Wednesday, Jul 22, 2026
shippedTime-window controls and edge-case hardening across the analysis suite
Recoordinate shipped 13 commits to reddit-growth-mcp, adding configurable time windows to pattern analysis, fixing CLI parsing and data-handling edge cases, and refreshing the documentation with current screenshots.
The day split across four threads: documentation, user-facing features, debug passes, and operational polish.
Documentation opened with a refresh [1] [2]: the four older demo images were replaced with two current screenshots showing the new ASCII logo and gum TUI, and the hero section switched from an animated GIF to a static plan screenshot to load faster and display consistently. The README itself was tidied [5] to reflect the new launcher interface, fold redundant sections, and note that --time now works across multiple commands. A zsh-specific gotcha was documented [13]: the shell caches command locations at startup, so 'reddit-growth' isn't found immediately after activating the venv until 'rehash' is called.
The user-facing feature work added time-window controls. A menu picker was built [3] for the deep-analysis flow, appearing after subreddit selection, with hints that shorter windows trade sample size for freshness. That picker was then wired into the CLI itself [4]: the --time flag (day/week/month/year/all) was exposed on plan, draft, fit, and report commands, letting users trade freshness for sample size in any time-based analysis. A new preset was also added [6] for r/InternetIsBeautiful, a high-reach subreddit with strict moderation that Recoordinate identified as "a textbook case for the tool: analyze before posting so a viral-worthy submission doesn't get auto-removed" [6].
The analysis layer received a polish pass. Plan output now includes a content-style hint [8] inferred from winning flair and keywords; "Format: image" now reads "Format: image → memes / humor" (or news, showcases, questions, articles), so the recipe says what kind of post to make, not just the media type. Draft predictions were tested [7] against three edge cases: a ~40-upvote projection caps at "strong" (not viral), empty titles don't crash the predictor, and evaluate_draft_across([]) returns an empty result.
Three debug passes caught and fixed real issues. The first [9] surfaced that --json only parsed as a global flag before the subcommand, so the documented `plan mcp --json` errored; it was moved to a shared parent parser to work as a trailing flag on every command, and the plan command was taught to honor --json (it was --md-only). The second pass [10] found that --type accepted any string silently (e.g. `--type banana`), duplicate subreddits were profiled repeatedly, and time_filter had hardening gaps. The third [11] made sub de-dupe case-insensitive (r/MCP == r/mcp), dropped a reliability floor that wrongly flagged legitimate ratio metrics, restored 'gallery' as a valid --type choice, and added guards on optional model fields.
Scripts were refactored [12] for portability and reuse: a new lib.sh exposes shared helpers that resolve the repo root without hardcoded paths, demo.sh consolidates all commands into one window, and win/{compare,plan,draft,patterns}.sh provide thin launchers (one clean window per command, reliable under Ghostty's -e flag).
Sources
- docs: refresh Demo screenshots with the new TUI (plan + compare) · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- docs: use a static plan screenshot as the hero instead of the GIF · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- feat(menu): time-window picker for patterns (today/week/month/year/all) · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- feat: --time window for plan/draft/fit/report + menu window picker · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- docs: tidy the README · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- polish(menu): add r/InternetIsBeautiful preset (#42) · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- test: lock in draft edge cases (moderate-reach cap, empty title, empty fit) · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- feat(plan): add a content-style hint to the viral recipe format · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- fix: --json as trailing flag on every command + two output-accuracy bugs · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- fix: reject invalid --type, de-dupe subs, harden time_filter + 2 data bugs · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- fix: case-insensitive sub de-dupe, ratio-metric reliability, gallery type + 4 MCP-boundary guards · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- chore(scripts): portable, DRY demo/screenshot scripts · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp
- docs: note the zsh 'command not found' fix after activating the venv · latent-9/reddit-growth-mcp