About Errbot
Errbot is a chatbot daemon written in Python that connects to your chat service and brings your tools into the conversation. The goal is to make it simple to write plugins that do whatever you need, such as triggering a deployment, retrieving information from a service or calling an API.
Plugins are classes derived from BotPlugin, with commands defined using a decorator, and their docstrings are reused by the built-in help command. Errbot comes with multiple server backends for platforms such as Slack, Discord and IRC, core features, built-in administration and security, and an extensive plugin framework. A repositories command lets users install, uninstall and update community plugins directly from chat.
It is used for ChatOps in DevOps teams, chatroom engagement, home automation and similar jobs. Errbot is licensed under GPL-3.0 and you run it yourself on your own server. It suits developers and operations teams who want a scriptable assistant inside their chat platform without depending on a hosted bot service.
Key features
- Plugins written as simple Python classes
- Backends for Slack, Discord, and IRC
- Built-in administration and security
- Install community plugins from chat
- Automatic help from docstrings
- Daemon that runs on your own server
Good fit for
- →ChatOps for deployments and operations
- →Triggering API calls from a chat room
- →Adding custom bot commands to team chat
- Built with
- Python
- Tags
- chatbot
- chatops
- python
- slack
- plugins
- automation
- devops
- bot-framework
- irc
Errbot: questions and answers
- What is Errbot used for?
- Errbot is a Python chatbot framework that connects to chat services such as Slack, Discord and IRC and runs your own plugins as commands. It is a good fit for ChatOps for deployments and operations, triggering API calls from a chat room, and adding custom bot commands to team chat.
- Is Errbot open source?
- Yes. Errbot is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at errbotio/errbot and is written mainly in Python.
- Is Errbot free?
- Yes. Errbot is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- What are some alternatives to Errbot?
- Similar open-source tools in the Workflow Automation category include StackStorm, UFO and Obsei. SaaS products in the same category include Tasker, ActRun AI and Aify.
- Is Errbot actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Errbot was on 17 August 2026, and the latest release is 6.2.1, published on 17 August 2026. The project has 3.3k stars on GitHub.
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