Howdy dumps users, Starting by the end of June, we will begin enforcing our user-agent policy <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Wikimedia_Foundation_User-Agent_Policy> on dumps published to dumps.wikimedia.org. This means that a valid user-agent will be required on all automated requests to download dumps files from the public facing dumps website. Requests that are missing or provide a generic user agent (such as a basic library name) will be blocked.
Why will valid user-agents be required? In August 2025, we began enforcing <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T400119>our long-standing user-agent policy on other forms of programmatic access, including APIs and automated crawlers. We are now following up with dumps <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427836> to ensure consistent policy enforcement. Today, more than 70% of database_backup download traffic originates from automated processes, yet only 29% of that traffic is compliant with our user-agent policy. Enforcing the existing user-agent policy ensures access continues trending more towards responsible reuse. WMCS Access Users who access dumps data through the Wikimedia Cloud Services fileshare <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Shared_storage#Dumps> will be unaffected. Additionally, requests to the Dumps website that originate through WMCS services (Toolforge, CloudVPS) will be allowed access regardless of whether or not the user-agent is compliant. Please feel free to reach out directly through email or leave a comment in phabricator <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427836> if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Cheers, Halley *Halley Coplin* (she/her) Sr. Product Manager, MediaWiki Interfaces Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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