Query proof

Find the first use of a phrase on Reddit with SQL

A Scry query pattern for locating the earliest occurrences of a phrase in a subreddit, with author, timestamp, score, and the full comment row attached.

Answer shape

Scry scopes the subreddit first, matches indexed lowercase tokens second, and returns the earliest matching comments as inspectable source rows.

Sources

  • Reddit

Methods

  • source-native SQL
  • token-indexed lexical search
  • chronological ordering

SQL

Run this through POST /v1/scry/query after inspecting GET /v1/scry/schema for current live fields.

SELECT id, subreddit, author, created_utc, score, body
FROM reddit.comments
WHERE subreddit = 'Physics'
  AND hasAllTokens(search_text_lc, ['room', 'temperature', 'superconductor'])
ORDER BY created_utc ASC
LIMIT 50;

Verification notes

  • NoteUses public Reddit comment IDs, subreddits, authors, timestamps, and scores.
  • NotehasAllTokens matches the indexed lowercase text, so the scan stays bounded.
  • NoteThe earliest observed row is evidence from this corpus, not a final authorship claim.

Related sources