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Maniphest T415293

Shut down the API Portal
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Description

Hypothesis owner: @apaskulin
Hypothesis owner delegate: @HCoplin-WMF
Start date: April 6, 2026
Target completion date: June 30, 2026
Actual completion date: June 30, 2026
Hypothesis ID: 5.2.11b

If we complete API Portal documentation migration, we will be able to fully deprecate the API Portal system, which will simplify API documentation discovery, increase documentation consistency, and reduce the number of API support systems.

Scope

In scope:

  • Documentation on api.wikimedia.org
  • Documentation for APIs available through api.wikimedia.org

April-June project plan

Next steps:

April-June outcomes

API Portal components

API Portal components:

Related components:

Background

In 2020, the Wikimedia Foundation Platform Engineering Team wanted to create a home for Wikimedia API docs that was similar to other popular API docs sites, and that allowed developers to more easily create and manage API keys.

Building the API Portal as a standalone wiki benefits from the advantages of MediaWiki:

  • Ease of editing
  • Ability to translate content
  • Community collaboration through talk pages, watchlists, and other features

However, using a standalone wiki for the API Portal also has disadvantages:

  • Administration: Each new wiki needs a community of administrators, page patrollers, and other functionaries. A new wiki adds work for the Wikimedia technical community.
  • Technical complexity: MediaWiki is a complex ecosystem. Since the API Portal works differently from other Wikimedia wikis, we often find bugs that come from interactions with extensions, skins, and other wikis.
  • Visual inconsistency: The API Portal’s simplified visual design makes it difficult to access wiki features like special pages. In addition, global skin preferences can override the API Portal’s visual design entirely, making the site difficult to use.

Wikimedia Foundation’s Product Management, MediaWiki Interfaces, and Tech Docs teams have decided that the disadvantages of implementing the API Portal as a standalone wiki outweigh the advantages. We’re still working on exact plans and schedules for shutting down the Portal, but here is a general idea of what to expect:

  • Endpoints: api.wikimedia.org endpoints will continue to work as currently documented until at least June 2026. Starting in the second half of 2026, api.wikimedia.org endpoints will be migrated to new routes and eventually deprecated.
  • API keys: Most API keys created through the API Portal will continue to work. You can manage your API keys through Special:OAuthConsumerRegistration on Meta-Wiki.
  • Docs: Documentation from the API Portal will be consolidated and moved to other technical documentation wikis.

Information architecture

  • mw:Wikimedia APIs – main landing page for Wikimedia APIs
  • mw:Wikimedia APIs/subpages – topics that apply to multiple APIs
  • mw:[API name] API – landing pages for an individual API
  • mw:[API name] API/subpages – topics that apply to an individual API
  • mw:[tutorial name] – API tutorials
  • wikitech:API Portal/Deprecation – Information about deprecated api.wikimedia.org functionality. We can use this as an intermediary source of information to direct users to docs for API Portal APIs that are available elsewhere.

All APIs in the collection will have a landing page on mediawiki.org that uses this structure for consistency, but if those docs already exist on another wiki, the docs themselves can remain there instead of being migrated to mediawiki.org.

Links to the API Portal on other wikis

January-March hypothesis

Hypothesis owner: @apaskulin
Hypothesis owner delegate: @HCoplin-WMF
Start date: January 12, 2026
Target completion date: March 27, 2026
Actual completion date: April 2, 2026
Hypothesis ID: WE5.2.11

If we experiment and establish processes for standardizing documentation currently in the API Portal, we can consolidate sources of information and improve documentation consistency.

