Change #1226200 had a related patch set uploaded (by Nik Gkountas; author: Nik Gkountas):

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@master] Starter kit demo

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226200

6 March 2026 Update

In Q2 last year, we began exploring the concept of a Wikipedia starter kit, a language lifecycle sensitive approach that will provide  Wikipedia administrators with essential tasks, tools and resources for growing a language community. Over the last few weeks, we achieved a significant milestone in brainstorming potential designs at a team offsite, and refining those to create mockups for the starter kit dashboard and a main page customization feature. This weekend, we had an opportunity to share more about this work at the Language Community meeting more about this work and engage attendees in discussions around the designs. Summary of the feedback received included:

What language communities liked

“This starter kit looks amazing.”
“I like the Wiki health dashboard.”
“Glad to see the starter kit coming to life. It will now be easier for new language contributors to contribute in the Incubator more effectively.”
“Page creation is simpler with the kit.”
“I think it was great, especially how it will make it easy for people to customize their wiki homepages, which is quite difficult to do manually.”

Suggestions/questions
“Mostly homepage customization is limited to interface admins only, but if it’s open to everyone, it could lead to absolute vandalism.”
“If a user has to use this tool, they need to know what they need so the user can focus on the content, minimizing the steps used.”
“I like the policy pages, but how would it allow mass editing?”
“There is this design pattern that is used in Wikipedia; maybe the tool can match those colors.”
"Is the Starter Kit being functional for alternative writing systems (e.g., RTL scripts)."
“HotCat is one important gadget that helps to add categories. This is the main one I would like to see added.”
“It would be great if the Starter Kit is mobile-friendly.”
“Is this ok to use in the Incubator, especially when the language project is still small?
"Adding tools in the starter kit for example Capacity exchange tool"

Photo: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Starter_Kit_Presentation_at_the_Language_Community_Meeting_(February_2026).png

Change #1226200 abandoned by Nikerabbit:

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@master] Starter kit demo

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226200

20 March 2026 Update

• Concluded an early impact assessment for the Starter Kit T418031. Thanks to @cchen for helping with these early assessments.
• For the main page customization feature, we started working on adding template transclusion support to fetch Starter kit templates from test.wikipedia.org, recreate them as pages on the target wiki, and then publish the main page: https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/3
• We also drafted an internal technical plan covering goals, workflow, and implementation for the pilot phase. The current approach includes a Vue 3 frontend, a Node.js + Express API backend, a lightweight SQLite database, OAuth 1.0a for authentication, and deployment on Toolforge.
• In parallel, work has been ongoing to deploy the main page customization feature on Toolforge, with plans to test it with communities in the coming weeks. To prepare for this, the focus in the upcoming week will be on localizing the Starter kit, refining the UX flow to support creating, saving, and publishing templates in phases, and addressing any bugs that come up during testing.
• The team also presented the Starter Kit designs at the monthly Language Diversity Hub meeting to gather feedback on how it can best support new and smaller language communities. Overall, the response was very positive, and it was encouraging to see interest in how this could support language onboarding. Some of the feedback included making the selection of focus areas for main page customization even more intuitive, thinking through multilingual considerations, being mindful of policy translation challenges, and exploring ways communities can track growth through relevant metrics.

7 April 2026 Update

• Starter kit is currently being prepared for localization and added to Translatewiki.net. All user-facing strings have been extracted into i18n: T421456, T422182.
• Work is ongoing to address remaining bugs and UI/UX issues for the main page customization feature: T420418.
• An initial list of 11 wikis has been identified for testing the main page customization feature: Tongan, Central Kanuri, Nupe, Obolo, Southern Ndebele, Tigre, Mossi, Kusaal, and Pannonian Rusyn: T420075. These wikis represent a range of smaller language communities where the feature could be useful. Common issues include mobile responsiveness, missing or thin content, and design layout problems. The list was generated by reviewing the Incubator site creation log and includes mostly wikis created between 2023 and 2026. Additional conversations with the Language Diversity Hub considered communities currently participating in the mentorship program, such as Tibetan and Fulfulde. These communities will be approached for testing on April 13.
• In parallel, an initial wiki health framework and metrics for the starter kit were designed, with main page customization metrics mapped to this framework: T422571.