Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T150582

So you've been awesome and enabled WP:2FA for your account on the English Wikipedia and now you can't log into AWB/Huggle/your much cooler indie tool.

Introducing: Bot Passwords

Step 4

Bot passwords allow access to a user account via the API without using the account's main login credentials. The user rights available when logged in with a bot password may be restricted.

Sounds a bit scary, right? It's not, so let's get you set up:

1. Log on with the account you want to set this up for and head to Special:BotPasswords
2. Create a new "Bot", called "AWB"
   • Bot name: AWB
   • Click `Create`
3. Make a note of the `Username` - for example Bob@AWB
   1. First part of this new username is your current/actual username, followed by @ which is followed by bot name that we created in step 2..
4. Tick the first four check boxes under `Granted` - you can select more here but most editors don't need to (you can change these whenever you need to without changing the bot password)
5. Click `Create`
6. Take note of the password - for example you'll see The new password to log in with Bob@AWB is <randomly generated password>. Please record this for future reference.

Even though this password can not be used to login using web interface, the password can be used for logging in the softwares as AWB, and Huggle — so as usual make a note of this password, but keep it secret.

You will now be able to log into AWB with the username and password supplied

Resetting my AWB/Bot password

If you change your real (account/username) password, your AWB/Bot password will not work until it has been reset.

1. Head to Special:BotPasswords
2. Select `AWB` under `Existing bot passwords`
3. Tick `Reset the password`
4. Click `Update`
5. Take note of the new bot password