Add global bot and former global bot detection by Ezi-code · Pull Request #79 · Wikimedia-Suomi/PendingChangesBot-ng

Ezi-code · 2025-10-14T00:58:49Z

Description

This PR enhances the bot detection logic to recognize and auto-approve edits made by global bots and former global bots. This improves the accuracy of the autoreview process by correctly identifying legitimate automated edits from across the Wikimedia ecosystem.

Implementation Details:

Database Caching: Adds is_global_bot and is_former_global_bot fields to the EditorProfile model. This allows the bot status to be cached, avoiding redundant API calls and improving performance.
Service Layer: The ensure_editor_profile method in reviews/services.py now queries the Meta-Wiki API to fetch a user's global groups and updates the profile with their global bot status.
Autoreview Logic: The _is_bot_user function in autoreview.py has been updated to use these new database flags, ensuring that users identified as global or former global bots are approved.
Testing: Includes comprehensive unit tests to verify the new detection logic and ensure the changes are working as expected.

issue #6

Teja-Sri-Surya · 2025-10-22T20:18:05Z

Code Review - PR #79: Global Bot Detection

Hi @Ezi-code! 👋

I've reviewed your implementation for adding global bot detection. Here's my detailed feedback:

✅ Strengths:

Correct API Usage ⭐
- Uses globaluserinfo Meta-Wiki API (efficient approach)
- Proper error handling with try/except
- Returns sensible defaults on failure
Good Database Design 📊
- Added is_global_bot and is_former_global_bot fields
- Migration file included
- Properly integrated into EditorProfile model
Clean Integration ✅
- Updated _is_bot_user() to check global bot flags (lines 462-463)
- Caching in database avoids repeated API calls
- Follows existing bot detection pattern
Test Coverage 🧪
- Tests for global bots
- Tests for former global bots
- Tests for service layer API calls

⚠️ Issues & Recommendations:

1. Former Global Bot Detection Missing 🔴

Problem: Lines 65-66 in services.py:

is_global_bot = "global-bot" in current_groups
is_former_global_bot = False  # ❌ Always False!

Issue: The API doesn't provide former groups in globaluserinfo!

Solution: According to the issue description, you need to fetch former global groups. Check the API documentation - there might be a guiprop=unattachedaccounts or similar parameter, or you may need a different approach.

Recommendation:

# Check if API supports former groups
parameters={
    "action": "query",
    "meta": "globaluserinfo",
    "guiuser": username,
    "guiprop": "groups",  # May need additional props for former groups
}

2. Merge Conflicts (Critical) 🔴

Problem: PR #96 restructured the codebase:

autoreview.py → autoreview/ directory with separate check modules
models.py → models/ directory
services.py → services/ directory

What needs updating:

Create app/reviews/autoreview/checks/bot_user.py (new file)
Update to use CheckContext pattern
Update imports throughout

Example new structure:

# app/reviews/autoreview/checks/bot_user.py
from ..base import CheckResult
from ..context import CheckContext
from ..decision import AutoreviewDecision

def check_bot_user(context: CheckContext) -> CheckResult:
    """Check if user is a bot (local, former, or global)."""
    profile = context.profile
    
    if not profile:
        return CheckResult(
            check_id="bot-user",
            check_title="Bot user check",
            status="pass",
        )
    
    is_bot = (
        profile.is_bot
        or profile.is_former_bot
        or profile.is_global_bot
        or profile.is_former_global_bot
    )
    
    if is_bot:
        return CheckResult(
            check_id="bot-user",
            check_title="Bot user check",
            status="pass",
            message=f"User {profile.username} is a bot",
            decision=AutoreviewDecision(
                status="approve",
                label="Auto-approved",
                reason="Edit made by bot user",
            ),
        )
    
    return CheckResult(
        check_id="bot-user",
        check_title="Bot user check",
        status="pass",
    )

3. Performance Consideration ⚡

Line 339: check_global_bot_user() is called for EVERY user profile refresh

Concern: This makes an API call to Meta-Wiki for every user!

Recommendation: Add caching or rate limiting:

# Option 1: Cache results
@lru_cache(maxsize=1000)
def check_global_bot_user_cached(self, username: str) -> tuple[bool, bool]:
    ...

