Project:Bots

Bots are automated or semi-automated processes that edit pages with reduced or no direct human supervision. Because bots may potentially strain server resources or accidentally disrupt the project, bots must follow special policies and guidelines. Additionally, as bots can be used to intentionally create vast amounts of damage very quickly, bots editing very quickly without permission (a bot "flag") or in a questionable manner, will be immediately blocked. Running a bot on a normal (human) account is not allowed, a bot must have its own account, generally including the word "bot" in the name and preferably some way to connect it to the operator (e.g. User:RobBot operated by User:Robchurch). Mediawiki.org generally follows the policy stated at Bot policy; however, as a development project, user trustworthiness and experience are of greatest importance and little to no discussion may take place before granting, or denying, a bot flag. Inactive bots may have their flags summarily removed for security purposes, the bot flag is merely intended to indicate that the bot is allowed to make relatively high speed direct edits for the purposes for which it was approved. Because this is a development project, the normal rules for bots on other WMF projects may not apply here, especially to developers.

There is some use for bots on mediawiki.org, but it is not the same as on community content based WMF projects, such as Wikipedia. Please post a request at Project:Requests if you plan to run a bot on MediaWiki.org. You may also speak to a bureaucrat directly via talk page or IRC, though request from new, inexperienced, or unknown users will generally be denied.

Registered bots
A full list of approved ("flagged") bots can be viewed here: Special:Listusers/bot. Note that "MediaWiki default" is the account used internally by the MediaWiki software when it needs to make content changes as part of the installation/upgrade process, and is not a real bot and is not a blockable (although the account has been ostensibly blocked on some projects as an inactive or unapproved bot, this should have no effect). Also note that at times, the bot flag may be used by developers and other highly trusted users as a Flood_flag.

Active bots
This list does not include any declared bots that are active but do not have a flag
 * DougBot - Operator: Doug - Maintenance of documentation pages, such as templates and categories in the manual, particularly the pages dealing with Pywikipediabot. Flagged on 5 December 2011.
 * Ebrambot - Operator: Ebraminio - a global interwiki bot, used here for cleaning the sandbox. Flagged on 10 November 2010.
 * The bot has never edited, per se, but it makes log entries by cleaning the sandbox.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Extension matrix bot - Operator: Alterego. - Apparently took over for DuesenBot. Flagged on 19 February 2010.
 * MyBot - Operator: IAlex - Localization bot. Flagged on 8 September 2010.
 * SieBot - Operator: Siebrand - Automatic updates of Localisation statistics. Flagged on 10 May 2008
 * User:(1.VSNCT)Bot - Operator: TeleComNasSprVen. Flagged on 7 February 2011

Tool server bots
''These bots are available for use by users other than their operators and in some cases may not have a single specific operator. They are active or inactive according to need''
 * CommonsDelinker - This is a toolserver bot, see m:User:CommonsDelinker for its use. The bot is maintained by Siebrand.  Flagged 21 September 2010.
 * MiszaBot - an archive bot, see w:User:MiszaBot/Archive HowTo. Operator is Misza13, but user is inactive on all projects, so malfunctions may require a replacement bot. Flagged 27 May 2009.

Inactive bots
''Bot inactivity may not mean the bot is not needed, bots belonging to trusted and active users may be inactive for extended periods of time. This list only includes bots that are or were flagged. Bots active elsewhere on Wikimedia Foundation Projects may have SUL accounts on mw.org but may have never edited.''
 * RobBot - Operator: Rob Church. Flagged by the operator on 25 April 2006.
 * RobBot was created and flagged in preparation for performing various bot tasks during the revival of MediaWiki.org as a feasible documentation alternative to Meta, although no tasks were ever devised for it and no code was thus written; it never performed automated edits. robchurch | talk 11:16, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Inactive since 16 July 2007. Operator inactive since 4 March 2008.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * FearowBot - Operator: TheFearow - Apparently an interwiki bot. Flagged on 15 July 2007, removed on 18 July 2007 for malfunctioning, reflagged on 24 July 2007.
 * Inactive since 15 July 2007 (less than 8 hours after getting the flag the first time). Operator inactive since 19 October 2008.  --Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * DuesenBot - Operator: Duesentrieb - Automatic updates to the Extension Matrix. Flagged on 6 March 2007.
 * Broken. :(
 * Inactive since 11 June 2008--Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Diego Grez Bot - Operator: Diego Grez - Apparently for language tags and language categories. Flagged on 7 July 2010
 * Inactive since 13 July 2010 (6 days after being flagged). Operator inactive since 7 February 2011. --Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * ExtensionListBot - Operator: Benjamin_Garn - Update the AutoExtensionList, an interim measure while the Extension_Matrix was unmaintained due to a broken bot.
 * Inactive since 2 March 2009. Operator inactive since 12 April 2011.  --Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * ^demonBot - Operator: ^demon. Flagged by the operator on 5 August 2009.
 * Bot has never edited.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Bot flag as a flood flag
Analogous to m:Meta:Flood_flag, these are restricted to developers and other highly trusted users who have a real need for them, these are not bots
 * Peachey88 (Flood), an alternate account of Peachey88, has a bot flag to avoid flooding the recent changes log. Apparently mainly for LQT maintenance tasks, this is a human account with a bot flag because of the frequency it edits. Flagged on 14 May 2011.

Requests for bot jobs
Here are some things that it would be useful to set up a bot to deal with. If adding to this list then please include your signature so that any potential bot writers can contact you for more info if needed:

Requests for ongoing bot jobs

 * A bot that checks all links from this site to meta (both using the meta: interwiki prefix, and by full URL ), and if that page is a redirect to MW.org replaces the external link with the correct internal one. Ideally (though it's not a requirement) the bot should follow redirects if the meta redirect is out of date.  Even more ideally, it would fix meta to skip the redirect too, but perhaps that is too much to ask of a single bot. --HappyDog 19:53, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
 * A bot that checks through all pages that contain Template:SettingSummary and updates Manual:Configuration settings and Manual:Configuration settings (alphabetical). This is probably not quite possible at the moment, due to extra info on the page that shouldn't be lost by an update.  If there is someone interested in writing this bot then we will need to do a bit of a clean-up first, I think. A simple version of the bot would extract the 'summary' field from the individual pages and update the main page with the correct summary. --HappyDog 19:53, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
 * A bot that checks categories of non-English pages (which you can tell by the sub-page part), and if the page is categorised into the English category tree, to fix the category link so it points to the same place in the appropriate language tree (, where cc is the country code. Or more generally, if it is in the wrong category tree, fix it (as translations may not always come from the English original). --HappyDog 22:10, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Requests for one off bot jobs
none current

Bot permission request archive
''Note: At one time bot requests were made here, at some point this moved to Project:Requests and there may have been some overlap. Please DO NOT place requests for bot permissions below, they will not likely be noticed!''


 * ExtensionListBot - Operator: Benjamin Garn - This bot will update the AutoExtensionList until the Extension Matrix-Bot is working again.
 * Bot flag granted. i Alex  10:10, 9 February 2009 (UTC)


 * User:TisaneBot &mdash; As a one-off task, create redirects from mainspace to Manual: space for all configuration settings and all hooks. As an ongoing task, fulfill HappyDog's third bot request above. Also, the bot will fix double redirects. Tisane 03:01, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
 * This request was apparently overlooked because it was originally placed in the section above for ongoing bot jobs. This page was confusing as it wasn't clear whether the prior sections were for requested bot jobs or for requesting bot flags.  The request is more than one year old so I'm closing it as not acted on and it should be reopened at Project:Requests if the operator still wants to run this bot.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 12:27, 5 December 2011 (UTC)