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AddOn Spotlight: Automaton

Mathew McCurley
Updated ·6 min read


AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience - the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond - your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, Automaton takes some of the tedium out of little tasks!

What's the only thing better than an addon with a beautiful and pristine interface that rivals all addons with its ease of use? An addon with NO UI AT ALL, minus the text commands. This week, I'm going to show you Automaton, an addon that is as light as they get while providing a host of awesome functions. It's bare-bones addon day today on AddOn Spotlight! Won't you join us?



Automaton is one of those addons that I installed forever ago and it's never failed me since. It's unobtrusive because you never see it, and it happily runs quiet in the background. You'll forget Automaton ever exists after you have been using it for a while, and when it isn't there anymore, you'll realize how much time you saved thinking about the decisions Automaton makes for you. Scratch that -- Automaton takes a lot of simple, annoying tasks and gives you basic options on how to deal with said tasks. Since the addon is all text input, there won't be too many awesome pictures of it. So, while we discuss Automaton, you can look at my Orc Shaman who is far, far away from level 80.

Automaton's Functions

The best way to sum up Automaton is to read its very own description when using the text commands -- Automaton: Reduces interface tedium by doing the little things for you. Below is a list of things Automaton can do for you, as taken from the mod's own menu:

  • Filter: Show only available skills at trainers by default.

  • Gossip: Automatically complete quests and skip gossip text (holding shift will temporally disable this)

  • Group: Options for accepting or declining group invites.

  • Invite: Options for sending out party invites.

  • Loner: Decline all incoming guild requests and petitions.

  • LootBOP: Ignore BOP confirm message when not in a party or raid

  • Plates: Shows name plates in combat.

  • Queue: Options for accepting Battleground queues.

  • Release: Automatically release to ghost after dying in a battleground

  • Repair: Automatically repair all inventory items when at merchant

  • Rez: Options for accepting resurrection requests.

  • Sell: Automatically sell all gray inventory items when at merchant

  • Summon: Options for accepting summons

  • Wuss: Decline all incoming duels. Like the wuss you are.

In particular, Sell, Release (battlegrounds), LootBOP, Plates and Repair are my favorites. Once I installed Automaton, I never worried about any of those things again. It's just become part of the game to instantly release during a battleground and never worry about those precious seconds again.

Automaton is simple to use. The basic slash command is /auto, followed by the module you wish to configure. So, for instance, to turn off auto accepting group invites, you would type:

/auto group enabled

It's that simple. Typing /auto and then the module brings up a list of options for that module. Auto-accepting resurrections, for example, has an option that allows you to set a delay on auto-accepting and, by default, denying auto-accepting battle resses from Druids so you do not pop back up immediately during a raid when it is most inopportune (I'm looking at you, Festergut.)

That's it! It's simple, easy, quick and the only interface you ever worry about is text. I cannot think of a better feeling than something so unobtrusive as that, especially as our UIs are getting more and more cluttered every day. And like I said above, Automaton quickly becomes one of those addons that you set and forget and eventually it slips into that gray area in your mind, where it becomes a seamless part of the game experience.

If the text input stuff isn't your cup of tea, there are ways to have a graphical setup for Automaton. On the Curse page for Automaton, weab has added a section for using FuBar or a DataBroker mod displayer to view Automaton's options. Really, though, Automaton to me is simple enough that jumping through hoops for graphical options just isn't worth it, unless you want to use the Sell list functionality, discussed below.


Finally, weab has added rudimentary lists to exclude certain types of gray items from being sold, and promises some better functionality on that front in a later version of Automaton. Again, if you do not want your precious rock collection sold, I would advise just leaving it in the bank.

Automaton: Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]

But WAIT, There's More!

Now it's time for some AddOn Spotlight BONUS ADDONS!!!! Aren't you excited? There's FOUR exclamation points after 'addons'! Here's a few mods that probably won't make or break your game, but are fun or useful little things that won't get in the way.

First is Math, a simple command line calculator. Typing in /math 5+1 will give you Math: 6. It beats alt-tabbing for a calculator...

Second is Damn Dungeon Window by Shadowed. This little addon does one little thing -- kills the dungeon window popup at the end of a random dungeon. Instead, you will get a neat summary of what you received in your chat box.

Third is another Damn mod by Shadowed called Damn Tooltip Icons. This little addon adds a tooltip picture to linked items in chat. Just a cosmetic little change. Nothing major, but I enjoy seeing the tooltip icons.

Finally, Gem Quota. Gem Quota adds a new dropdown option on your character screen that shows you the numbers of colors of gems you have equipped. Again, I like this little addon because it's tucked away in the character screen, and gives a quick, concise look at the colors and number of gems I have on my gear.

So there you go. FOUR more fun and useful addons for you. Just don't go and do anything stupid with them.

Math: Download at [Curse]
Damn Dungeon Window: Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
Damn Tooltip Icons: Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
Gem Quota: Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]

Next week on AddOn Spotlight is going to be exciting. Stay tuned for BATTLE OF THE BAGS, an AddOn Spotlight Special where we look at three different types of bag user interfaces for WoW and bring all their pros and cons to light. As always, keep sending in your user interface and addon questions to mat@wow.com, and I'm always looking for more Reader UIs for Reader UI of the Week. Shoot those suggestions over to readerui@wow.com.


Addons are what we do on AddOn Spotlight. I love this job, because I get to tell you about addons like Elitist Group and Loot Addons! And remember, Addon Spotlight is fueled by viewers like you, so if you have a mod you think we should take a look at, e-mail ADDON GUY at mat (at) wow dot com.