MediaWiki API help

This is an auto-generated MediaWiki API documentation page.

Documentation and examples: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/API:Main_page

Main module

Status: The MediaWiki API is a mature and stable interface that is actively supported and improved. While we try to avoid it, we may occasionally need to make breaking changes; subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list for notice of updates.

Erroneous requests: When erroneous requests are sent to the API, an HTTP header will be sent with the key "MediaWiki-API-Error" and then both the value of the header and the error code sent back will be set to the same value. For more information see API: Errors and warnings.

Specific parameters:
action

Which action to perform.

abusefiltercheckmatch
Check to see if an AbuseFilter matches a set of variables, an edit, or a logged AbuseFilter event.
abusefilterchecksyntax
Check syntax of an AbuseFilter filter.
abusefilterevalexpression
Evaluates an AbuseFilter expression.
abusefilterunblockautopromote
Unblocks a user from receiving autopromotions due to an abusefilter consequence.
abuselogprivatedetails
View private details of an AbuseLog entry.
acquiretempusername
Acquire a temporary user username and stash it in the current session, if temp account creation is enabled and the current user is logged out. If a name has already been stashed, returns the same name.
antispoof
Check a username against AntiSpoof's normalisation checks.
block
Block a user.
centralauthtoken
Fetch a centralauthtoken for making an authenticated request to an attached wiki.
centralnoticecdncacheupdatebanner
Request the purge of banner content stored in the CDN (front-end) cache for anonymous users, for the requested banner and language
centralnoticechoicedata
Get data needed to choose a banner for a given project and language
centralnoticequerycampaign
Get all configuration settings for a campaign.
changeauthenticationdata
Change authentication data for the current user.
changecontentmodel
Change the content model of a page
checktoken
Check the validity of a token from action=query&meta=tokens.
clearhasmsg
Clears the hasmsg flag for the current user.
clientlogin
Log in to the wiki using the interactive flow.
commentblock
The commentblock API allows blocking a user from the comment it originated from after filling out the following parameters: CommentID.
commentdelete
The commentdelete API allows deleting a comment after filling out the following parameters: CommentID.
commentlatestid
The commentlatestID API allows to retrieve latest comment ID after filling out the following parameters: pageID
commentlist
The commentlist API retrieves multiple comments and outputs them as a list after filling out the following parameters: pageID, order, pagerPage, and showForm.
commentsubmit
The commentsubmit API allows to submit/post a comment after filling out the following parameters: pageID, parentID, commentText.
commentvote
The commentvote API allows to vote on a comment after filling out the following parameters: commentID, voteValue.
compare
Get the difference between two pages.
createaccount
Create a new user account.
createlocalaccount
Forcibly create a local account. The central account must exist.
delete
Delete a page.
deletedumps
Delete dumps
deleteglobalaccount
Delete a global user.
echocreateevent
Manually trigger a notification to a user
echomarkread
Mark notifications as read for the current user.
echomarkseen
Mark notifications as seen for the current user.
echomute
Mute or unmute notifications from certain users or pages.
edit
Create and edit pages.
emailuser
Email a user.
embedvideo
Get generated video embed code for given parameters.
expandtemplates
Expands all templates within wikitext.
feedcontributions
Returns a user's contributions feed.
feedrecentchanges
Returns a recent changes feed.
feedwatchlist
Returns a watchlist feed.
filerevert
Revert a file to an old version.
generatedumps
Generate dumps
globalblock
Globally block or unblock a user.
globalpreferenceoverrides
Change local overrides for global preferences for the current user.
globalpreferences
Change global preferences of the current user.
globaluserrights
Add/remove a user to/from global groups.
help
Display help for the specified modules.
imagerotate
Rotate one or more images.
import
Import a page from another wiki, or from an XML file.
infobox
This module provides infobox parser
jsonconfig
Allows direct access to JsonConfig subsystem.
languagesearch
Search for language names in any script.
linkaccount
Link an account from a third-party provider to the current user.
linksuggest
Suggest link to editors on edit view
login
Log in and get authentication cookies.
logout
Log out and clear session data.
managetags
Perform management tasks relating to change tags.
mergehistory
Merge page histories.
moderation
Performs moderation-related action like Approve or Reject.
modifyserver
Modify a wiki's server name.
move
Move a page.
opensearch
Search the wiki using the OpenSearch protocol.
options
Change preferences of the current user.
paraminfo
Obtain information about API modules.
parse
Parses content and returns parser output.
