Create community-first engagement on technical subreddits with production war stories and data-backed contrarian takes. Value first, promotion never.

Prerequisites

Load the Session Playbook first. Verify your session and profile before starting.

IMPORTANT: NEVER start, stop, or restart services. The API is already running.

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin session show" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin agents list --enabled" }

If services are not running, ask the user to start them. Do not attempt to start them yourself.

MCP Tools

Tool Purpose
systemprompt_cli Execute CLI commands
systemprompt_help Get command documentation and playbooks

CRITICAL: Context Management

New content = New context. ALWAYS. See the Contexts Playbook for full context management commands.

WRONG: Reusing reddit-general context for multiple posts RIGHT: reddit-ai-costs-ml, reddit-rag-localllama, reddit-career-expdevs (one context per post)

CRITICAL: One Step = One Message

Each step in this playbook is a SEPARATE message to the agent. NEVER combine steps.

Step Action Separate Message?
Step 3 Plan YES - send message, wait for response
Step 4 Research YES - send message, wait for response
Step 5 Create YES - send message, wait for response

WRONG: "Research and create a post about X" RIGHT: Message 1: "Research X" → wait → Message 2: "Create the post"

Step 1: Create a FRESH Context (REQUIRED FIRST STEP)

Every new post MUST start with a fresh context. Name it descriptively including the target subreddit.

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core contexts list" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core contexts new --name \"reddit-[topic]-[subreddit]\"" }

Examples of good context names:

{ "command": "core contexts new --name \"reddit-ai-costs-machinelearning\"" }
{ "command": "core contexts new --name \"reddit-llm-scaling-localllama\"" }
{ "command": "core contexts new --name \"reddit-career-growth-expdevs\"" }

ONLY continue an existing context if:

  • You're resuming work on the SAME post
  • You haven't created any other content since
  • The context was created specifically for this post
// MCP: systemprompt_cli - ONLY if continuing the SAME post
{ "command": "core contexts use reddit-ai-costs-machinelearning" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "analytics content stats --since 30d" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "analytics content top --since 30d --limit 10" }

Share insights and get CONTEXT_ID:

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - First message, capture the context ID from response
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"Our top Reddit posts performed well in [subreddits]. What production experience should we share next?\" --blocking --json" }

Save the CONTEXT_ID for all subsequent messages.

Step 3: SOCRATIC DIALOGUE - Convince the Gatekeeper (MANDATORY)

CRITICAL: The Reddit agent is a GATEKEEPER. It will NOT research or create content until you have convinced it with deep, articulated reasoning about the COMMUNITY VALUE.

The agent uses the Socratic method to interrogate your content idea. Your job is to provide clear, specific, well-reasoned answers that demonstrate you understand what the specific subreddit values.

3.1 Initiate the Dialogue

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"I want to write a Reddit post about [topic] for [subreddit]. Let's define the community value before researching.\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking" }

The agent will ask probing questions. DO NOT skip this step or give vague answers.

3.2 Be Prepared to Answer These Questions

On Subreddit Fit:

  • Which subreddit is this for? r/MachineLearning, r/LocalLLaMA, r/programming, or r/ExperiencedDevs?
  • What does this community specifically care about?
  • What would get this downvoted in that subreddit?
  • What's the culture - academic rigor? practical code? cost obsession?

On Value & Authenticity:

  • What's the standalone value if nobody clicks your link?
  • What personal experience backs this up?
  • Why would a cynical Redditor upvote this?
  • What are you sharing that they can't Google in 30 seconds?

On Evidence:

  • What specific numbers, benchmarks, or production data do you have?
  • Is this from personal experience, benchmarks, code examples, or cost data?
  • What failure or mistake taught you this?

On Depth:

  • Is this a quick insight (300 words), detailed analysis (800 words), or deep dive (1500+ words)?
  • Does the value justify the length?

3.3 Example Dialogue

WRONG (Vague - Agent Will Reject):

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"Write about AI costs\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking" }
// Agent will push back: "Which subreddit? What personal experience? What specific data?"

RIGHT (Specific - Agent Will Accept):

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"I want to write a Reddit post for r/MachineLearning about the hidden costs of production AI.\n\nTARGET SUBREDDIT: r/MachineLearning - they value rigorous analysis and production data over hype.\n\nCOMMUNITY VALUE: Senior ML engineers budgeting AI projects need real cost breakdowns, not vendor pricing pages. This gives them data to push back on unrealistic budget expectations.\n\nPERSONAL EXPERIENCE: We ran 3 production LLM systems for 18 months. Inference costs were 20% of actual spend. The rest was data engineering, monitoring, human review, and incident response.\n\nSPECIFIC DATA:\n- Inference: $2,400/month average\n- Data pipeline maintenance: $4,200/month in engineering time\n- Quality monitoring: $3,100/month\n- Human review for hallucinations: $5,800/month\nTotal: $15,500/month vs $2,400 that 'AI costs' conversations focus on.\n\nPOST DEPTH: Detailed analysis (800-1000 words) with cost breakdown table.\n\nHOOK: 'Our AI budget was 6x what we planned. Not because of GPT-4 pricing.'\n\nLet's refine this before researching.\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking" }

