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To review an automated agent’s Wikipedia edit, inspect the actual revision diff and the surrounding page history first. If one specific change is wrong, use Undo and check the resulting edit before saving. Use Rollback only if you have the required right and have verified that all of the last editor’s consecutive changes should be reversed.

Find the automated edit

On English Wikipedia, locate the change through the article’s page history, Recent changes, or the account’s contributions. If Edit Patrol is available to you, its documentation describes filtering for automated contributions. Availability and permissions can differ by interface and account.

An automated label can help identify an edit, but it does not show whether the edit is correct. Review what changed and the article context before deciding what to do.

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Inspect the diff and decide whether to act

Open the edit’s diff, which compares that revision with an earlier version. Check the changed wording, references, and any nearby content affected by the edit. Decide whether the change is unsupported, inaccurate, disruptive, or otherwise problematic; correct only the part that needs attention when possible.

If the change is uncertain or another editor may reasonably disagree, raise the concern on the article’s talk page and seek discussion instead of repeatedly reverting. MediaWiki’s guidance is to approach reverts cautiously and discuss first when unsure: Help:Reverting.

Choose Undo or Rollback

Action Scope Access and flexibility What to watch for
Undo Targets a selected revision or revisions. A normal interface action that lets you review the proposed change and add an edit summary. MediaWiki attempts to preserve later edits, but conflicting intervening changes can prevent an automatic undo from working cleanly.
Rollback Reverses consecutive edits by the last editor. Available only to administrators and other users with the necessary rollback right; faster, but less flexible than Undo. It may reverse more than the single edit shown in the diff. Inspect the relevant revisions before using it.

Undo one specific edit

  1. Open the relevant diff or page-history entry for the revision you want to reverse.
  2. Select Undo if the option is available.
  3. Review the edit form and proposed result. Check whether later useful changes remain and whether the unwanted content is actually corrected.
  4. If the result is sound, enter a concise edit summary explaining what you changed and why, then save.

If intervening edits conflict with the undo, do not force a broad reversal. Manually edit the page to repair the specific problem while retaining useful later changes, and explain the correction in the summary.

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Use Rollback only for a clear, broader reversal

Rollback is intended for authorized users who need to reverse the last editor’s consecutive edits. Before using it, inspect the revisions that action will affect: the diff currently on screen may not reveal the full set of edits rollback will reverse. If you want to undo just one revision, or preserve some of that editor’s changes, use Undo or make a manual correction instead.

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The mobile Edit Patrol workflow is specifically documented for logged-in users with rollback rights to review that feed and take rollback action. That workflow does not mean every Wikipedia interface offers the same tools or that every account can use them.

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When a manual correction or discussion is safer

  • Use a manual correction when automatic Undo conflicts with later edits or would remove useful content.
  • Discuss on the talk page when the edit’s accuracy or policy implications are uncertain or disputed.
  • Avoid repeated reversions as a substitute for resolving a disagreement; state the specific concern and give other editors an opportunity to respond.

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