patrol
Patrol a page or revision.
pollsubmitvote
AJAXPoll API module
protect
Change the protection level of a page.
purge
Purge the cache for the given titles.
query
Fetch data from and about MediaWiki.
removeauthenticationdata
Remove authentication data for the current user.
removeavatar
Remove an avatar, either yours or if you're privileged, also that of another user.
resetpassword
Send a password reset email to a user.
revisiondelete
Delete and undelete revisions.
rollback
Undo the last edit to the page.
rsd
Export an RSD (Really Simple Discovery) schema.
setglobalaccountstatus
Hide or lock (or unhide or unlock) a global user account.
setnotificationtimestamp
Update the notification timestamp for watched pages.
setpagelanguage
Change the language of a page.
shortenurl
Shorten a long URL into a shorter one.
smpuserprivacy
API module for setting the visibility ("privacy") of a profile field
smpuserprofiletype
Get a user's user page type or set your own user page type
socialprofile-delete-message
Delete a UserBoard message.
socialprofile-request-response
Responds to user relationship (friend/foe) requests.
socialprofile-send-message
Send a message to a user's UserBoard.
tag
Add or remove change tags from individual revisions or log entries.
templatedata
Fetch data stored by the TemplateData extension.
thank
Send a thank-you notification to an editor.
themelist
Get the list of all skins and their themes
torblock
Check if an IP address is blocked as a Tor exit node.
transcodereset
Users with the 'transcode-reset' right can reset and re-run a transcode job.
unblock
Unblock a user.
undelete
Undelete revisions of a deleted page.
unlinkaccount
Remove a linked third-party account from the current user.
upload
Upload a file, or get the status of pending uploads.
uploadavatar
Upload an avatar.
userrights
Change a user's group membership.
validatepassword
Validate a password against the wiki's password policies.
viewdumps
View dumps for specified type, filename or timestamp.
voteny
VoteNY API module
watch
Add or remove pages from the current user's watchlist.
webapp-manifest
Returns a webapp manifest.
webauthn
API Module to communicate between server and client during registration/authentication process.
wikidiscover
Get a list of wikis on a CreateWiki wikifarm.
categorytree
Internal. Internal module for the CategoryTree extension.
cspreport
Internal. Used by browsers to report violations of the Content Security Policy. This module should never be used, except when used automatically by a CSP compliant web browser.
editcheckreferenceurl
Internal. Check the status of a URL for use as a reference.
jsondata
Internal. Retrieve localized JSON data.
oathvalidate
Internal. Validate a two-factor authentication (OATH) token.
sanitize-mapdata
Internal. Performs data validation for Kartographer extension
scribunto-console
Internal. Internal module for servicing XHR requests from the Scribunto console.
stashedit
Internal. Prepare an edit in shared cache.
timedtext
Internal. Provides timed text content for usage by <track> elements
ulslocalization
Internal. Get the localization of ULS in the given language.
ulssetlang
Internal. Update user's preferred interface language.
visualeditor
Internal. Returns HTML5 for a page from the Parsoid service.
visualeditoredit
Internal. Save an HTML5 page to MediaWiki (converted to wikitext via the Parsoid service).
One of the following values: abusefiltercheckmatch, abusefilterchecksyntax, abusefilterevalexpression, abusefilterunblockautopromote, abuselogprivatedetails, acquiretempusername, antispoof, block, centralauthtoken, centralnoticecdncacheupdatebanner, centralnoticechoicedata, centralnoticequerycampaign, changeauthenticationdata, changecontentmodel, checktoken, clearhasmsg, clientlogin, commentblock, commentdelete, commentlatestid, commentlist, commentsubmit, commentvote, compare, createaccount, createlocalaccount, delete, deletedumps, deleteglobalaccount, echocreateevent, echomarkread, echomarkseen, echomute, edit, emailuser, embedvideo, expandtemplates, feedcontributions, feedrecentchanges, feedwatchlist, filerevert, generatedumps, globalblock, globalpreferenceoverrides, globalpreferences, globaluserrights, help, imagerotate, import, infobox, jsonconfig, languagesearch, linkaccount, linksuggest, login, logout, managetags, mergehistory, moderation, modifyserver, move, opensearch, options, paraminfo, parse, patrol, pollsubmitvote, protect, purge, query, removeauthenticationdata, removeavatar, resetpassword, revisiondelete, rollback, rsd, setglobalaccountstatus, setnotificationtimestamp, setpagelanguage, shortenurl, smpuserprivacy, smpuserprofiletype, socialprofile-delete-message, socialprofile-request-response, socialprofile-send-message, tag, templatedata, thank, themelist, torblock, transcodereset, unblock, undelete, unlinkaccount, upload, uploadavatar, userrights, validatepassword, viewdumps, voteny, watch, webapp-manifest, webauthn, wikidiscover, categorytree, cspreport, editcheckreferenceurl, jsondata, oathvalidate, sanitize-mapdata, scribunto-console, stashedit, timedtext, ulslocalization, ulssetlang, visualeditor, visualeditoredit
Default: help
format

