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Get started with Reddit AutoModerator safely

Moderator guide · Updated Nov 6, 2026 · about 3 minutes to read

Open the config wiki, know the new-community enforcement limit, add a separated rule, and revert from history if needed.

SubMouse Editorial guide — independent and not affiliated with Reddit. Steps cite public Reddit Help pages; menu labels can change.

What AutoModerator is — and is not

AutoModerator is Reddit’s built-in rule engine: checks plus actions applied automatically to new posts, comments, reports or edits in your community. Help lists strengths such as keyword/domain handling, helpful AutoMod comments, filtering for review, and limits such as no duplicate detection, no action on old content, no delayed actions, and no reacting to karma or user history.

You do not need to manually add u/AutoModerator for ordinary Automod rules. Help states that account is auto-added when you schedule posts to publish as Automod.

New communities and enforcement actions

Critical Help note (updated 2026-10-08): for newly created communities, or communities where Automod has never been used, enforcement actions Report, Filter, Remove, Mark as spam, and Approve are not available in Automod. Use Reddit’s Rules and Automation mod tools instead for those jobs.

If your community is in that state, do not paste remove-heavy configs from old tutorials and expect them to fire. Prefer Rules/Automation for enforcement, and keep Automod for comment replies or other still-supported behaviors your tooling exposes — or wait until Automod enforcement is available for your community.

Open or create the config page

Setup is desktop-only per Help (not in the Reddit app; mobile browser desktop mode is the documented workaround).

  1. Mod Tools → Moderation → Automod.
  2. If you see that config/automoderator doesn’t exist, click Create Page.
  3. If it exists, use the edit control to change rules.
  4. Old Reddit path documented by Help: /r/YOURNAME/wiki/config/automoderator then Create page if needed.

Permissions: Help ties Automod editing to config/settings plus wiki permissions (Manage Settings access to Automod when paired with Manage Wiki Pages).

Rule shape and a minimal example

Help’s basic-rules article: separate rules with a line that is exactly three hyphens (---). Removal-capable rules are checked first. By default, removal/report rules skip moderators’ own posts unless you override that.

Minimal example from Help (title contains “disallowed” → remove) — only use remove-class actions if your community still has Automod enforcement available:

  • title: disallowed
  • action: remove
  • Then a --- line before the next rule.

Start with one narrow rule, save, and watch Mod Queue / logs before stacking dozens of patterns.

Revert from version history

  1. Mod Tools → Automod → Version History (or the history tab on the wiki page).
  2. Find the prior good edit → Restore / revert.

To stop Automod entirely, Help says delete the page contents and save; history still holds prior versions.

Safe rollout checklist

  • Confirm whether remove/filter/report/approve actions are available for this community.
  • If not, use Rules and Automation for enforcement instead of copy-pasting remove rules.
  • Edit on desktop; keep a teammate watching the queue for an hour after save.
  • One new rule at a time; know how to Restore history.
  • Document why the rule exists in a private mod note or team doc.

Related on SubMouse

  • Clearing filtered items Automod sends you → guide Reddit mod queue workflow.
  • Human-readable rules that Automod should mirror → guide Writing subreddit rules.
  • Scheduling posts as Automod → guide Schedule and recur posts.

More on SubMouse

Reddit Help sources