3.4 Gate Check - Agent Must Confirm

The agent will NOT proceed to research until it can articulate:

  • The target subreddit and why it fits
  • The standalone value being shared
  • The evidence type backing claims
  • The appropriate post depth

Wait for the agent to confirm the goal:

CONFIRMED REDDIT CONTENT GOAL:
- Subreddit: [target subreddit]
- Value proposition: [what the community gets]
- Evidence type: [personal_experience|benchmarks|code_examples|cost_data|failure_analysis]
- Content category: [production_war_story|cost_breakdown|architecture_critique|tool_evaluation|contrarian_analysis]
- Post depth: [quick_insight|detailed_analysis|deep_dive]
- Hook style: [how we open to earn attention]

Only then will the agent proceed to research.

Step 4: Research the Topic (Agent-Initiated After Goal Confirmed)

Once the agent confirms the goal, ask it to research:

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"The goal is confirmed. Research this topic using research_content with content_type='reddit_post'. Return the research_id when done.\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking --timeout 120" }

WAIT for response. Save the research_id (e.g., RESEARCH_ID="..."). Then proceed to Step 5.

Step 5: Create the Content (With Precise Guidance From Dialogue)

The agent will include everything from the Socratic dialogue in the instructions field automatically. You can add specifics:

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"Create the Reddit post using content_create with:\n- research_id='$RESEARCH_ID'\n- slug='production-ai-hidden-costs'\n- content_type='reddit_post'\n- keywords=['AI costs', 'production ML', 'LLM', 'budget', 'machine learning']\n\nAdditional instructions: Include the full cost breakdown table we discussed. Open with the 6x budget overrun hook. Target r/MachineLearning tone (rigorous, data-first). Add 'Happy to share more details if useful' closing.\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking --timeout 120" }

Critical: The agent will embed the confirmed subreddit, value proposition, evidence, and hook from the Socratic dialogue into the content creation.

WAIT for response. Verify content exists:

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core content search \"production-ai-hidden-costs\"" }

If the agent says content was created but it doesn't exist, try again with explicit parameters.

Step 6: Publish and Verify

IMPORTANT: Image optimization MUST run before publish. Templates expect .webp images, but content is created with .png. Without optimization, featured images will 404.

See the Jobs Playbook for job management commands.

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - Run image optimization FIRST (converts PNG to WebP)
{ "command": "infra jobs run blog_image_optimization" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - Then run the publish job (prerenders, updates sitemap)
{ "command": "infra jobs run publish_content" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - Sync content from database to filesystem (REQUIRED for new content)
{ "command": "cloud sync local content --direction to-disk --source reddit -y" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - Verify the content is accessible and published
{ "command": "core content verify production-ai-hidden-costs --source <source>" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core content show production-ai-hidden-costs --source <source>" }

Content Types

Type Length Use Case
reddit_post 300-2000 words All subreddits (depth varies by topic)

Post Depth Guidelines

Depth Words When to Use
Quick insight 300-500 Single data point, one lesson learned
Detailed analysis 600-1000 Cost breakdown, tool comparison, architecture decision
Deep dive 1000-2000 Production postmortem, comprehensive guide, career journey

Target Subreddits

Subreddit Culture What Works What Fails
r/MachineLearning Academic rigor Papers, production data, benchmarks Hype, promotional, vague claims
r/programming Practical over theory Code examples, real problems, war stories Theory without code, promotional
r/LocalLLaMA Cost obsessed, anti-cloud Self-hosting, cost comparisons, local solutions Cloud advocacy, expensive setups
r/ExperiencedDevs Career focus, production reality Career lessons, senior perspectives, honest takes Beginner questions, naive advice

MCP Tools Used by Agent

Tool Purpose
research_content Topic research, returns research_id
content_create Create content from research
generate_image Generate AI images

Format Requirements

Structure:

  • tl;dr at the very top (for posts over 500 words)
  • Markdown headers (##) for sections
  • Code blocks with language tags
  • Tables for data comparisons

Closing style:

Happy to answer questions. Full writeup with code if there's interest.

[Link to blog if relevant]

Forbidden: Self-promotion in title, hashtags, emojis, marketing speak

Example Session (Each Step is Separate)

// Step 1: Create context
{ "command": "core contexts new --name \"reddit-ai-costs-ml\"" }

// Step 2: Review trends and get CONTEXT_ID
{ "command": "analytics content top --since 30d --limit 5" }

// First message - capture the context ID from response
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"Our production AI posts do well on r/MachineLearning. What cost data would be most valuable to share?\" --blocking --json" }
// Save CONTEXT_ID from response

// Step 3: Plan (SEND, WAIT FOR RESPONSE)
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"I want to write about production AI costs for r/MachineLearning. We have 18 months of real cost data across 3 systems. What angle would provide most value?\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking" }

// Step 4: Research (SEPARATE MESSAGE, WAIT FOR RESPONSE)
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"Research AI production costs, TCO analysis, and cost optimization strategies. Return the research_id when done.\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking --timeout 120" }
// Save the research_id from response, e.g.: RESEARCH_ID="4a7f8ac2-..."

