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Wikipedia:Core bots

This page aims to list bots that are sufficiently critical to the project. I'm loosely defining "core" as whether the bot disappearing would cause noticeable disruption to the encyclopaedia, some significant backroom process (such as AIV), or if the loss of the bot would otherwise meaningfully impact the quality of articles. (Feel free to replace this with a more well-defined definition.) Ideally this shouldn't be a long or exhaustive list of bots.

The intention of this is to help us understand (and hopefully improve) our bus factor for these bots, should the operator become unavailable.

For each category, key bots in the area are listed, along with some comments which address the following questions:

  • Does the bot have a succession strategy?
  • Are they hosted on Toolforge, ideally with multiple maintainers? In that case, handover could be done by the Toolforge committee
  • Is the source available?
  • If so, does it look like the source can be easily ran by another user? Or are files needed for execution missing / source is out-of-date?
  • How easily could the bot be maintained (and not just ran) by another person? Considerations/factors involved in this include: is the code a modern tech stack, and likely to be comprehensible by another bot operator? Does the bot rely on technology that is unlikely to be familiar to another potential bot maintainer (for instance, ClueBot NG uses ANNs and moreso uses a C++ framework for ANNs that is not common to use these days, compared to PyTorch etc).

This list is definitely not complete! Please help by adding a bot below.

Main Page

  • {{Botlinks|DYKUpdateBot}}
  • Responsible for maintaining T:DYK and queues, which is ultimately transcluded on the Main Page.
  • Code available: User:DYKUpdateBot/Code, runs on Toolforge.

Anti-vandalism

  • {{Botlinks|ClueBot NG}}
  • Reverts vandalism.
  • Code available: [https://github.com/cluebotng GitHub], runs on Toolforge. Uncommon and complicated tech stack. Uses machine learning techniques like artificial neural networks (ANNs), and furthermore uses a C++ framework for ANNs that is not common to use these days, compared to PyTorch etc
  • {{Botlinks|MusikBot II}}
  • Task 3, protecting high-risk templates
  • Code available: [https://github.com/MusikAnimal/MusikBot/blob/master/tasks/template_protector.rb GitHub], runs on Toolforge

Article maintenance

  • {{Botlinks|Citation bot}}
  • Helps maintain/expand citations
  • Code available: [https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot GitHub], runs on Toolforge
  • {{Botlinks|GreenC bot}}
  • Archives dead links
  • Current code not available. Old version of code available [https://github.com/greencardamom/WaybackMedic on GitHub]. Unclear where it runs
  • {{Botlinks|EmausBot}}
  • Fixes double redirects
  • Code unavailable, but this is a commodity function fulfilled by multiple local/global bots, and [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Pywikibot/redirect.py similar scripts] for this task are open source.
  • {{Botlinks|OAbot}}
  • Helps flag open access citations / add open access links to citations
  • Code available: [https://github.com/dissemin/oabot GitHub], runs on Toolforge
  • {{Botlinks|InternetArchiveBot}}
  • Archives dead links
  • Code available: [https://github.com/internetarchive/internetarchivebot GitHub]. Runs on Cloud VPS (I think)

Archiving / Clerking

  • {{Botlinks|ClueBot III}}
  • Archiving discussion pages
  • Code available: User:ClueBot III/Source, runs on Toolforge.
  • {{botlinks|Cyberbot I}}
  • Archiving threads at WP:RFPP, clerking at WP:AFD
  • Code available in theory at [https://github.com/cyberpower678/Cyberbot_I GitHub], but the code appears to be out of date. Unclear where it runs.
  • {{Botlinks|Lowercase sigmabot III|2=2}}
  • Archiving discussion pages
  • Code available: User:Lowercase_sigmabot_III/Source.py, runs on Toolforge.
  • {{botlinks|ChristieBot}}
  • Maintains WP:Good article nominations
  • Code available: User:ChristieBot/Source code. Runs on Toolforge.
  • {{botlinks|JJMC89 bot III}}
  • Implements WP:CFD decisions from WP:CFD/W
  • Code: {{GitHub|https://github.com/jjmc89-bot/jjmc89-bot-scripts/blob/main/enwiki/cfdw.py}}
  • Runs on Toolforge in the jjmc89-bot tool.
  • {{botlinks|Legobot}}
  • Maintains WP:Requests for comment lists
  • Code available: [https://github.com/legoktm/harej-bots/blob/master/rfcbot.php GitHub], runs on Toolforge. Uses a complicated PHP stack with an internal database, and hasn't been actively maintained for years (although the current operator is the third person to run it)
  • {{Botlinks|RMCD bot}}
  • Maintained WP:Requested moves, runs on personal machine
  • Code available: User:RMCD bot/requestedmoves.php
  • User:The Sky Bot is approved as a backup when it goes down
  • {{botlinks|HBC AIV helperbot14}}
  • Removes completed reports from WP:AIV
  • Code available: [https://github.com/Cookies52/Mdann52-bot/tree/main/AIV GitHub]. Unclear where it runs
  • Current operator is the 14th person to run this bot, so succession seems to be working reasonably well
  • {{botlinks|SineBot}}
  • Signs unsigned posts
  • Code not available. Operator is not very active. Unclear where it runs

Copyright violations

  • {{Botlinks|CopyPatrolBot}}
  • Marks possible copyright violations for CopyPatrol
  • Code: {{GitHub|https://github.com/JJMC89/copypatrol-backend}}
  • Runs on a Cloud VPS VM in the copypatrol project (tech docs).

Project maintenance

  • {{Botlinks|AAlertBot}}
  • Provides WP:AALERTS for WikiProjects
  • Code available: {{U|Hellknowz}} and {{U|Headbomb}} have access to it. Runs on personal machines.
  • {{botlinks|AnomieBOT}}
  • Many tasks, most of which aren't individually core but the probably add up to a significant disruption if they would stop running
  • Code available: User:AnomieBOT/source, runs on Toolforge. Written in Perl.
  • {{Botlinks|JL-Bot}}
  • Core: Provides WP:RECOG for WikiProjects / Non-core: Also maintains WP:JCW
  • Code available: [https://github.com/JLaTondre/JL-Bot GitHub]. Runs on a personal machine.
  • {{botlinks|Yapperbot}}
  • Sends notifications for WP:Feedback request service
  • Code available: [https://github.com/mashedkeyboard/yapperbot-frs GitHub], runs on Toolforge. Uses Go (programming language), which is uncommon among bots. Operator has vanished since 2020, and a plan to adopt the bot has been slowly in the works for months

Category:Wikipedia bots