January-March project plan

January-March outcomes

Resources

Related Objects
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StatusSubtypeAssignedTask
 Resolved• apaskulinT415293 Shut down the API Portal
 Resolved• apaskulinT415312 Move Link Recommendation API docs off the API Portal
 Resolved• apaskulinT415686 Move Page Description API docs off the API Portal
 Resolved• apaskulinT415687 Move Feed API docs off the API Portal
 Resolved• apaskulinT415803 Move Core API docs off the API Portal
 ResolvedNoneT415923 Plan shutdown process for the API Portal
 In ProgressClement_GoubertT418494 Delete the API Portal wiki
 ResolvedClement_GoubertT418492 Redirect API Portal wiki URLs to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs
 ResolvedClement_GoubertT427537 Close the API Portal wiki
 ResolvedBUG REPORTClement_GoubertT429895 CentralAuth allows apiportalwiki as a legal source to fetch from
 ResolvedMarosteguiT430102 Delete apiportalwiki from wikireplicas
 OpenPRODUCTION ERRORSTranT430156 Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBQueryError: Error 1049: Unknown database 'apiportalwiki'Function: Wikimedia\Rdbms\DatabaseMySQL::doSelectDomainQuery: USE `apiportalwiki`
 DeclinedPRODUCTION ERRORNoneT430172 MediaWiki\Exception\FatalError: $wgServer must be set in LocalSettings.php. See <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgServer">https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgServer</a>.
 OpenClement_GoubertT430366 Remove apiportal (api.wikimedia.org) from analytics/refinery allowlist (possibly extra mediawiki-config or refinery build-deploy)
 ResolvedClement_GoubertT430531 Recalculate edit count following apiportalwiki deletion
 ResolvedReedyT421413 Remove apiportalwiki from $wmgCentralAuthAutoLoginWikis?
 ResolvedKBachT416586 Review reference documentation moved off the API Portal
 DuplicatePRODUCTION ERRORNoneT430161 Database errors

Event Timeline

There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden. Show Older Changes
• apaskulin added a subtask: T415686: Move Page Description API docs off the API Portal.Jan 27 2026, 5:05 PM
• apaskulin added a subtask: T415687: Move Feed API docs off the API Portal.
• apaskulin added a subtask: T415803: Move Core API docs off the API Portal.Jan 28 2026, 5:10 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 28 2026, 5:13 PM
• apaskulin removed a subtask: T415310: Move Wikifunctions API docs off the API Portal.Jan 28 2026, 7:14 PM
• apaskulin added a parent task: T405969: Implement documentation patterns in API doc collections.
Nemoralis added a project: User-notice.Jan 28 2026, 10:53 PM
• apaskulin added a subtask: T415923: Plan shutdown process for the API Portal.Jan 29 2026, 5:02 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)
Nemoralis unsubscribed.Jan 29 2026, 9:41 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 30 2026, 6:14 PM
Quiddity moved this task from To Triage to Not ready to announce on the User-notice board.Feb 5 2026, 11:43 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 6 2026, 3:25 PM
Clement_Goubert subscribed.Feb 13 2026, 11:13 AM
• apaskulin mentioned this in T265920: Unread notification count is not updated after marking notification read.Feb 19 2026, 6:07 PM
• apaskulin mentioned this in T267072: Irregular outline of burger menu.
Clement_Goubert created subtask T418492: Redirect API Portal wiki URLs to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs.Feb 26 2026, 2:58 PM
Clement_Goubert changed the status of subtask T418492: Redirect API Portal wiki URLs to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs from Open to Stalled.
Clement_Goubert created subtask T418494: Delete the API Portal wiki.Feb 26 2026, 3:04 PM
Clement_Goubert changed the status of subtask T418494: Delete the API Portal wiki from Open to Stalled.
Clement_Goubert removed a subtask: T418492: Redirect API Portal wiki URLs to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs.Feb 26 2026, 3:07 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 27 2026, 5:41 PM
TBurmeister mentioned this in T419037: Revscoring model cards should link to and be linked from Lift Wing API docs.Mar 4 2026, 5:29 PM
TBurmeister mentioned this in T419455: Generate OpenAPI descriptions for Lift Wing APIs.Mar 9 2026, 5:53 PM
TBurmeister updated the task description. (Show Details)
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 9 2026, 8:32 PM
klausman subscribed.Mar 18 2026, 1:23 PM
Fuzheado subscribed.Mar 19 2026, 10:18 AM
• apaskulin closed subtask T415312: Move Link Recommendation API docs off the API Portal as Resolved.Mar 23 2026, 5:43 PM
• apaskulin closed subtask T415686: Move Page Description API docs off the API Portal as Resolved.Mar 23 2026, 6:02 PM
STei-WMF subscribed.Mar 25 2026, 11:41 AM
Reedy created subtask T421413: Remove apiportalwiki from $wmgCentralAuthAutoLoginWikis?.Mar 26 2026, 5:44 PM
Reedy closed subtask T421413: Remove apiportalwiki from $wmgCentralAuthAutoLoginWikis? as Resolved.Mar 26 2026, 9:35 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 30 2026, 3:32 PM
• apaskulin closed subtask T415803: Move Core API docs off the API Portal as Resolved.Mar 30 2026, 5:29 PM
• apaskulin closed subtask T415687: Move Feed API docs off the API Portal as Resolved.Mar 30 2026, 6:48 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 30 2026, 9:30 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 2 2026, 6:36 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 2 2026, 6:39 PM
• apaskulin moved this task from Not ready to announce to Already announced/Archive on the User-notice board.Apr 6 2026, 2:28 PM
• apaskulin removed a parent task: T405969: Implement documentation patterns in API doc collections.Apr 7 2026, 3:41 PM
HCoplin-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 9 2026, 7:13 PM
KBach added a subtask: T416586: Review reference documentation moved off the API Portal.Apr 10 2026, 1:16 PM
KBach changed the status of subtask T416586: Review reference documentation moved off the API Portal from Open to Stalled.Apr 23 2026, 8:17 AM
KBach closed subtask T416586: Review reference documentation moved off the API Portal as Resolved.Apr 27 2026, 3:14 PM
• apaskulin closed subtask T415923: Plan shutdown process for the API Portal as Resolved.May 20 2026, 10:01 PM
Ameisenigel subscribed.May 21 2026, 9:16 PM
Clement_Goubert added a comment.May 28 2026, 4:30 PM