// Step 5: Create (SEPARATE MESSAGE, WAIT FOR RESPONSE)
{ "command": "admin agents message reddit -m \"Create a Reddit post with:\n- research_id='$RESEARCH_ID'\n- slug='production-ai-real-costs'\n- content_type='reddit_post'\n- keywords=['AI costs', 'production ML', 'TCO', 'LLM', 'budget']\n\nDetailed analysis depth (800 words). Include our cost breakdown table. Use the hook we discussed.\" --context-id \"$CONTEXT_ID\" --blocking --timeout 120" }

// VERIFY content exists - CRITICAL STEP
{ "command": "core content search \"production-ai-real-costs\"" }

// Step 6: Optimize images, Publish, and Sync to filesystem
{ "command": "infra jobs run blog_image_optimization" }
{ "command": "infra jobs run publish_content" }
{ "command": "cloud sync local content --direction to-disk --source reddit -y" }
{ "command": "core content verify production-ai-real-costs --source <source>" }

Step 7: Validate Filesystem and Refine Content (FINAL QUALITY GATE)

After publishing, validate the content has been synced to the filesystem and perform a final quality review.

7.1 Validate Filesystem Sync

See the Content Playbook for content management commands.

IMPORTANT: Content created by agents lives in the database. You MUST sync to filesystem before validating:

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - Sync database content to filesystem
{ "command": "cloud sync local content --direction to-disk --source reddit -y" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli - Verify sync status
{ "command": "core content status --source reddit" }

Expected frontmatter fields:

---
title: "Post Title"
description: "Brief description"
author: "Edward"
slug: "production-ai-real-costs"
keywords: "keyword1, keyword2"
image: "/files/images/..."
kind: "reddit"
public: true
tags: []
published_at: "2026-01-17"
---

7.2 Review Against Original Aim

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core content show production-ai-real-costs --source reddit" }

Evaluation checklist:

  • tl;dr present at top (if over 500 words)
  • Matches target subreddit culture (r/MachineLearning = rigorous, data-first)
  • Contains specific numbers/data (not vague claims)
  • Personal experience anchors the post
  • No promotional language or self-promotion in title
  • No hashtags or emojis
  • Markdown headers structure the content
  • Code blocks have language tags (if code present)
  • Closing invites discussion without being needy
  • British English (realise, optimise)

7.3 Edit to World-Class Quality

If the content needs refinement, edit directly in the filesystem, then re-ingest:

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core content ingest services/content/reddit --source reddit --override" }

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core content show production-ai-real-costs --source reddit" }

Refinement focus areas:

  • Strengthen the tl;dr - it must capture the key insight
  • Ensure data is specific and credible (exact numbers, not "roughly" or "about")
  • Check subreddit tone match (r/LocalLLaMA wants cost obsession, r/ExperiencedDevs wants career wisdom)
  • Remove any hint of promotion or marketing speak
  • Add specific details: dates, versions, tools used
  • Verify the closing feels like a community member, not a marketer

7.4 Final Verification

// MCP: systemprompt_cli
{ "command": "core content verify production-ai-real-costs --source reddit --base-url https://tyingshoelaces.com" }

Content is ONLY complete when:

  1. Exists in database (core content show succeeds)
  2. Exists on filesystem (services/content/reddit/[slug]/index.md exists)
  3. Frontmatter is valid YAML with all required fields
  4. Matches target subreddit culture
  5. Contains specific, credible evidence
  6. No promotional elements
  7. Published and accessible on site

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Agent not responding Check with { "command": "infra services status" }
Content not created Verify with { "command": "core content search \"[slug]\"" }. Agent may claim success falsely.
Agent says "created" but content doesn't exist Create a NEW context and try again. Context contamination is the most common cause.
Research artifact not found Create a NEW context. The old context has conflicting artifacts.
Agent uses wrong research_id Create a NEW context. Multiple research artifacts are confusing the agent.
Agent hallucinates Content ID Create a NEW context. Agent is referencing artifacts from previous sessions.
Post feels promotional Rewrite to lead with value. Remove all links except one at the end.
"Keywords cannot be empty" error Include keywords array in content_create message
Context lost between messages Always use --context-id "$CONTEXT_ID" for every message
Wrong subreddit tone Be explicit: "Match r/LocalLLaMA tone: cost-obsessed, anti-cloud"

See the Session Playbook and Contexts Playbook for context contamination symptoms and solutions. The fix is always: create a NEW context and start fresh.

Community-First Principles

Reddit content must provide value first. The community can smell promotion instantly.

DO:

  • Lead with the insight, not the product
  • Share real numbers from real experience
  • Admit failures and what you learned
  • Respond to comments genuinely
  • Ask the community for their experience

DON'T:

  • Put your site/product in the title
  • Write like a blog post (tl;dr comes FIRST on Reddit)
  • Use marketing language ("revolutionary", "game-changing")
  • Post and disappear
  • Cross-post the same content everywhere