Wikipedia:pillbug
| You take full responsibility for any actions taken using pillbug. You must read and abide by all relevant Wikipedia policies when using this tool; failure to do so may result in being blocked from editing. |
| Description | Semi-automated editing tool |
|---|---|
| Author | MSK |
| Status | Release |
| First released | July 12, 2026 |
| Version | 1.0.0-rc5 |
| Updated | September 1, 2026 |
| Browsers | Any ES5-compliant browser, i.e. most modern browsers |
| Source | https://github.com/potatolover68/pillbug |
pillbug is a semi-automated editing tool in the same vein as AutoWikiBrowser and JavaScript Wiki Browser, meant to serve as the middle ground between contrived RegEx and a full-fledged plugin.
Outdated docs; docs are built-in now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pillbug is composed of 3 tabs: Config, Code, and Review. You can switch between tabs using the navbar on the top right. https://github.com/potatolover68/pillbug/wiki/Getting-started is mirrored below.
Config[edit]Config is where you can log in, install nodepacks, and decide what pages you will edit, either by manually typing out a list, or by using the generator functionality.
Page queue[edit]The page queue is the queue of pages to “work” on, i.e. the pages that will be processed by the code in the Code tab and be reviewed in the Review tab. It can either be manually created, or generated using the queue generator.
Queue generator[edit]Queue generation relies on the Action API, and as such you need to be logged in. Results are capped at about 5,000 titles per generation; extra matches are truncated. Pick one source with the radio on the left, fill its fields, optionally set Namespace, then press Generate. That replaces the current queue with the generated titles (you can still edit the textarea afterward and press Set queue).
Category[edit]Members of a category (title like
Select at least one of those types.
Links to page[edit]Pages that link to a given title.
There is also redirect filtering.
When using wikilinks, Include links to redirects controls whether to also follow through redirects of the target.
Pages with prefix[edit]Titles starting with a given string.
Links on page[edit]Outgoing wikilinks to existing pages from a page. Namespace filters which linked namespaces are kept.
Wiki search[edit]Full wiki search. See the CirrusSearch help page.
Namespace[edit]The Namespace list filters queue generator results to the namespaces you select. Click to toggle; selected namespaces stay highlighted.
Process ahead?[edit]At the top of the queue generator is the process ahead? toggle. Pillbug will always fetch upcoming pages in the queue and run the skip graph, with process ahead? enabled, it will also run the process graph, meaning that reviewing edits will be slightly faster in some cases.
Nodepacks[edit]Nodepacks are installable bundles of graph nodes (extra building blocks for the Code tab), beyond Pillbug’s defaults. Packs are typically installed once per browser; as they persist across reloads. After installing, switch to Code to place the new nodes in the process/skip graphs. If a pack fails to load, the Config column will show an error. A template nodepack is available here.
Code[edit]The Code tab holds two nodish graphs that run on each page from the page queue: the skip graph and the process graph. Both receive the same inputs for a page; they differ in what they return and when they run.
Shared inputs:
When reviewing, Pillbug evaluates pages in this order:
Skip graph[edit]
The Skip graph is entirely optional; however with complicated process graphs, it can significantly speed up reviewing. Most of the filtering should already have been done during queue generation, however for hard-to-filter-for edge cases, e.g. if an article uses a template but not the specific parameter needing to be replaced, the skip graph will be useful. If
Process graph[edit]
The process graph is the edit itself, building a new wikitext string from the title and current content. After a run:
Wire the graph so a string always reaches
Review[edit]The Review tab is where you inspect each proposed edit as a diff, then save, skip, or undo. You need to be logged in to start a review run or to save / undo. You can still open the tab and look at past log entries while logged out.
Review log[edit]Below the controls is a list of recent outcomes (newest first). Each row shows the page title, a status chip, and a timestamp.
Click a log row to load that page’s stored |