# Option 2: Only check if not already cached
if profile.is_global_bot or profile.is_former_global_bot:
    # Already know they're a global bot, skip API call
    pass
else:
    # Only check if we haven't checked before
    is_global_bot, is_former_global_bot = self.check_global_bot_user(username)

4. Test Updates Needed 🧪

After PR #96 restructuring, tests need to:

Move to app/reviews/tests/autoreview/test_bot_user.py
Update imports to match new structure
Use CheckContext in test setup

📋 Action Items:

✅ Investigate former global bot API
- Check if globaluserinfo supports former groups
- Or find alternative API endpoint
✅ Resolve merge conflicts
- Rebase on latest main
- Migrate to restructured codebase
✅ Add caching/optimization
- Prevent redundant Meta-Wiki API calls
- Consider LRU cache
✅ Update tests
- Move to new test structure
- Update to CheckContext pattern

🤝 Offer to Help:

I'm familiar with the restructured codebase (worked on PR #99). Happy to help with:

Resolving merge conflicts
Migrating to new CheckContext structure
Performance optimization

Let me know! 😊

zache-fi

I commented this but it seems that i left the comment pending without noticing it, sorry about that.

About the code : In any case it technically worked, but requesting global bot rights with every user was little bit slow and it would be faster to fetch all with single request.

it should be now refactored latest main.

zache-fi

also python manage.py test reviews.tests.test_services fails after the changes

zache-fi · 2025-10-31T09:09:29Z

+            )
+
+            response = request.submit()
+            user_info = response.get("query", {}).get("globaluserinfo", {})


Query returns "globalallusers" list and not globaluserinfo tms.

{'batchcomplete': '', 'limits': {'globalallusers': 500}, 'query': {'globalallusers': [{'id': 12943, 'name': 'Chobot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 13387278, 'name': 'Dexbot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 5195574, 'name': 'EmausBot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 44776378, 'name': 'InternetArchiveBot', 'groups': ['global-bot', 'oathauth-tester'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 3114, 'name': 'JAnDbot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 6223, 'name': 'JhsBot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 53086278, 'name': 'KiranBOT', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 54496224, 'name': 'Lingua Libre Bot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 28974611, 'name': 'Revibot', 'groups': ['global-bot', 'oathauth-tester'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 583857, 'name': 'Xqbot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}, {'id': 27868374, 'name': 'YiFeiBot', 'groups': ['global-bot'], 'existslocally': ''}], 'userinfo': {'id': 1051277, 'name': 'Zache-test'}}}

zache-fi · 2025-10-31T09:12:30Z

        self.site = pywikibot.Site(code=wiki.code, fam=wiki.family)

+    @lru_cache(maxsize=1000)
+    def check_global_bot_user(self, username: str) -> tuple[bool, bool]:


I meant that it would do the slow API query only once and then it would use cached result. Now it it still makes one http query for every user even every time the result from http query is identical.

Ezi-code · 2025-10-31T16:34:38Z

also python manage.py test reviews.tests.test_services fails after the changes

Thanks for the feedback. I was still working on the feature at the time. We experienced network disruptions in my region, so I pushed the code to GitHub. However, I have made the changes, and I am having a bit of a problem with the tests. I get an AttributeError that indicates protocol is not a valid method of FakeSite, which is a class in the test_services file. After adding the protocol method, I get additional methods that were needed to test the check_global_bot_user method.

I'm stuck with that at the moment and would be glad if you could give me some pointers.

Ezi-code · 2025-11-02T16:46:19Z

also python manage.py test reviews.tests.test_services fails after the changes

Thanks for the feedback. I was still working on the feature at the time. We experienced network disruptions in my region, so I pushed the code to GitHub. However, I have made the changes, and I am having a bit of a problem with the tests. I get an AttributeError that indicates protocol is not a valid method of FakeSite, which is a class in the test_services file. After adding the protocol method, I get additional methods that were needed to test the check_global_bot_user method.

I'm stuck with that at the moment and would be glad if you could give me some pointers.

@zache-fi, about the issues I was facing, I discovered something:

In the check_global_bot_user method, we are using request = pywikibot.data.api.Request(site=site, parameters={}) to make the API request, which returns globalalluser, but looking at the request patterns in the wiki_client.py file, requests are made using self.site.simple_request, which is a high-level wrapper around request = pywikibot.data.api.Request(site=site, parameters={}).

