization: Bearer value from any matrix.redditspace.com request, and get your user ID from whoami.
• Comments: copy the bearer (token_v2) from any gql.reddit.com request.

Tokens are short-lived (~1 hour). On a 401 / M_UNKNOWN_TOKEN, re-capture and rerun.

---

Usage — chat

export MATRIX_HOMESERVER="https://matrix.redditspace.com"
export MATRIX_USER_ID="@t2_xxxxxxxx:reddit.com"
export MATRIX_TOKEN="...your matrix token..."

python redact_reddit_chat.py                       # dry run: count your messages per room
python redact_reddit_chat.py --execute             # redact everywhere
python redact_reddit_chat.py --execute --room '!roomid:reddit.com'   # one room
python redact_reddit_chat.py --execute --leave     # redact, then drop emptied threads
python redact_reddit_chat.py --execute --leave-all # just leave every room (no redaction)

Flag	Description
--execute	Actually redact (default: dry run).
--room ID	Limit to a room ID (repeatable).
--leave	Leave + forget each room after its messages are redacted.
--leave-all	Leave + forget every joined room without redacting. Clears your chat list but does not delete message content.
--reason STR	Redaction reason recorded on each event.
--delay SEC	Seconds between redactions (default 0.5).
--limit N	History page size (default 100).

Order matters: leaving a room usually forfeits your ability to redact in it. If you want both, redact first — which is exactly what --leave does.

Usage — comments

export REDDIT_TOKEN="...your token_v2 / bearer value..."
# REDDIT_USERNAME is auto-detected via /api/v1/me; set it only to override.

python delete_reddit_comments.py                       # dry run: count comments
python delete_reddit_comments.py --execute             # delete
python delete_reddit_comments.py --execute --overwrite # scrub text, then delete
python delete_reddit_comments.py --execute --ids-file comments.csv  # everything, via export

Flag	Description
--execute	Actually delete (default: dry run).
--overwrite	Edit each comment to a placeholder before deleting.
--placeholder STR	Text used by --overwrite (default: .).
--ids-file PATH	Read t1_ IDs or a Reddit data-export comments.csv and delete those instead of crawling the listing.
--delay SEC	Seconds between write actions (default 1.0).
--limit N	Listing page size, max 100 (default 100).

Reaching every comment (the ~1000 cap)

Reddit's listing API only pages back through roughly your last 1000 comments. For older accounts, request your data export at reddit.com/settings/data-request, then pass the resulting comments.csv via --ids-file to delete everything.

Logs

Each run appends newline-delimited JSON to a log file (redaction_log.jsonl, comment_deletion_log.jsonl) recording every redaction/deletion and any errors. These are gitignored — they contain room/event/comment IDs.

Troubleshooting

A few common ones (full list in GETTING_TOKENS.md):

• No oauth.reddit.com requests in devtools → use a gql.reddit.com request; the bearer is the same.
• 'chunk' is a required property → you're on an old version; the current chat script talks to the Matrix HTTP API directly to avoid this.
• Redacted chats still show in your list → use --leave or --leave-all.
• 401 mid-run → token expired; re-capture and rerun.

Disclaimer

This project automates self-service deletion that Reddit already offers manually. It acts only on content you authored (enforced server-side) and relies on undocumented internal endpoints that Reddit may change or remove without notice. Use it on your own account, at your own risk. Provided as-is, with no warranty — see LICENSE.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome — especially if an endpoint shape changes and a capture step in GETTING_TOKENS.md no longer matches reality. Please never include real tokens, cookies, or exported data in issues or commits.

License

MIT © 2026 Alig1493