ThreadScout

Detect, review, and manage duplicate discussions with AI.

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ThreadScout

Inspiration

ThreadScout was inspired by browsing discussion-heavy communities like r/SecretsofMormonWives, where moderators spend significant time removing duplicate discussions and redirecting users to the appropriate thread whenever a new episode airs or major news breaks.

I wanted to create a moderation tool that could help reduce repetitive discussions without disrupting Reddit’s existing workflows or forcing moderators into an entirely separate system.

What It Does

ThreadScout is an AI-assisted Reddit moderation tool that detects and manages duplicate posts.

The app combines semantic similarity, keyword overlap, and AI verification to identify likely duplicate discussions while reducing false positives. When a potential duplicate is detected, moderators can review the match inside a responsive dashboard and choose actions such as ignoring the case, redirecting users to an existing discussion, or removing duplicate posts.

ThreadScout also includes post-level moderator menu actions, configurable sensitivity settings, adjustable lookback windows, confidence scoring, search functionality, and responsive desktop/tablet/mobile layouts with light and dark mode support.

How I Built It

ThreadScout was built using Devvit, TypeScript, React, Hono, Redis, and the OpenAI API.

Duplicate detection combines semantic similarity embeddings with keyword overlap scoring to identify likely duplicate discussions. I later added an AI verification layer after QA testing revealed that semantic overlap alone was not always enough to determine whether two posts were truly duplicates.

Redis is used for persistence, indexing, caching, and storing moderation cases. The frontend dashboard was designed to support responsive moderation workflows across desktop, tablet, and mobile breakpoints.

Challenges I Ran Into

One of the biggest challenges was learning the Devvit ecosystem while simultaneously building a production-style moderation tool. Early development involved:

  • Debugging platform permissions
  • Redis issues during playtesting
  • Reddit API write actions failing during trigger routes

Another challenge was balancing semantic similarity with moderator trust. During testing, some semantically similar posts were incorrectly flagged as duplicates even though they discussed different topics. This led to the addition of an AI verification layer that now acts as a guardrail before a duplicate case is saved or actioned.

I also had to rethink parts of the UX to better align with Reddit’s existing moderation workflows rather than trying to build an entirely separate platform experience.

Accomplishments That I'm Proud Of

  • Building a fully responsive moderation dashboard with desktop, tablet, and mobile layouts
  • Supporting both light mode and dark mode
  • Adding AI verification guardrails to reduce false positives
  • Creating post-level moderation actions that integrate naturally into Reddit workflows
  • Building a polished moderation experience that prioritizes moderator review rather than aggressive automation

What I Learned

This was my first time building an application on Reddit’s Developer Platform, so there was a significant learning curve around Devvit architecture, permissions, triggers, and moderation tooling.

I also learned how important it is to design moderation tools around existing moderator behavior instead of trying to force entirely new workflows. Working within Reddit’s ecosystem required creativity and careful UX decisions to make the tool feel lightweight, fast, and trustworthy.

What's Next for ThreadScout

Future iterations of ThreadScout could support moderator-defined megathread routing, allowing communities to redirect high-volume discussions toward official centralized threads during breaking news, live events, or episode premieres.

I’d also like to continue improving duplicate detection quality, moderation tooling, and scalability for larger communities.

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