The format of the output.

json
Output data in JSON format.
jsonfm
Output data in JSON format (pretty-print in HTML).
none
Output nothing.
php
Output data in serialized PHP format.
phpfm
Output data in serialized PHP format (pretty-print in HTML).
rawfm
Output data, including debugging elements, in JSON format (pretty-print in HTML).
xml
Output data in XML format.
xmlfm
Output data in XML format (pretty-print in HTML).
One of the following values: json, jsonfm, none, php, phpfm, rawfm, xml, xmlfm
Default: jsonfm
maxlag

Maximum lag can be used when MediaWiki is installed on a database replicated cluster. To save actions causing any more site replication lag, this parameter can make the client wait until the replication lag is less than the specified value. In case of excessive lag, error code maxlag is returned with a message like Waiting for $host: $lag seconds lagged.
See Manual: Maxlag parameter for more information.

Type: integer
smaxage

Set the s-maxage HTTP cache control header to this many seconds. Errors are never cached.

Type: integer
The value must be no less than 0.
Default: 0
maxage

Set the max-age HTTP cache control header to this many seconds. Errors are never cached.

Type: integer
The value must be no less than 0.
Default: 0
assert

Verify that the user is logged in (including possibly as a temporary user) if set to user, not logged in if set to anon, or has the bot user right if bot.

One of the following values: anon, bot, user
assertuser

Verify the current user is the named user.

Type: user, by any of username and Temporary user
requestid

Any value given here will be included in the response. May be used to distinguish requests.

servedby

Include the hostname that served the request in the results.

Type: boolean (details)
curtimestamp

Include the current timestamp in the result.

Type: boolean (details)
responselanginfo

Include the languages used for uselang and errorlang in the result.

Type: boolean (details)
origin

When accessing the API using a cross-domain AJAX request (CORS), set this to the originating domain. This must be included in any pre-flight request, and therefore must be part of the request URI (not the POST body).

For authenticated requests, this must match one of the origins in the Origin header exactly, so it has to be set to something like https://en.wikipedia.org or https://meta.wikimedia.org. If this parameter does not match the Origin header, a 403 response will be returned. If this parameter matches the Origin header and the origin is allowed, the Access-Control-Allow-Origin and Access-Control-Allow-Credentials headers will be set.

For non-authenticated requests, specify the value *. This will cause the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to be set, but Access-Control-Allow-Credentials will be false and all user-specific data will be restricted.

uselang

Language to use for message translations. action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=languages returns a list of language codes. You can specify user to use the current user's language preference or content to use this wiki's content language.

Default: user
variant

Variant of the language. Only works if the base language supports variant conversion.

errorformat

Format to use for warning and error text output

plaintext
Wikitext with HTML tags removed and entities replaced.
wikitext
Unparsed wikitext.
html
HTML
raw
Message key and parameters.
none
No text output, only the error codes.
bc
Format used prior to MediaWiki 1.29. errorlang and errorsuselocal are ignored.
One of the following values: bc, html, none, plaintext, raw, wikitext
Default: bc
errorlang

Language to use for warnings and errors. action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=languages returns a list of language codes. Specify content to use this wiki's content language or uselang to use the same value as the uselang parameter.

Default: uselang
errorsuselocal

If given, error texts will use locally-customized messages from the MediaWiki namespace.

Type: boolean (details)
centralauthtoken

When accessing the API using a cross-domain AJAX request (CORS), use this to authenticate as the current SUL user. Use action=centralauthtoken on this wiki to retrieve the token, before making the CORS request. Each token may only be used once, and expires after 10 seconds. This should be included in any pre-flight request, and therefore should be included in the request URI (not the POST body).

Permission:
apihighlimits
Use higher limits in API queries (slow queries: 500; fast queries: 5000). The limits for slow queries also apply to multivalue parameters.
Granted to: bot and sysop

Data types

Input to MediaWiki should be NFC-normalized UTF-8. MediaWiki may attempt to convert other input, but this may cause some operations (such as edits with MD5 checks) to fail.

Parameters that take multiple values are normally submitted with the values separated using the pipe character, e.g. param=value1|value2 or param=value1%7Cvalue2. If a value must contain the pipe character, use U+001F (Unit Separator) as the separator and prefix the value with U+001F, e.g. param=%1Fvalue1%1Fvalue2.

Some parameter types in API requests need further explanation:

boolean

Boolean parameters work like HTML checkboxes: if the parameter is specified, regardless of value, it is considered true. For a false value, omit the parameter entirely.

expiry

Expiry values may be relative (e.g. 5 months or 2 weeks) or absolute (e.g. 2014-09-18T12:34:56Z). For no expiry, use infinite, indefinite, infinity or never.

timestamp

Timestamps may be specified in several formats, see the Timestamp library input formats documented on mediawiki.org for details. ISO 8601 date and time is recommended: 2001-01-15T14:56:00Z. Additionally, the string now may be used to specify the current timestamp.

Templated parameters

Templated parameters support cases where an API module needs a value for each value of some other parameter. For example, if there were an API module to request fruit, it might have a parameter fruits to specify which fruits are being requested and a templated parameter {fruit}-quantity to specify how many of each fruit to request. An API client that wants 1 apple, 5 bananas, and 20 strawberries could then make a request like fruits=apples|bananas|strawberries&apples-quantity=1&bananas-quantity=5&strawberries-quantity=20.

Credits

API developers:

  • Yuri Astrakhan (creator, lead developer Sep 2006–Sep 2007)
  • Roan Kattouw (lead developer Sep 2007–2009)
  • Victor Vasiliev
  • Bryan Tong Minh
  • Sam Reed
  • Brad Jorsch (lead developer 2013–2020)

Please send your comments, suggestions and questions to [email protected] or file a bug report at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/.