glanceapp/glance · error

subreddit is required

Error message

subreddit is required

What it means

Thrown by the reddit widget's initialize() when subreddit is empty. The subreddit name drives both the widget title ('r/<name>') and the request URL used to fetch posts, so it is the one required field; sort-by and top-period get defaults instead of erroring.

Solutions

1. Set subreddit: to a single community name without the r/ prefix, e.g. subreddit: selfhosted
2. For multiple communities, add one reddit widget per subreddit
3. Verify the key is spelled 'subreddit' and top-level within the widget

Example fix

# before
- type: reddit
  sort-by: top

# after
- type: reddit
  subreddit: selfhosted
  sort-by: top

if w['type'] == 'reddit' and not w.get('subreddit'):
    raise ValueError('reddit widget requires subreddit')

When it happens

Trigger: A widget of type: reddit with no subreddit key; subreddit misspelled (sub-reddit:, sub:); an empty value from a templated/generated config.

Common situations: Copy-pasting the reddit widget example and forgetting to fill in the subreddit; multi-subreddit users expecting a list (only a single name is supported here).

Related errors

• application name, client ID and client secret are required
• no ` ` placeholder specified
• could not umarshal repository into string or struct
• hour-format must be either 12h or 24h
• invalid duration format

AI-assisted analysis of glanceapp/glance@91324e8de7 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1251fbe0d7375d89. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/glance/widget-reddit.go:58

	CommentsURLTemplate string            `yaml:"comments-url-template"`
	Limit               int               `yaml:"limit"`
	CollapseAfter       int               `yaml:"collapse-after"`
	RequestURLTemplate  string            `yaml:"request-url-template"`

	AppAuth struct {
		Name   string `yaml:"name"`
		ID     string `yaml:"id"`
		Secret string `yaml:"secret"`

		enabled        bool
		accessToken    string
		tokenExpiresAt time.Time
	} `yaml:"app-auth"`
}

func (widget *redditWidget) initialize() error {
	if widget.Subreddit == "" {
		return errors.New("subreddit is required")
	}

	if widget.Limit <= 0 {
		widget.Limit = 15
	}

	if widget.CollapseAfter == 0 || widget.CollapseAfter < -1 {
		widget.CollapseAfter = 5
	}

	s := widget.SortBy
	if s != "hot" && s != "new" && s != "top" && s != "rising" {
		widget.SortBy = "hot"
	}

	p := widget.TopPeriod
	if p != "hour" && p != "day" && p != "week" && p != "month" && p != "year" && p != "all" {
		widget.TopPeriod = "day"

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