For developers:

• Identifier was moved to sopel.tools.identifiers and now supports dynamic casemapping; an optional casemapping or identifier_factory kwarg has been added to many object types to help manage this at runtime
  • You can usually just pass bot.make_identifier as the factory function and things will Just Work™
  • Feel free to use bot.make_identifier() yourself to get an Identifier representing any nick or channel name you get, e.g. as input to a command
• The core.nick setting value is now returned as a str, not an Identifier
• Capability negotiation is a first-class plugin API feature (see plugin.capability and the related documentation chapter)
• trigger.sender attribute as passed to plugin callables is now None in cases where its value is meaningless (events with no channel/query context)
• Numerous deprecated API features were removed:
  • bot.privileges (use bot.channels)
  • bot.msg() (use bot.say())
  • sopel.web submodule (use sopel.tools.web)
• Messages from other bots are ignored by default on supported networks, but plugins can opt back in with the @plugin.allow_bots decorator
• STATUSMSG prefix is removed from trigger.sender if present and stored in a separate trigger.status_prefix attribute
  • See documentation for bot.SopelWrapper.default_destination
• bot.connection_registered is now the way to check whether the bot is connected to IRC, registered with the network, and ready for your plugin to send commands

Plugin changes

• admin:
  • Added .raw command to make Sopel send a raw IRC line [#2104]
• adminchannel:
  • Refactored hostmask handling & added code comments/tests [#2222]
  • Improved result of trying to kick the bot with .kick [#2240]
  • Unified topic-mask management under .tmask with subcommands [#2601]
• bugzilla:
  • Extracted to its own package [#2481]
• calc:
  • Improved error handling [#2507]
  • Improved help output & test coverage [#2530]
• clock:
  • Added unset commands for user & channel time zone/format [#2181]
• coretasks:
  • Replaced "hostmask" type with "host" in .blocks command [#2344]
    • Real "hostmask" support is planned; see #1355
  • Improved help output for .blocks [#2345]
• currency:
  • Added .currencies command to list known currency symbols [#2439]
  • fiat_provider setting takes precedence over the existence of a fixer_io_key value [#2330]
  • Switched from exchangerate.host to open.er-api.com [#2512]
• dice:
  • Refactoring, bugfixes, and improved test coverage [#2532]
• emoticons:
  • Added .tback alias for .unflip command [#2287]
  • Made .unflip table more closely match the .tflip one [#2287]
• find:
  • Fixed use of flags when | is used as input separator [#2447]
  • Code cleanup [#2267]
• help:
  • Now updatable independently from its own package, but still installs with Sopel as a dependency [#2332]
• ip:
  • Miscellaneous code-style improvements [#2393]
  • Extracted to its own package [#2523]
• meetbot:
  • Extracted to its own package [#2477]
• pronouns:
  • Accept abbreviated pronoun sets [#2070]
  • Added .clearpronouns command [#2154]
  • Fetch pronoun list dynamically at startup [#2130]
  • Support configurable pronoun backend [#2437, #2438]
    • The old backend at pronoun.is went down and never came back, so now you can use our replacement or host your own
• py:
  • Extracted to its own package [#2411, #2415]
• reddit:
  • Newer praw library allowed [#2319]
  • Added configuration setting to turn off inline slash-references [#2418]
  • Extracted to its own package [#2444]
• reload:
  • Remove unsupported .update command [#2416]
  • Improve plugin help strings [#2417]
• remind:
  • Avoid trying to use IRC connection if it's not ready [#2351, #2374]
  • Extracted to its own package [#2478]
• safety:
  • Comprehensive rework improving caching, output, etc. [#2279]
  • Ignore invalid hostnames [#2472]
• search:
  • Fix .suggest when there is only one result [#2513]
  • Code style and dependency updates [#2260, #2334, #2420]
• seen:
  • Adapted to aware trigger.time [#2265]
  • Prevent error spam if database is temporarily inaccessible [#2338]
• tell:
  • Fixed edge cases in cleanup of tellee argument [#2584]
• translate:
  • Improved help output [#2453]
• unicode_info:
  • Uses unicodedata2 if available [#2349, #2361]
• url:
  • Improved interaction between .title command and link handlers [#2282]
  • Removed traceback from debug log when URL fetch fails [#2280]
  • Made channel-privilege-based access to .urlexclude command and friends configurable [#2352]
  • Cleaned up code [#2304, #2307, #2433]
  • Added better error handling for DNS lookups [#2428]
  • Ignore invalid hostnames [#2472]
• version:
  • Support retrieving plugin versions with .version pluginname [#2133]
• wikipedia:
  • Commands are now .wp, .wikipedia; old commands (.w, .wik, & .wiki) were removed [#1966]
  • Remove deprecated lang_per_channel setting [#2142]
  • Work around excessive whitespace in math formulas [#2286]
  • Don't ping the user who posted a URL that fails to load [#2315]
  • Output image description if URL has an image viewer fragment [#2388]
  • Handle query strings in article links [#2414]
  • Fail gracefully on Special: namespace links [#2575]
• xkcd:
  • Switched keyword-search backend [#2376, #2377]

