> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.swarmia.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.swarmia.com/settings/organization/contributors.md). # Contributors A Swarmia contributor combines the identities from all the different systems an individual contributor interacts with. By combining the right identities, you ensure work items are assigned to the right people. The identities include email addresses, user IDs, and other information from the connected tools. Swarmia automatically detects identities across the different tools and merges them. You can review contributors and manually merge and unmerge identities as needed.
## Bots Swarmia detects bot accounts automatically, based on the account type in GitHub and on common naming patterns: a `[bot]` suffix in the username, names starting or ending with `bot` or `ci`, known accounts like `github-actions` and `dependabot`, and GitHub's no-reply bot email addresses. Contributors identified as bots show a 🤖 **Bot** badge in the contributor list. {% hint style="info" %} Automatic detection only covers GitHub accounts. On [GitLab](/settings/integrations/code-hosting-platforms/gitlab.md), mark bots yourself. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} Detection of some known bots relies on GitHub.com account IDs, which don't match on [GitHub Enterprise Server](/settings/integrations/code-hosting-platforms/github/github-enterprise-server.md). On self-hosted GitHub, expect to mark more accounts manually. {% endhint %} You can also mark any contributor as a bot yourself. ### Marking a contributor as a bot Marking contributors as bots requires the [organization admin or editor role](/settings/organization/managing-users-and-roles.md). 1. Open [Contributors](https://app.swarmia.com/settings/contributors). 2. Select one contributor. The **Bot** toggle appears in the panel on the right, above the merge options. It's only available when exactly one contributor is selected. 3. Turn the toggle on. Turn the toggle off to treat the contributor as a person again. The default view on the Contributors page hides bots. To find them, switch the view to **All contributors** or use **More filters** and check **Bot**.
{% hint style="warning" %} You can't effectively toggle automatically detected bots off, since Swarmia toggles them back on in the next sync if they still match the detection patterns. (Automatic detection only toggles the bot selection on, never off.) {% endhint %} ### What changes when a contributor is a bot * **Pull requests.** Bot-created pull requests move to the **Bots** tab on the Pull requests page and are left out of the **From others** tab. * **Review metrics.** Reviews and comments from bots don't count toward review metrics, and a bot's review doesn't stop the clock on [time to review](/features/metrics/pull-request-cycle-time/time-to-review.md). Bots don't show up as reviewers or as authors in review reports. ([Review agents](/features/ai-tools/review-agents.md) have their dedicated metrics in Swarmia.) * **Code metrics.** Commits from bots are excluded from commit counts and contributor counts. * **Developer effort.** Bots and the work related to bot-authored pull requests are excluded from [developer effort (FTEs)](/definitions/developer-effort-ftes.md), and you can't set an FTE value for a bot. * **Notifications.** You don't get [personal notifications](/settings/personal/notifications.md) about pull request comments from bots unless you turn them on, and [team notifications](/settings/team/team-notifications.md) about review requests from bots are off by default. Direct messages about review requests from bots are never sent. * **Surveys.** Bots aren't included in [developer experience surveys](/features/run-developer-experience-surveys.md). Marking a contributor as a bot applies to historical data too, not just new work. Review-related metrics update once Swarmia has reprocessed the affected pull requests. {% hint style="warning" %} If you mark a contributor as a bot and later change your mind, their historical developer effort figures aren't recalculated automatically. Email and we'll rebuild them for you. {% endhint %} ### What doesn't change * **Billing.** Bots don't change your subscription or your contributor count. * **Overall pull request metrics.** Marking a contributor as a bot doesn't take their pull requests out of your metrics. Bot-authored pull requests still count toward metrics like cycle time, throughput, and batch size. Only the review parts of those metrics ignore bots. To keep pull requests out of metrics entirely, use [pull request exclusion rules](/settings/organization/pull-request-data-quality.md). * **AI tools.** The bot mark is separate from [AI tool detection](/features/ai-tools/ai-tool-detection-and-filters.md). Most AI coding agents are detected as bots and as AI tools, and changing the bot mark doesn't change how their work is attributed to an AI tool. {% hint style="info" %} **Bots on teams** A pull request belongs to a team when its author is a member of that team, and bots can be team members like anyone else. If you add a bot to a team, [its pull requests show up in that team's metrics](/settings/team/team-pr-exclusions.md) even though it's marked as a bot. Most bots aren't on any team, which is why their pull requests usually don't appear in team views. {% endhint %} ## Frequently asked questions ### What's the difference between an agent and a bot? A **bot** is a property of a contributor. It tells Swarmia the account isn't a person, so its reviews, comments, and commits stay out of people metrics. Swarmia detects most bots automatically, and you can [mark any contributor as a bot](#marking-a-contributor-as-a-bot) yourself. An **agent** is an AI tool Swarmia recognizes in your work: a [cloud agent](/features/ai-tools/cloud-agents.md) that authors pull requests, or a [review agent](/features/ai-tools/review-agents.md) that comments on them. Agents get their own views and metrics under AI tools, and Swarmia identifies them from [AI tool detection](/features/ai-tools/ai-tool-detection-and-filters.md), not from the bot property. You can also define agents yourself by [linking a contributor to a custom AI tool](/settings/integrations/ai-coding-tool-integrations/custom-ai-tool-integrations.md#link-contributors). Most AI coding agents are both. A Copilot cloud agent account, for example, is marked as a bot and its pull requests are attributed to the cloud agent. Changing the bot property doesn't change agent attribution, and it doesn't work the other way around either. Plenty of bots aren't agents, though. `dependabot` and `github-actions` are bots, but they don't use AI, so they don't show up in any of the agent views. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://help.swarmia.com/settings/organization/contributors.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.