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.

Special:ListUsers/bot produces a list of all accounts which are member of the “Bots” user group . Additionally, "bot" is a user right. Edits by a user with this “right” (read: property) do not show up in recent changes by default. Typically, a user from the group "Bots" will have the "bot" user right. User rights are often called "flags" and bots with user right "bot" are often called "flagged" bots.

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

• 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

See mw:Manual:Creating a bot#Programming languages and libraries for lists.