Core changes

• Removed support for EOL Python versions (2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, & 3.7), added testing on newer Python versions (up to 3.12), and modernized coding standards [#2062, #2073, #2123, #2124, #2134, #2136, #2138, #2205, #2213, #2227, #2298, #2326, #2327, #2342, #2384, #2464, #2500, #2516]
• Modified default settings:
  • Removed default B mode from core.modes [#2448]
  • Added space before timezone in default_time_format [#2531]
• IRC backend refactored to use asyncio [#2256]
  • Just in time, too: The asynchat module was removed in Python 3.12
• Improved IRC connection error handling [#2430, #2431]
• SopelDB adapted to SQLAlchemy 2.x style [#2243]
• Database can be configured all at once with a new db_url setting [#2087]
• Replaced pkg_resources with importlib.metadata [#2261, #2268]
• Added support for several new IRC features and IRCv3 specifications:
  • SASL EXTERNAL client certificate authentication [#2100, #2561]
  • Sopel uses the Bot Mode specification to mark itself as a bot and track other users that are flagged as bots [#2088, #2448]
  • userhost-in-names capability and the legacy UHNAMES feature [#2102]
  • chghost capability [#2116]
• Improved SASL handling when auth fails [#2187, #2191]
• Added automatic CASEMAPPING handling based on RPL_ISUPPORT [#2231]
• Plugins in ~/.sopel/modules are no longer loaded by default [#2119]
• Removed support for Phenny/Jenni plugin style [#2126]
• Ignore bot-tagged messages by default [#2089, #2272]
• Privilege tracking (MODE event handling) refactored [#2131]
• Maintain ordering of ISupport.PREFIX property [#2200]
• Added __slots__ to Channel and User objects [#2233]
• Improved handling of the bot's nick getting changed [#2240]
• Improved tracking and enforcement of rate limits [#2297]
• Prevent infinite loop on connection failure [#2306]
• Added ssl_ciphers and ssl_minimum_version settings [#2246, #2306]
• Added antiloop_repeat_text, antiloop_silent_after, antiloop_threshold, and antiloop_window settings to control command-loop prevention [#2320]
• Using , in ListAttribute values logs a warning [#2252]
  • Write lists with newlines instead; Sopel 9 will remove splitting on ,
• IRC connections use TLS on port 6697 by default [#2277]
  • Potentially a breaking change, but the configuration wizard has long written these settings to the final config file even if they were left at the default values
• Fixed UHNAMES race condition caused by joining channels too soon [#2321]
• Removed hunting for CA root store [#2278, #2303]
  • Sopel will simply use the system TLS library's default trust store unless the ca_certs setting is specified
• Improved truncation/splitting of over-length messages in e.g. bot.say() [#2310, #2450]
• Gracefully handle missing userhost-in-names data, e.g. with ZNC [#2312]
  • See ZNC issue #1224
• Override get_version() method for EntryPointPlugin [#2313]
• Take advantage of LINELEN token if advertised in ISUPPORT [#2346]
• Unescape ISUPPORT parameter values [#2429]
• Keep track of user realnames via WHO/WHOX [#2383, #2396]
• Raise error on receiving non-UTF-8 data if server advertises UTF8ONLY [#2365, #2369, #2372]
• Make all arguments safe() when preparing IRC commands [#2368]
• Ignore disabling coretasks handlers in per-channel settings [#2400]
• Add guardrails to channel logging [#2419]
  • Default is now always WARNING, regardless of file logging level
  • DEBUG level is no longer available for channel logs; it is far too noisy
• Handle core.modes setting being None [#2510]
• Handle broken symlinks to plugin files [#2545]
• Fixed auto-saving changes to Sopel's ignore list with .blocks [#2550]

