Bot
A bot (short for software robot) is an automated software program used to perform certain repetitive tasks on a wiki. Bots typically require approval to operate, and are occasionally used by vandals to cause extensive damage to a wiki's content in a short period of time.
Local and global bots
[edit]On Wikimedia wikis, most bots are active on just one or a few wikis, and are subject to the approval of that wiki's community (see local bot policy). Approved bots are added to the local “Bots” user group. The list of all accounts which are bots on any particular wiki is shown at Special:ListUsers/bot.
Bots which can operate on every Wikimedia wiki may be approved as global bots (see global bot policy). Bots approved this way are added to the “Global bots” global user group. The list of them is shown at Special:GlobalUsers/global-bot.
Local and global bots alike are granted the “bot” user right (this is sometimes called a “bot flag”), which permits them higher rate limits for MediaWiki actions such as editing pages, and allows their edits to not show up in recent changes by default.
Additionally, they are both exempt from some rate limits applied to web scrapers running against Wikimedia sites (see Wikimedia robot policy). As these exemptions can only be applied to global groups, a “Local bots” global group exists, which is automatically synchronized with the local bot groups on every wiki.
Running your own bot
[edit]See Manual:Creating a bot on mediawiki.org for full instructions.
- Using Pywikibot
- English Wikipedia bot policy
- Steward requests/Bot status — to request an account be marked with a bot flag (for wikis without any active bureaucrat)
- Setting bot access — information for people running their own MediaWiki installation. Can be changed at Special:UserRights
- wikitech:Help:Toolforge/Developing successful tools — best practices for all bot-owners
Miscellaneous bot pages
[edit]- Bot policy
- Small wiki toolkits/Starter kit/Bots and Tools — list of popular and useful bots on Wikimedia wikis
- Vandalbot — advice on dealing with malicious bots
- Rollback — includes instructions for using "bot rollback" to hide vandalism from recent changes
Frameworks and interfaces for bot development
[edit]See mw:Manual:Creating a bot#Programming languages and libraries for lists.