Skip to content

Reddit Explorer

Field Value
ID reddit-explorer
Status active
Host infra-services
Port 8765 (Traefik network only)
URL https://reddit-explorer.infra.realemail.app
Backup Tier-1 PostgreSQL; tier-3 on-premises NFS media
Inventory inventory/services/reddit-explorer.yaml

Overview

Reddit Explorer is the always-on media review and archive workspace. Komodo builds it from spadoople/reddit_explorer at /opt/reddit-explorer; PostgreSQL remains on the existing LXC and media state remains on a dedicated Whrrr NFS export. Finished zip parts move to /volume9/Prawns/4. Reddit/_reddit-explorer, mounted into the web container as /library.

The web container stays a single Traefik replica. Gallery stills and measurements run in a second container, reddit-explorer-media-worker (REDDIT_EXPLORER_ROLE=gallery-media python server.py). It uses the same image and compose.env. Its /data mount is the same NFS export (/mnt/whrrr-reddit-explorer) read-only with rslave. It has no Traefik labels and does not listen on 8765. The role is an environment variable because --worker is a prefix of --workers and argparse would parse gallery-media as the enrichment-worker count. Deploy this worker only after the app image reads REDDIT_EXPLORER_ROLE. Until then the web process does that work in-process, and this container's healthcheck stays unhealthy because the heartbeat row is missing.

Gallery stills live on the local named volume reddit-explorer-stills, mounted at /stills in the web container and the worker. REDDIT_EXPLORER_GALLERY_STILLS_DIR=/stills is set on both. REDDIT_EXPLORER_GALLERY_MEDIA_WORKER=external is set on the web container only, so it does not run a second in-process worker. A one-shot reddit-explorer-stills-init container chowns /stills to 10001:10001 before either service starts, then exits 0. Komodo ignores that service (ignore_services on the reddit-explorer stack) so the exit does not mark the stack unhealthy. Stills are regeneratable and stay on the Docker host's local disk, not on the NFS media export.

The worker records liveness in two places, refreshed at least every 60 seconds:

  • app_settings key gallery_media_worker_heartbeat. updated_at is unix seconds (value may repeat that timestamp). GET /api/health on the web container reports the age of this row.
  • /stills/.heartbeat, a small file on the stills volume. Its contents are the same unix-second timestamp, and its mtime moves with each refresh.

The worker container healthcheck reads the app_settings row with psycopg and REDDIT_EXPLORER_DATABASE_URL, the same pattern as the Order Ledger bot heartbeat. It fails when the row is missing or older than 180 seconds. It does not probe port 8765. The image's own healthcheck does probe that port; compose replaces it for this service.

Property jobs (subreddit and user scans) run in a third container, reddit-explorer-property-worker (REDDIT_EXPLORER_ROLE=property-worker python server.py). Running them in the web process starved interactive requests while a job was active. The worker uses the same image, compose.env, user, and restart policy as the web container. It mounts the same /data and /library NFS binds read-write with rslave. It joins traefik only for egress to Reddit and PostgreSQL, has no labels, and does not listen on 8765. REDDIT_EXPLORER_PROPERTY_JOBS=external on the web container stops it from restoring or running jobs itself. The web still accepts start, pause, resume, and cancel and records them in PostgreSQL, where the worker picks them up.

The property worker refreshes app_settings key property_worker_heartbeat every 15 seconds (updated_at in unix seconds). Its healthcheck uses the same psycopg pattern as the media worker and fails when the row is missing or older than 120 seconds. Deploy it only after the app image knows the property-worker role. An older image would not run jobs in either container.

The route is LAN/Tailscale-only and has a temporary, explicit ADR-002 exception from Authentik. It has no host port and must not receive a public Cloudflare record.

NFS tuning

/data and /library are separate Whrrr exports (/volume6 and /volume9), so a file moved between them crosses infra-services twice. The whrrr-reddit-explorer role tunes both mounts:

  • read_ahead_kb is raised to 16 MB on every pull. The kernel default of 128 KB held one read stream to 15-27 MB/s. 16 MB measured 66 MB/s on 2026-10-22, with load near 40 on infra-services.
  • nconnect=4 spreads NFS traffic over four TCP connections. It applies only to a fresh mount, so it takes effect after a reboot or after both Whrrr mounts are unmounted together.

To remount without a reboot, first stop every container that holds the binds, or the unmount reports the target busy:

docker stop reddit-explorer reddit-explorer-media-worker reddit-explorer-property-worker

Then remount with --tags reddit-explorer,nfs, recreate komodo-periphery, and redeploy with the deploy-reddit-explorer Procedure.

Reddit Explorer builds 20261022.4 and later write zip parts into /library/.reddit-explorer-staging, so Move to library is a rename instead of a copy through this host.

Operations

The complete deployment, prerequisite, SOPS, backup, restoration, cookie secret, smoke-test, and troubleshooting procedures are in the service README.