API changes

• Importing sopel.module now emits a deprecation warning [#2170]
• Removed support for Phenny/Jenni plugin style [#2126]
• Stopped searching bot.memory['url_callbacks'] for link handlers [#2121]
• Deprecated bot.search_url_callbacks() [#2121, #2156, #2581]
• Deprecated db.execute() [#2243]
• Cleaned up parts of sopel.tools namespace
  • Deprecated tools.web.entity() and its r_entity constant, to be removed in Sopel 9.0 [#2205]
  • Deprecated the iteritems, iterkeys, itervalues, and raw_input 2to3-style shims, to be removed in Sopel 8.1 [#2228]
  • Moved Identifier to its own submodule, tools.identifiers [#2231]
    • tools.Identifier remains for now as a compatibility shortcut
  • Moved check_pid() and stderr() functions to cli.utils [#2385]
  • Deprecated tools.OutputRedirect class left over from the days before modern logging, to be removed in Sopel 8.1 [#2385]
• Moved channel privilege constants into their own sopel.privileges submodule [#2179, #2352, #2540]
  • The new sopel.privileges.AccessLevel type encapsulates all levels in a single object, which can support dynamic features in the future
  • The original, individual constants in sopel.plugin are still available for now, mapped to their corresponding AccessLevel values
• Sopel's API now uses enumerated types where suitable:
  • formatting.colors [#2122]
  • privileges.AccessLevel [#2540]
  • tools.events [#2127]
• bot-tagged messages are ignored by default [#2089]
• trigger.time is offset-aware [#2099]
• tools.time improvements & changes:
  • format_time() accepts offset-aware datetime values [#2132]
  • seconds_to_split() returns a Duration named tuple [#2446]
  • validate_timezone() now raises ValueError for None [#2446]
• Added plugin.allow_bots decorator [#2244]
• Added more rate-limit controls [#2290, #2434]
  • New message keyword-only argument to plugin.rate decorator, an optional string sent via NOTICE when a command is rate-limited
  • New plugin.rate_user, plugin.rate_channel, and plugin.rate_global decorators provide simpler control over a single rate-limit type, with the rate and message (optional) as positional parameters
  • Messages support various placeholders that will be replaced with runtime data about the triggering user, the rate limit in effect, and the plugin/command that was limited; see plugin.rate decorator documentation for details
• Added bot.safe_text_length() method [#2136]
• Added RPL_WHOISBOT to tools.events list [#2145]
• Added bot.plugins property [#2199]
• Added db.forget_channel() and db.forget_plugin() methods [#2224]
• Renamed db.delete_nick_group() to db.forget_nick_group() [#2224]
• Added CASEMAPPING support to Identifier [#2231]
  • Static Identifier._lower() method now obeys RFC 1459 casing rules
  • Identifier constructor now takes optional casemapping and chantypes kwargs; see documentation for details, or use the bot.make_identifier() helper method to automatically use the bot's knowledge about the current server's configuration
• Added CHANTYPES support to Identifier [#2236]
• Added bot.make_identifier_memory() helper to easily take advantage of the bot's CASEMAPPING and CHANTYPES knowledge [#2552]
• Changed reading core.nick from the bot's settings to return a str instead of Identifier [#2231]
  • Depending on what your plugin does, you might need to use the result of bot.make_identifier(bot.settings.core.nick) instead of the raw value
• Moved memory classes to sopel.tools.memories [#2237]
• Moved deprecated() from sopel.tools to sopel.lifecycle [#2232]
• db.get_nick_id() no longer creates a new nick ID by default [#2234]
• Standardized on ctcp instead of intent [#2253]
  • The old module.intent() decorator was deprecated in Sopel 7.1; use the plugin.ctcp() decorator instead
  • Sopel 8.0 removes intent from trigger.tags; use trigger.ctcp instead
• Updated invite-related event names in tools.events [#2270]
• Fixed checking if None exists in a SopelIdentifierMemory [#2306]
• Fixed and tested SopelIdentifierMemory interactions with plainer-vanilla dictionary types [#2525]
• Reworked capability negotiation [#2341]
  • See Managing Capability Negotiation documentation chapter
  • This replaces the irc.utils.CapReq interface, which is now deprecated
• Changed trigger.sender property to be None for events not associated with a channel or query [#2359]
• Fixed trigger.text erroneously containing command name for events with empty args [#2360]
• Removed STATUSMSG prefix from trigger.sender [#2370, #2441]
  • Status prefix is now stored in a new trigger.status_prefix attribute
  • The bot passed to plugin callables will use the status_prefix and sender attributes to build its default_destination, meaning no change to plugins' most common usages of bot.say(), bot.reply(), etc.
• Fixed formatting.color result when passing 0 as fg or bg [[#2366][]]
• config.types.FilenameAttribute strips quotes from its value [#2371]
• Made bot.connection_registered more robust [#2375, #2406, #2410]
• The bot initializes with an UninitializedBackend instead of None, to intercept actions that don't work prior to connecting [#2394]
  • Prohibited actions raise RuntimeError instead of falling through to a more esoteric error type or—worse—silently failing
• Added realname & is_bot fields to User objects [#2383, #2448]
• Use of plugin.require_privilege() or plugin.require_bot_privilege() decorators now implies require_chanmsg() [#2405, #2580]
• Fixed an inconsistency between behavior and documentation for tools.calculation.pow_complexity() [#2543]
• Soft-deprecated SopelWrapper type [#2521]
  • Long-term, we will phase out this subclass in favor of using contextvars; see #2460 for the full timeline
• Moved sopel.plugins to sopel.builtins [#2504]
  • We don't technically consider these to be part of the API, but if this isn't mentioned we just know someone will complain that the move broke some custom plugin code
• Removed previously-deprecated API features [#2128, #2129, #2141, #2144, #2146, #2147, #2148, #2150, #2329]

