https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=61555
Bug ID: 61555 Summary: Check for new messages on wiki during bot run Product: Pywikibot Version: core (2.0) Hardware: All OS: All Status: NEW Severity: normal Priority: Unprioritized Component: General Assignee: Pywikipedia-bugs@lists.wikimedia.org Reporter: valhallasw@arctus.nl Web browser: --- Mobile Platform: ---
At the moment (at least for core, and probably also for compat), new messages are only seen if the bot is restarted. For long-running bots, it's sensible to break/pause/stop editing on a certain wiki when a talk page is edited.
Getting the info from the wiki is easy -- just add meta=userinfo&uiprop=hasmsg to the api query. Afterwards, meta=notifications can be used for details.
Added bonus: every api query returns a check whether the user is still logged in correctly.