Bot policy

This is only a proposal, and is not currently policy anywhere.

This page outlines standards and guidelines related to bots which are enforced on Meta and some other projects; this can be checked by visiting "Project:Bot policy" on that wiki, which should point here or redirect to the local policy.

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 the policy and guidelines outlined below. The policy outlines how bots may be used on applicable projects; bots which do not follow the policy may be blocked immediately until the operator has resolved any issues or non-compliance.

Policy

Bot account

A bot must be run using a separate account from the operator, as no human editor should be granted a bot flag. Any bot account must clearly and visibly contain the word "bot" (or a translated equivalent) to distinguish it from human editors; the most common forms are derived from the operator's username (such as Pathosbot, operated by Pathoschild), or using disambiguation style (such as Xenophon (bot)).

The operators must be available to answer any comments themselves; no user is permitted to make use of automated answering scripts. Some operators may choose to redirect the bot's talk page to their own, if their bot is not configured to detect messages.

Authorisation

Community consensus

If there is a local community interested in processing bot applications, bots must obtain community approval on the most relevant local discussion page before editing without a bot flag at high speeds or without human supervision. Once there is consensus, a local bureaucrat will add the flag, or a steward may be requested to do so.

Steward discretion

If there is no such community, bot operators can request access directly from stewards. To qualify for this, the following requirements must be met:

This must be permitted by the local bot policy (if this one is used verbatim, it is allowed);
the bot must edit without a bot flag for at least a week or 100 edits on the applicable wikis for demonstration purposes;
the bot must only perform the following tasks:
- maintenance of interlanguage links;
- fixing double-redirects.

If there is no local community and the above does not apply, the bot must operate without a bot flag.

Unacceptable usage

Controversial changes: Bots may be used to perform edits which are most likely supported by other local editors; they should never be used to perform controversial edits. If you intend to expand the scope of the bot beyond that which was supported by the community, make note of this at the relevant discussion page to ensure that there is no opposition. If your bot flag was given under steward discretion, you must not exceed the limits described under "Steward discretion".
Data retrieval: Bots may not be used to retrieve bulk content for any use not directly related to an approved bot task. This includes dynamically loading pages from another website, which may result in the website being blacklisted and permanently denied access. If you would like to download bulk content or mirror a project, please do so by downloading or hosting your own copy of our database.
Spellchecking: No bot may automatically correct spelling mistakes without explicit community approval, particularly in the article namespace. It is not technically possible in most languages to automatically correct spelling mistakes without a significant margin of error.

Guidelines

Edit throttle and peak hours

Bots running without a bot flag should edit at intervals of over 1 minute. Once they have been authorised and appropriately flagged, they should operate at an absolute minimum interval of 5 seconds (12 edits per minute). Bots should try to avoid running during the busiest hours, as they rapidly use server resources that should be reserved for human readers and editors. During these hours, they should operate at intervals of 20 seconds (3 edits per minute) to conserve resources.

Supervision

Unless the bot is publicly stated to run autonomously, the operator should remain available, occasionally check for messages, and be ready to shut down the bot if it does not perform as desired or if complaints are received. If the operator is not available, the bot may be blocked until any issues are resolved.