Housekeeping changes

• Many, many additions & improvements to documentation [#1990, #2169, #2178, #2182, #2226, #2238, #2239, #2257, #2275, #2276, #2323, #2379, #2386, #2409, #2424, #2426, #2442, #2489, #2494, #2495, #2496, #2533, #2539, #2543, #2550, #2558, #2574, #2600, #2606]
• Switched from Travis CI to GitHub Actions and incrementally improved tests [#2075, #2078, #2123, #2188, #2262, #2335, #2342, #2381, #2452, #2453, , , , ]
• Improved tooling for contributors, e.g. Makefile targets [#2502]
• Modernized packaging [#2328]
• Cleanup on aisle contrib/ [#2085, #2520]
• Cleanup of deprecated feature usage in core & built-in plugins [#2117, #2464, #2468, #2470]
• Import reorganization [#2179]
• Various code smell/style issues fixed [#2186, #2220, #2231, #2382, #2393, #2514]
• Various logging improvements [#2309, #2354, #2473, #2569]
• Deprecation warnings for the corresponding stable release now begin to emit logs in prerelease versions [#2522]
• Removed legacy CLI run mode [#2118]
• Removed obsolete, nonfunctional CLI argument --quiet [#2404]
• Removed old sopel.test_tools [#2139, #2177]
• Raw logs improved both output and decode failure handling [#2095]
• Started our journey into the wonderful world of type checking [#2185, #2462, #2471, #2480, #2491, #2535, #2555]
  • Many many PRs added or updated type hints in the course of adding/fixing something else, so we won't also list all of them here