MediaWiki Action API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: MediaWiki Action API
  description: 'The MediaWiki Action API is the original programmatic interface to MediaWiki, exposed under /w/api.php on every MediaWiki installation. All operations dispatch via the ?action= query parameter.
    The API supports JSON, XML, and PHP serialization; JSON is the recommended format.


    Wikimedia projects strongly recommend serial (not parallel) calls, the use of maxlag for non-interactive jobs, and a contactable User-Agent header. The Action API remains the primary write interface
    (edit, upload, login, patrol) even where the Core REST API is also available.'
  version: '1.45'
  x-generated-from: documentation
  x-source-url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
  x-last-validated: '2026-05-29'
  contact:
    name: Wikimedia Foundation
    url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Etiquette
  license:
    name: CC BY-SA 4.0
    url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
servers:
- url: https://en.wikipedia.org/w
  description: English Wikipedia
- url: https://{lang}.wikipedia.org/w
  description: Per-language Wikipedia
  variables:
    lang:
      default: en
      description: Language code
- url: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w
  description: Wikimedia Commons
- url: https://www.wikidata.org/w
  description: Wikidata
- url: https://www.mediawiki.org/w
  description: MediaWiki.org
tags:
- name: Query
  description: Read-only data retrieval (action=query) — pages, revisions, links, search
- name: Parse
  description: Wikitext parsing (action=parse)
- name: Edit
  description: Create/modify page content (action=edit)
- name: Authentication
  description: Login, logout, token retrieval (action=login, clientlogin, logout, query&meta=tokens)
- name: Upload
  description: File upload (action=upload)
- name: Patrol
  description: Mark edits as patrolled (action=patrol)
- name: Meta
  description: Metadata operations (action=opensearch, action=feedrecentchanges)
paths:
  /api.php:
    get:
      operationId: callActionApiGet
      summary: MediaWiki Action Dispatch an Action API Call (GET)
      description: Generic dispatch endpoint for read operations. Use ?action=query for data retrieval, ?action=parse to parse wikitext, ?action=opensearch for auto-complete. Always include 
        format=json. Combine multiple titles with the pipe character (titles=A|B|C). Use the maxlag parameter for non-interactive jobs.
      tags:
      - Query
      - Parse
      - Meta
      parameters:
      - name: action
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - query
          - parse
          - opensearch
          - feedrecentchanges
          - feedcontributions
          - feedwatchlist
          - sitematrix
          - compare
          - expandtemplates
          - help
          - paraminfo
          - rsd
          example: query
        description: API action to dispatch
      - name: format
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - json
          - jsonfm
          - xml
          - xmlfm
          - php
          - rawfm
          - none
          default: json
        description: Response format. Always use json.
      - name: titles
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Pipe-separated list of titles
        example: Earth|Mars|Venus
      - name: pageids
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Pipe-separated list of page IDs
      - name: prop
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Properties to fetch (info|revisions|links|categories|images|extracts|...)
        example: info|revisions
      - name: list
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: List generators (allpages|search|recentchanges|categorymembers|...)
      - name: meta
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Meta queries (siteinfo|userinfo|tokens|...)
        example: tokens
      - name: maxlag
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
        description: Maximum replication lag in seconds before the request is rejected. Required for bots.
        example: 5
      - name: smaxage
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
        description: Shared-cache max-age in seconds
      - name: maxage
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
        description: Cache max-age in seconds
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Action result
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActionResult'
        '429':
          description: Rate limited - retry with exponential backoff
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
    post:
      operationId: callActionApiPost
      summary: MediaWiki Action Dispatch an Action API Call (POST)
      description: Generic dispatch endpoint for write operations. Use ?action=edit to create/modify pages, ?action=upload for files, ?action=login or ?action=clientlogin to authenticate. All write 
        operations require a CSRF token from action=query&meta=tokens. POSTs are not cached - use them for writes only.
      tags:
      - Edit
      - Upload
      - Authentication
      - Patrol
      parameters:
      - name: action
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - edit
          - upload
          - login
          - clientlogin
          - logout
          - patrol
          - rollback
          - move
          - delete
          - protect
          - block
          - unblock
          - thank
          - createaccount
          - emailuser
          - managetags
          - tag
          - options
          example: edit
      - name: format
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - json
          - jsonfm
          - xml
          - xmlfm
          default: json
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/x-www-form-urlencoded:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActionApiWriteRequest'
          multipart/form-data:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActionApiWriteRequest'
            description: Use multipart for action=upload
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Action result
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActionResult'
        '401':
          description: Authentication required or invalid token
        '403':
          description: Permission denied
        '429':
          description: Rate limited
      security:
      - BearerAuth: []
      - CookieAuth: []
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
components:
  securitySchemes:
    BearerAuth:
      type: http
      scheme: bearer
      description: OAuth 2.0 bearer token from meta.wikimedia.org
    CookieAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: cookie
      name: '{wiki}wikiUserID'
      description: Session cookie obtained via action=login or action=clientlogin
  schemas:
    ActionResult:
      type: object
      description: Generic envelope for Action API responses. Concrete payload shape depends on action and prop/list/meta selection.
      properties:
        batchcomplete:
          type: string
          description: Present when the batch completed in one round-trip
        continue:
          type: object
          description: Continuation tokens for paginated responses
        query:
          type: object
          description: Result body for action=query
        parse:
          type: object
          description: Result body for action=parse
        edit:
          type: object
          description: Result body for action=edit
        login:
          type: object
          description: Result body for action=login
        error:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActionApiError'
        warnings:
          type: object
    ActionApiWriteRequest:
      type: object
      required:
      - token
      properties:
        title:
          type: string
          description: Page title for edit/move/delete/protect
        pageid:
          type: integer
          description: Alternative to title
        text:
          type: string
          description: Full wikitext content for action=edit
        appendtext:
          type: string
        prependtext:
          type: string
        summary:
          type: string
          description: Edit summary
        token:
          type: string
          description: CSRF token from query&meta=tokens
        basetimestamp:
          type: string
          format: date-time
          description: Timestamp of base revision for edit conflict detection
        starttimestamp:
          type: string
          format: date-time
        bot:
          type: boolean
          description: Mark as bot edit (requires bot right)
        minor:
          type: boolean
        recreate:
          type: boolean
        createonly:
          type: boolean
        nocreate:
          type: boolean
        lgname:
          type: string
          description: Login username (action=login)
        lgpassword:
          type: string
          description: Login password (action=login)
        lgtoken:
          type: string
          description: Login token
        filename:
          type: string
          description: Destination filename for action=upload
        file:
          type: string
          format: binary
          description: File contents for action=upload (multipart)
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
          description: Source URL for action=upload (sideload)
        comment:
          type: string
          description: Upload comment
        tags:
          type: string
          description: Pipe-separated change tags
    ActionApiError:
      type: object
      properties:
        code:
          type: string
          example: ratelimited
        info:
          type: string
          description: Human-readable error description
        '*':
          type: string
          description: Legacy error text
        docref:
          type: string
          description: Pointer to docs for this error class