ModSignal

A centralized workspace for moderators to review, prioritize, classify, coordinate, and resolve queue items

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Inspiration

A few months ago, I started creating content on Reddit and running two small subreddits. While looking for tips on how to manage communities better, I came across a subreddit called r/needamod.

Inside, I found a lot of community owners looking for extra moderators because their communities had become difficult to manage. Some were dealing with repetitive spam, some had posts being wrongly removed by bots, and others had members complaining about moderation decisions.

After reading through a number of those posts, it felt like most people were dealing with the same kind of problem in different ways: moderation gets harder as the community grows, but fully automated moderation can also make mistakes and frustrate users.

When I saw the post for this Hackathon, it reminded me of that idea and that made me think: what if a tool could do part of what a bot does, but still keep the final decision in the hands of a moderator? Something that helps the mod move faster, but does not take control away from them.

That idea became ModSignal.

What it does

ModSignal is a moderation tool that helps moderators review reported posts with more context.

When a post is reported, ModSignal analyzes the post, looks at the content, tone, and available context, and gives the moderator a suggested next action. It can also take the user’s history into account, so the moderator is not only judging a post in isolation.

The goal is not to replace moderators. The goal is to help them make faster and more consistent decisions while still staying fully in control.

A moderator can review the signal, check the context, and then decide whether to approve, remove, escalate, or ignore the report.

How I built it

ModSignal is built on Devvit, using the React template with a Vite frontend and a lightweight Hono server.

The frontend provides the moderation workspace where moderators can review reported items, see the suggested action, and take moderation decisions. The server handles the logic for fetching moderation data, checking access, storing workflow state, and running the post review process.

For post analysis and action suggestions, I used Gemini 2.5 Flash. For the current version of the project, the task is still fairly focused, so Gemini has been enough to handle the review flow properly. In the future, I may test other models like Claude or OpenAI models if I need better reasoning quality, stronger consistency, or more advanced moderation workflows.

I also used Redis to store moderation workflow state, such as decisions, escalations, and resolved items. This makes the app feel less like a temporary UI and more like a real moderation workspace where actions can be tracked.

Challenges I ran into

The first and biggest challenge was simply getting the app to run correctly.

In my initial Devvit project, the server could not be reached whenever I tried to perform an action. Even a simple Reddit read test failed with this error:

Error: undefined undefined: undefined
at RedditClient.getSubredditInfoByName

I spent a lot of time debugging it with different AI agents, checking forums, updating packages, simplifying my devvit.json, and stripping the app down to the smallest possible test case. Nothing worked.

Eventually, I created a new Devvit project from scratch, tested the same kind of read action there, and it worked. So I moved the app into the new working project step by step. I still do not know exactly what was wrong with the first project, but it looked like something in that initial setup had become broken or corrupted.

The second challenge was authorization. At one point, I realized that anyone could access the app, even if they were not a moderator of the subreddit. That obviously would not work for a moderation tool, so I added middleware to check whether the current user is actually a moderator before allowing access to the workspace.

The third challenge was testing with real moderators. Since the idea originally came from r/needamod, I tried reaching out to some moderators and community owners there to see if they could test the app and give feedback. Some did not respond, and a few who did respond asked for financial compensation, which I was not able to provide for this project.

So for now, I tested the app myself using a test subreddit and tried to simulate the kinds of moderation situations the tool is meant to help with.

Accomplishments that I’m proud of

I am proud that I was able to turn a real moderation problem into a working Devvit app.

The biggest accomplishment for me is that ModSignal is not just a static demo. It connects to real Reddit moderation flows, checks moderator access, reviews reported content, stores workflow state, and lets moderators take action from one workspace.

I am also proud of how the project evolved after the first setup failed. Instead of getting stuck on the broken project, I restarted from a clean Devvit app and migrated the features step by step. That made the final project much more stable and also helped me understand the Devvit structure better.

Another thing I am proud of is the product direction. I wanted ModSignal to feel like a tool that supports moderators, not something that replaces them. The final decision still belongs to the mod, and the app is mainly there to give them context, structure, and a faster review flow.

What I learned

I learned a lot about building apps inside Reddit with Devvit.

Before this project, I had not worked deeply with the Devvit app structure, custom posts, the server runtime, or Reddit moderation actions. Building ModSignal helped me understand how a Devvit app is organized, how the frontend and server communicate, and how moderation tools can be built directly inside Reddit.

I also learned that moderation tools need to be designed very carefully. Speed is useful, but trust matters more. If a tool makes decisions feel hidden, too automatic, or too hard to understand, moderators may not want to rely on it.

This project also reminded me how important incremental testing is. When the first project failed, trying to fix everything at once made debugging harder. Starting from a working app and adding features one by one made it much easier to isolate problems.

What’s next for ModSignal

The next step for ModSignal is to make the review flow more useful and more complete for real moderators.

Some improvements I would like to add next are:

  • Better filtering and sorting for reported items
  • More detailed user history
  • Better thread and conversation context
  • Internal notes for moderators
  • A clearer escalation workflow
  • Better tracking of previous decisions
  • Queue health summaries
  • More testing with real moderators
  • Better customization for different subreddit rules

I would also like to make the suggestion system more configurable, because every subreddit has different rules and different moderation styles. A signal that works for one community may not be enough for another.

Long term, I want ModSignal to become a calm, practical moderation workspace that helps moderators move through reports faster without taking control away from them.

Project Impact

ModSignal would be useful for:

  • r/epistemology
    Many posts in this community seem not to be up the quality standards as reported by the owner in 'r/needamod'. ModSignal could help this community handle quality while keeping the final decision with the moderator.

  • r/HistorySnap
    The community owner reported in 'r/needamod' that they need help with moderation since the community is growing way too fast and it's hard for them to keep up. ModSignal can help moderators review reported posts faster and keep better track of decisions.

The main benefit is time savings for moderators. Instead of jumping between different pieces of context, moderators can review the signal, check the item, and take action from one place.

Project Participant

  • u/Charming-King-5304

Testing Instructions

Open the Reddit testing link and launch Mod Signal from the app post.

For hackathon judging, Mod Signal has public preview access enabled. This allows non-moderator users to enter the workspace and view the live moderation flow without receiving moderation permissions.

A banner appears for non-moderator users explaining that public preview is read-only.

Because Mod Signal works with real moderation data and real moderation actions, non-moderator users cannot take live actions such as Keep, Remove, Ask another mod, changing review status, running item checks, or changing settings.

Moderators of the test subreddit can access the full workflow, including:

  • Reviewing reported or queued items
  • Viewing the moderation signal
  • Keeping/approving an item
  • Removing an item
  • Asking another moderator to review an item
  • Showing or hiding resolved items
  • Updating review settings when they have the right permissions

Non-moderator users can open the workspace, inspect real queue items, switch filters, select items, view the signal, view user history, and understand the review flow, but they cannot change live moderation state.

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