Trinity-Bots: hireable NPC companions for WoW private servers

Companions you hire, not a plugin you install

The manual is unusually explicit about what the system is. NPCBots are hireable pet-like minions, with some exceptions, and you do not have full control over them, but you can tune their behavior in many ways. Bots will follow you around, buff you, defend you and help you in general. The stated main purpose is to support players during their leveling, although they can do dungeons and raids, with the manual warning to expect them being stupid in there. The feature list is long enough to be worth reading in full: fighting through spells, melee and ranged combat, buffing, healing, resurrecting, acting as a guard when the bot has no owner, grouping, using DungeonFinder so they can enter dungeons with you, raids, PvP against members of your opposing faction, providing you with consumables as a mage or warlock, receiving buffs and consumables from you, equipping gear, assigning roles, abilities management, and more. The documentation is a player manual available on YouTube by QT Blue-AI, and the manual itself is version 0.25 dated 14 Jun 2023, with the original version by Thesawolf at 0.3 from July 2016.

Why this is a patch and not a plugin

The installation route is the thing that distinguishes this project from an ordinary server plugin, and it is decided by what the mod needs to do. NPCBots is a TrinityCore 3.3.5 and AzerothCore wotlk mod, and the standard for a WoW server emulator is that the server core is compiled from source, so a mod that reaches into server internals has to be applied to that source. The repository layout reflects it: there is an NPCBots.patch file at the root, an AC/ directory for the AzerothCore-specific version, a SQL/ directory, a tools/ directory and the README. The mod is also maintained against both cores in parallel, with the README recording separate last-updated commits for each, a TrinityCore one and an AzerothCore one, and a stated update schedule of every Saturday at 05:00 AM UTC+0. That weekly cadence is a reasonable indicator of who is expected to use this: an operator running their own server who wants the mod to keep working as the cores move underneath it.

Cloning a pre-patched core, or patching your own

Two paths are documented for each core, and they differ in who does the work. The first is a pre-patched repository, which the README links at a revision where the core was patched with the latest version of NPCBots, and the clone command is given with a shallow depth of 1. The second is to clone the core and the mod separately and apply the patch yourself. For TrinityCore that is the core branch 3.3.5 and the Trinity-Bots repository, and for AzerothCore it is the azerothcore-wotlk repository and the same Trinity-Bots repository. Either way the README is clear that installing NPCBots is not much different from a clean install, so you follow the TrinityCore Installation Guide or the AzerothCore installation guide until it asks you to run the server, and then continue. If you used a pre-patched repository you can jump to step 5 of the numbered list.

The patch, the rebuild and the database

If you patch the core yourself, the steps are explicit. Copy the NPCBots.patch file from the Trinity-Bots directory into your core folder, for TrinityCore, or copy Trinity-Bots/AC/NPCBots.patch into your azerothcore-wotlk folder for AzerothCore. Apply it with the patch command, and the README warns that git apply may not work. Then re-run CMake and rebuild, and merge worldserver.conf.dist into your worldserver.conf, copying the NPCBot mod settings. The database steps are conditional, and the condition matters. Step five applies only if Updates.AutoSetup is set to 0 in config or if your base databases are already created, and it applies the NPCBot base database SQL files to the appropriate databases, which for TrinityCore are three files:

  - auth_npcbot.sql
  - characters_npcbot.sql
  - world_npcbot.sql

For AzerothCore the file set is larger and split by database, with four files for the characters database and three for world:

  - db_characters/characters_npcbot.sql
  - db_characters/characters_npcbot_group_member.sql
  - db_characters/characters_npcbot_stats.sql
  - db_characters/characters_npcbot_transmog.sql
  - db_world/creature_template_npcbot_appearance.sql
  - db_world/creature_template_npcbot_extras.sql
  - db_world/creature_template_outfits.sql

Step six applies the NPCBot SQL updates from the custom SQL directory only if Updates.EnableDatabases is set to 0 in config, and those updates are applied one by one, with the auth, characters and world files going to the corresponding databases. Then you run the server.

What the bot can be told to do

The manual's contents list shows how much configuration sits behind the simple idea of a companion. Beyond the hiring and getting started sections there are sections on hiring alternatives, getting around, equipment, roles, formation, abilities, talents, grouping, extras, a wander system, config settings, localization, extra classes, occupations and addons. The distinction between roles and formation is the one that matters for a group: roles determine what a bot does in a party context while formation governs where it stands, and the manual treats them as separate mechanisms. The occupations feature is what covers the list of professions, which is why a mage or a warlock bot can provide consumables and why bots can equip gear. The config settings section is where the tuning lives, and the localization section is where you get a bot's messages into your server's language rather than English by default.

A third party's guide to a patch, maintained weekly

Two details about the project's own shape are worth noting before you adopt it. First, the manual is compiled, not written from scratch, and the README says so: it was compiled by Trickerer, with the original version by Thesawolf, and the older version is linked in the upstream TrinityCore repository. That means the documentation is a fork of a community document rather than a specification, and the manual's own version number, 0.25, is from mid-2023 while the repository is still being updated in October 2026, so the two are at different stages of their lives. Second, the licence situation needs attention. The repository records no licence identifier, and there is a LICENSE file listed in the top-level entries alongside the patch, the SQL directory and a THANKS file, but the README does not discuss licensing at all. Before you put a mod with this provenance into a public server, read that file and establish what you are allowed to do with it.

Where this is the wrong choice

Three limits are structural. The first is that the mod is tied to a specific emulator codebase and a specific game version, 3.3.5, so it is not something you carry to a retail client or to a different expansion server. The second is that the operational cost is real: this is a source patch and a rebuild, not a jar you drop in, and every upstream core update means re-applying or re-pulling, which is why the maintainer keeps pre-patched repositories and a weekly update schedule. The third is that the bots are described by their own manual as not fully controllable and as stupid in dungeons and raids, so a server that wants serious endgame automation is looking at the wrong tool. A different approach to the same player-facing problem, if you want bots that behave well in content, is to use the core's own built-in creature AI and AI player support rather than adding companion characters on top of the world, because that path needs no patch and survives core updates.

Editorial conclusion

Trinity-Bots suits a private WoW server operator who wants players to have companions that level with them, and who is comfortable running a patched server build rather than dropping a plugin into a stock one. It is the wrong tool if you run a retail or public server, since the mod requires a patched core and is built for the 3.3.5 wotlk codebase, and it is the wrong tool if you want a maintained upstream project, because the guide is compiled by a third party and the licence is not stated. Verify first which core you run, since the patch file and the SQL paths differ between TrinityCore and AzerothCore, and note that the repository publishes no GitHub releases and the last push was on 2026-10-17.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. README
4. trickerer/Trinity-Bots on GitHub