The Bot Approvals Group (or BAG) oversees most areas and processes dealing with bots on Wikipedia. Individual BAG members are tasked to approve or deny the various bot tasks submitted by both new and old bot operators. However, only bureaucrats are capable/entrusted to flag bots, and only administrators are capable/entrusted to block malfunctioning or misbehaving bots. While some BAG members (listed below) are also admins or bureaucrats, the roles of the BAG should not be confused with that of bureaucrats or admins. BAG members are trusted to understand Wikipedia's bot policy, and to offer sound bot-related advice to bot operators, admins, bureaucrats, and editors alike. BAG members are often bot operators themselves, but this is not a formal requirement for BAG membership.

The BAG has an official IRC channel on Libera Chat at #wikipedia-en-bag. The channel is open to everyone, so feel free to join, ask questions and idle if you wish (BAG members are voiced). EarwigBot also reports a recent changes feed of BRFA-related pages into the channel for your convenience.

Those interested in joining the group should make a nomination and post it to the talk page, with notices to relevant community noticeboards to invite community participation (specifically WP:AN, WP:VPM, WT:BOTPOL, and WP:BON), explaining why they would be a good member of the team and outlining past bot-related experience. After seven days, an uninvolved bureaucrat will close the discussion.

The activity levels on the member list (active, semi-active, inactive) are informal and used to help identify members current availability.

Following a 2018 RfC it was concluded that BAG members are expected to be active on Wikipedia to have their finger on the pulse of the community. After two years without any bot-related activity (such as posting on bot-related pages, posting on a bot's talk page, or operating a bot), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice. Retired members can re-apply for BAG membership as normal if they wish to rejoin the BAG.^[1]

Former members are found on a subpage.

• {{BAG Tools}}
• {{Unapproved bot account}}
• {{BAG-notice}}
• {{BAG topicon}}
• How to close a BRFA
• Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group/Successful membership candidacies
• Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group/Unsuccessful membership candidacies
• Bots newsletter spam list
• Bot Approvals Group's Guide