Greenlight

Inspiration

What it does

How we built it## Inspiration

Some Reddit posts are not spam, but they should not go live until moderators verify context. Research surveys, AMAs, vendor posts, fundraisers, and marketplace posts often need the same manual loop: remove the post, ask questions in modmail, wait for answers, approve the post, and apply the right flair.

Greenlight turns that repeated moderation pattern into a configurable workflow.

What it does

Greenlight lets moderators choose a trigger flair, write custom verification questions, and choose a verified flair.

When a user submits a post with the trigger flair, Greenlight holds the post and sends the author a structured modmail questionnaire. Moderators review the response in normal modmail, then click Greenlight Post from the post action menu. Greenlight approves the post, applies the verified flair, updates its status, and can send a confirmation reply.

How we built it

Greenlight is built as a Devvit moderation app using Reddit-native surfaces: post flair, modmail, Mod Queue, and moderator post actions. The app stores verification records in Redis so actions are idempotent and repeat clicks do not duplicate work.

The workflow is intentionally generic. Research verification is the default preset, but the same system works for AMAs, vendors, fundraisers, marketplace posts, or any subreddit-specific review flow by changing app settings.

Challenges

The main challenge was making the workflow reliable without adding a custom dashboard. We needed to preserve the way moderators already work while still handling edge cases like duplicate trigger events, repeated approval clicks, missing flair templates, and settings changes while a post is pending.

What we learned

We learned that Reddit’s native moderation primitives are enough to build a useful verification workflow when they are connected carefully. Flair can start the process, modmail can collect the context, and a post action can provide the final approval step.

What’s next

Future versions could support multiple active workflows per subreddit, reusable question presets, optional rejection flows, analytics for review volume, and a lightweight review dashboard for teams that want more visibility.

Challenges we ran into

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

What's next for Greenlight

Built With

• devvit
• eslint
• hono
• node.js
• reddit
• redis
• typescript
• vite