This means that if the pattern for making requests changed, the test cases will expect us to explicitly define all the methods the low-level Request object needs to simulate an exact api call. After changing the API call to use self.site.simple_request, the method returns globalallusers data, and the test cases passed after a few minor refactoring.

[{'id': 12943, 'name': 'Chobot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 13387278, 'name': 'Dexbot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 5195574, 'name': 'EmausBot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 44776378, 'name': 'InternetArchiveBot', 'groups': ['global-bot', 'oathauth-tester']}, {'id': 3114, 'name': 'JAnDbot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 6223, 'name': 'JhsBot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 53086278, 'name': 'KiranBOT', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 54496224, 'name': 'Lingua Libre Bot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 28974611, 'name': 'Revibot', 'groups': ['global-bot', 'oathauth-tester']}, {'id': 583857, 'name': 'Xqbot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}, {'id': 27868374, 'name': 'YiFeiBot', 'groups': ['global-bot']}]

I'm still trying to figure out how every component of the codebase works explicitly, but I think if we update the API call, we should acheive the same results.

zache-fi · 2025-11-03T11:51:03Z

Yes, you can use simple requests for this

# Conflicts: # app/reviews/autoreview.py # app/reviews/models.py # app/reviews/tests/test_autoreview.py # app/reviews/tests/test_services.py

Ezi-code · 2025-11-03T13:05:59Z

Yes, you can use simple requests for this

Ok, just did.

zache-fi requested changes Oct 24, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread app/reviews/services/wiki_client.py Outdated

Ezi-code force-pushed the feature/6 branch from 1309854 to 9a3c211 Compare October 30, 2025 17:11

zache-fi requested changes Oct 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

Ezi-code added 5 commits November 3, 2025 12:59

add global bot and former bot detection

d381aea

# Conflicts: # app/reviews/autoreview.py # app/reviews/models.py # app/reviews/tests/test_autoreview.py # app/reviews/tests/test_services.py

work in progress

a978b62

work in add global_bot and former_global_bot detection

01bcc06

run pre-commit to fix formatting/linting

fde95d2

use self.site.simple_request to resolve Request method test failures

83dbf67

Ezi-code force-pushed the feature/6 branch from 1f3d009 to 83dbf67 Compare November 3, 2025 13:00

Ezi-code added 2 commits November 3, 2025 13:03

merge migrations files

61b7f7d

run pre-commit

22cf14f

Ezi-code requested a review from zache-fi November 3, 2025 13:06

Merge branch 'main' into feature/6

25a699c

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Add global bot and former global bot detection#79

Add global bot and former global bot detection#79
Ezi-code wants to merge 8 commits intoWikimedia-Suomi:mainfrom
Ezi-code:feature/6

Ezi-code commented Oct 14, 2025

Uh oh!

Teja-Sri-Surya commented Oct 22, 2025

Uh oh!

zache-fi left a comment •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

zache-fi left a comment

Uh oh!

zache-fi Oct 31, 2025

Uh oh!

zache-fi Oct 31, 2025

Uh oh!

Ezi-code commented Oct 31, 2025

Uh oh!

Ezi-code commented Nov 2, 2025 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

zache-fi commented Nov 3, 2025

Uh oh!

Ezi-code commented Nov 3, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

Conversation

Ezi-code commented Oct 14, 2025

Description

Implementation Details:

Uh oh!

Teja-Sri-Surya commented Oct 22, 2025

Code Review - PR #79: Global Bot Detection

✅ Strengths:

⚠️ Issues & Recommendations:

1. Former Global Bot Detection Missing 🔴

2. Merge Conflicts (Critical) 🔴

3. Performance Consideration ⚡

4. Test Updates Needed 🧪

📋 Action Items:

🤝 Offer to Help:

Uh oh!

zache-fi left a comment • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

zache-fi left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zache-fi Oct 31, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zache-fi Oct 31, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Ezi-code commented Oct 31, 2025

Uh oh!

Ezi-code commented Nov 2, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

zache-fi commented Nov 3, 2025

Uh oh!

Ezi-code commented Nov 3, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

zache-fi left a comment •

edited

Loading

Ezi-code commented Nov 2, 2025 •

edited

Loading