Tracker and its IRC bot trackbot have been retired as of 2023-12-31.
You can use Zakim to start/end your meeting easily.

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Tracker also comes with trackbot, an IRC bot to Assist with creating actions during meetings (or other times). Over time, I expect trackbot will evolve to learn other things, but for now it's as simple as possible.

trackbot and channels

Trackbot will usually already be on your Working Group IRC channel. If it's not there, invite it in your IRC client:

/invite trackbot #channelname

If you invite trackbot to a channel that isn't already associated with a Tracker, you can use another channel's settings. After trackbot joins the channel, an authorized user (e.g., W3C Team) can say:

trackbot, associate this channel with #mainchannel

If the channel is reconfigured later, an authorized user can clear the association:

trackbot, disassociate this channel

If you want trackbot to leave your channel for any reason, just say:

trackbot, bye

Starting and ending meetings

If you have a teleconference scheduled with Zakim, trackbot can help prepare the IRC channel for that meeting. It invites RRSAgent and Zakim to the channel, and issues commands to start the teleconference listed in your Tracker configuration.

To start a teleconference in this channel, say:

trackbot, start meeting

trackbot can also end the current teleconference, issuing commands to wrap up the minutes and dismissing RRSAgent. In this channel, say:

trackbot, end meeting

Querying ISSUEs, ACTIONs, and RESOLUTIONs

trackbot can list basic information about any ISSUE or ACTION, along with a link to that item in Tracker. Just say the name of the item you want to look up. Examples:

issue-50
trackbot, ACTION-81?
resolution-12

You can prefix these identifiers with a Tracker shortname to get information from another Tracker, like this:

example-action-25

You can add this prefix in any Trackbot command that refers to an ACTION, ISSUE, RESOLUTION, or PRODUCT with an ID number. However, for security reasons, you can only refer to other public Trackers this way. You can find a Tracker's shortname on its configuration page.

Creating ISSUEs

You can create a new ISSUE by saying ISSUE: followed by a title. Examples:

ISSUE: Regular expression support needs a test suite
trackbot, issue: Writing errata for version 3

Creating ACTIONs

You can create new ACTIONs much like you create new ISSUEs. Just remember to say who the action is assigned to between the word ACTION and the title. There are a couple of ways to do this:

action eileen: Propose new language for pragma handling
ACTION: John to fix the typos in test case comments

Generally, trackbot knows the given (first) name of each participant in the Working Group or Task Force that uses your Tracker. If you visit the Users page of your Tracker, you can review and edit nicknames for these participants. You can use a participant's nickname when you create an ACTION to assign it to them.

By default, ACTIONs are due in one week. You may specify a different due date after the title, like this:

action: Alex to write a new section about color handling - due 15 June 2013
trackbot, action sam: Update Web page history section - due in 1 month

You can use most common formats to specify the due date for ACTIONs. All these examples work:

Adding notes to ISSUEs and ACTIONs

You can add brief notes to ISSUEs and ACTIONs. Your IRC nickname will be added in front of the note. There are a few different ways to do this:

ISSUE-51: Jennifer is taking point on this
note action-94 The Python documentation suggests a couple of solutions
trackbot, comment example-issue-67: Check how the Widget WG solved their related problem

Changing the state of ISSUEs and ACTIONs

You can change the state of an ISSUE or ACTION by saying these commands:

close issue-41
reopen ACTION-65
trackbot, example-action-56 closed

Changing the due date of an ACTION

To change an ACTION's due date, just say:

action-83 due 1 February 2013
trackbot, example-action-33 due in 3 days

Read more about accepted due date formats above.

Associating ACTIONs, ISSUEs, and products

You can link an ACTION with an ISSUE, an ACTION with a product, or an ISSUE with a product. For your convenience, the command is available in two different forms:

associate ACTION-43 with ISSUE-15
trackbot, link issue-45 to product-96
link example-product-6 and example-action-22

No matter what form you use, you can specify the two items in any order. You cannot link items across different Trackers.

Checking channel configuration

If trackbot seems a little confused, say:

trackbot, status

trackbot will report what it knows about the current channel configuration. If that information is not correct, it might help if you associate the current channel with another one.