michael-lazar/rtv

★ 4,647PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((RTV))
    What it does
      Browse Reddit in terminal
      Read and write comments
      Vote on posts
    Navigation
      Arrow keys
      Vim-style keys
      Subreddit path prompts
    Customization
      Color themes
      Mailcap for media
      Config file in home dir
    Status
      Archived project
      No longer maintained
      Alternatives listed

mindmap root((RTV)) What it does Browse Reddit in terminal Read and write comments Vote on posts Navigation Arrow keys Vim-style keys Subreddit path prompts Customization Color themes Mailcap for media Config file in home dir Status Archived project No longer maintained Alternatives listed

Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Browse Reddit subreddits and read comment threads directly in a terminal without opening a browser.

USE CASE 2

Tech stack

Python

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Project is archived and no longer maintained, Reddit API changes may have broken functionality.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

Reddit Terminal Viewer, known as RTV, was a text-based application for browsing and interacting with Reddit directly inside a terminal window. It rendered the Reddit interface using the terminal's character display, letting users scroll through posts, read comment threads, log in, vote, and write replies without a web browser. The project is no longer actively maintained and the developer has formally shut it down. When it was active, RTV was available through pip, Homebrew on macOS, the Arch Linux package manager, Nix, Debian, and FreeBSD. It could also be tried over the network without installing anything, by connecting to a demonstration server via telnet or SSH. Navigation used either arrow keys or Vim-style movement keys. Users could browse front pages, specific subreddits, multi-reddits, user profile pages, and domain-filtered feeds by typing paths into a navigation prompt. The keyboard shortcut reference is documented in a separate CONTROLS file in the repository. RTV supported themes for changing the color scheme, including prebuilt options like Solarized Dark and Papercolor. Configuration lived in a file stored in the home directory. Media links such as images and videos could be opened by configuring a mailcap file, which maps file types to specific programs on your system. Environment variables let users choose which editor opens for composing posts, which browser handles external links, and which tool extracts URLs from text blocks. Clipboard support on Linux required either xsel or xclip. The codebase is written in Python and distributed under the MIT license. The repository and controls reference remain publicly available, and the developer posted a gist listing alternative projects for those looking for a maintained replacement.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using RTV, how do I navigate to a specific subreddit and open a post to read its comments using keyboard shortcuts?

Prompt 2

How do I configure a mailcap file in RTV to open image links from Reddit posts in a local image viewer?

Prompt 3

Set up RTV with the Solarized Dark theme and configure it to open external links in a specific browser.

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