Use refresh tokens with PRAW

Introduction

This is intended for users who already have a basic understanding of PRAW and want to switch from hard coding the username and password into their code to using a refresh token. This was written using PRAW version 6.1.1 and Python 3.7.1. To let you in on a secret, I initially wrote for myself so I don’t forget how I did it.

Create an app

Create an application through preferences with a title and description, the about URL can be left blank. Choose “script” for the type and enter the redirect URI https://127.0.0.1:65010/authorize_callback.

If this is your first time creating a bot, make sure you have read the API usage guidelines..

Get the authentication URL

In a new python file add the client id and secret along with the user agent and set the redirect URL to https://127.0.0.1:65010/authorize_callback. Next make a request for the authentication URL, with all the releveant scopes. The duration here is set to permanent so that we do not need to reauthenticate.

import praw
from uuid import uuid4

reddit = praw.Reddit(client_id='',
                    client_secret='',
                    user_agent='',
                    redirect_uri='https://127.0.0.1:65010/authorize_callback')

state_end = str(uuid4())
authlink = reddit.auth.url(['submit'], state_end, duration='permanent')
print(state_end)
print(authlink)

The authentication url will be printed.

Open the authentication URL in a browser and login in using the account you wish to use for the bot. This does not need to be the same account you used to create the API credentials.

After signing in, give permission.

Refresh token

Now you will be redirected to a page that is not available, do not fret! Copy the code parameter from the URL ( the bit after &code=).

Using this code, we need to authorize in order to get our refresh token.

print(reddit.auth.authorize('ENTER CODE HERE'))

What is printed out is our refresh token.

Update Reddit instance

Finally, we can put this fresh token to use.

reddit = praw.Reddit(client_id='',
                    client_secret='',
                    user_agent='',
                    refresh_token='',
                    redirect_uri='https://127.0.0.1:70000')

Since we only gave submit permissions, I am going to print out the scope and then submit a post to /r/test.

print(reddit.auth.scopes())
reddit.subreddit('test').submit(str("testing, 123"), url='http://google.com')

Introduction

Create an app

Get the authentication URL

Login

Refresh token

Update Reddit instance

Further reading