Firewatch: Incident Room for Reddit Mods

Firewatch turns heated threads into one mod queue: reports, risky comments, and watched links with clear reasons, claim-based ownership, fast Reddit actions, automations, and handoff notes.

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Firewatch is a moderator-only Devvit Web app that helps mod teams handle thread-level incidents (not just individual reports). When a post starts heating up, Firewatch turns scattered signals into a shared incident room so moderators can triage faster, coordinate ownership, and keep the cleanup trail in one place.

What it does

  • Creates a shared Firewatch board for a subreddit

    • Firewatch creates (or reuses) a single “board” post that moderators open from the subreddit menu. This is the home for the queue and incident workspace.

  • Queues incidents from real Reddit signals

    • Firewatch can add a post to the queue when:
    • A moderator uses Send to Firewatch from the post menu.
    • Reddit triggers fire for reports, AutoModerator filters, new comments, post updates, and mod actions.
    • Configured watched words or watched domains are detected.

  • Explains why a thread needs attention

    • Each incident includes a simple 0–5 attention rating and plain-English reasons and evidence (reports, watched-word/domain hits, activity bursts, repeated wording, reply clusters, and recent activity).

  • Coordinates work with claim-based ownership

    • A moderator can claim an incident. The claim makes ownership visible to the team and prevents conflicting actions by requiring the claimant to execute actions through Firewatch.

  • Keeps Reddit-native actions close to the evidence

    • From the incident room, moderators can use permission-gated actions such as:
    • Post actions (approve/remove/spam, lock/unlock, mark NSFW/spoiler, ignore reports, crowd control, set/clear flair)
    • Comment actions (approve/remove/spam, lock/unlock, ignore reports, show comment, remove threads)
    • User actions (mute, approve, add mod notes, remove recent user content, ban workflows)

  • Supports transparent Automations / Response Rules

    • Firewatch includes configurable rules that can:
    • Suggest actions
    • Prepare actions for moderator approval
    • Run selected actions when explicitly enabled (with logs for what matched, what ran, and what was skipped)

  • Playtest safely with demo incidents

    • Firewatch can seed demo incidents with realistic activity so mods can test workflow without manufacturing harmful content.

  • Respects data lifecycle

    • Firewatch stores only moderation workflow data needed for the installed community and removes stored content when Reddit sends delete triggers.

How moderators use it (typical flow)

  1. Install Firewatch in a subreddit you moderate.
  2. Open the subreddit menu → Open Firewatch to view the queue.
  3. Tune watched words/domains, thresholds, enabled action controls, and automation rules in Firewatch settings.
  4. Let Firewatch queue incidents from triggers, or manually send a post via Send to Firewatch.
  5. Open an incident to see the score, reasons, evidence, flagged comments/users, and suggested/prepared actions.
  6. Claim the incident and take action (or run prepared actions) while your team sees ownership and progress.
  7. Save handoff/final notes and mark resolved when the incident is done.

Project Impact

Firewatch reduces moderator coordination overhead during high-activity incidents. Instead of scattered reports, disconnected mod actions, and repeated review work, moderators get a structured incident-response workflow with shared context, transparent automations, and Reddit-native moderation actions in one place.

Communities that would benefit

  • r/politics

    • During breaking-news events and contentious discussions, report spikes and rapid comment growth can overwhelm mod queues.
    • Firewatch helps centralize thread-level context, coordinate cleanup without duplicating work, claim ownership of incidents, and keep an auditable moderation trail while discussions evolve in real time.

  • r/CryptoCurrency

    • Moderators regularly face scams, suspicious domains, coordinated promotion, reposted narratives, and manipulative engagement patterns.
    • Firewatch’s watched-domain detection, repeated-wording analysis, report aggregation, and automation workflows help identify coordinated behavior faster and cut time spent manually tracing activity across large threads.

  • r/programming

    • Topic floods, controversial debates, and repetitive discussion waves can create moderation fatigue and derail discussion quality.
    • Firewatch provides a shared incident workspace with visible automations, thread claiming, handoff notes, and centralized review tools so teams can respond consistently while reducing context switching.

Open source

Firewatch is open source under the MIT License. The project is built for the community to use, fork, and enhance to match different moderation needs.

  • Repository: https://github.com/takitajwar17/firewatch

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