Open Stack

Bots are very handy for doing repetitive tasks, we agree on that.

Bots also require permissions to execute certain actions, require
maintenance to ensure they operate as expected and do create output
which is music to some and noise to others. Said output is often
archieved somewhere which requires additional decisions.

This thread is intended to initiate a conversation about bots. So far we
have seen developers want to use bots in Gerrit[0] and in IRC[1]. The
conversation starts there but isn't limited to these tools if folks have
usecases for other bots.

I included an item on the infra meeting agenda for yesterday's meeting
(April 22, 2016) and discovered there was enough interest[2] in a
discussion to take it to the list, so here it is.

So some items that have been raised thus far:
- permissions: having a bot on gerrit with +2 +A is something we would
like to avoid
- "unsanctioned" bots (bots not in infra config files) in channels
shared by multiple teams (meeting channels, the -dev channel)
- forming a dependence on bots and expecting infra to maintain them ex
post facto (example: bot soren maintained until soren didn't)
- causing irritation for others due to the presence of an echoing bot
which eventually infra will be asked or expected to mediate
- duplication of features, both meetbot and purplebot log channels and
host the archives in different locations
- canonical bot doesn't get maintained

It is possible that the bots that infra currently maintains have
features of which folks are unaware, so if someone was willing to spend
some time communicating those features to folks who like bots we might
be able to satisfy their needs with what infra currently operates.

Please include your own thoughts on this topic, hopefully after some
discussion we can aggregate on some policy/steps forward.

Thank you,
Anita.


[0]
http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/irclogs/%23openstack-infra/%23openstack-infra.2016-03-09.log.html#t2016-03-09T15:21:01
[1]
http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2016-March/089509.html
[2]
http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/infra/2016/infra.2016-03-22-19.02.log.html
timestamp 19:53