[4][5][6] It was originally written by Robey Pointer in December 1993 to help manage and protect the EFnet channel #gayteen; one Eggdrop bot version was named Valis.

[7][8][9] Eggdrop was originally intended to help manage and protect channels from takeover attempts.

[5][9][14] A large number of Tcl scripts are available to expand the bot's functionality, most of them written by Eggdrop users.

[5][15][16] Scripts are available to add and extend support for: online games, stats, user and channel management, information storage and lookup, greeting channel members, tracking last seen times, botnet management, anti-spam, file serving and distribution (usually via the DCC protocol), IRC services (similar to ChanServ and NickServ), and much more.

[citation needed] Eggdrop includes built-in support for sharing user information and channel bans.