After discussion with @Ladsgroup, we'll be closing the wiki before T418492: Redirect API Portal wiki URLs to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs.
The plan is now as follows:

Prerequisites:

  • The API portal wiki is dumped, and the dump is durably stored on dumps.wikimedia.org
  • The reminders have been sent out and we're ready for the API portal wiki to become read-only

Steps

  1. Close apiportalwiki, it is now read-only except for stewards
  2. T418492: Redirect API Portal wiki URLs to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs, apiportalwiki is now unreachable and all non-API calls to apiportalwiki are HTTP 301 (Moved Permanently) to www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_APIs
  3. Once satisfied we won't want to reopen apiportalwiki for any reason, T418494: Delete the API Portal wiki and drop its database. The data is now irrecoverable except from backups and the last dump.
  4. Uninstall the custom skins and extensions used only by apiportalwiki

Potential issues

  • Some maintenance scripts, periodic jobs, or jobrunner jobs may fail during the period where apiportalwiki is closed and unreachable. These should be easily identifiable.
  • Behaviour of MediaWiki APIs under api.wikimedia.org (/core et al.) once the wiki is closed/deleted needs to be checked.
Clement_Goubert created subtask T427537: Close the API Portal wiki.May 28 2026, 4:34 PM
Clement_Goubert changed the status of subtask T427537: Close the API Portal wiki from Open to Stalled.
Clement_Goubert removed a subtask: T427537: Close the API Portal wiki.May 28 2026, 4:43 PM
Clement_Goubert updated the task description. (Show Details)
Novem_Linguae added a comment.May 28 2026, 5:40 PM

A small suggestion on the order of steps in Clement's comment. Perhaps the dump should occur after the wiki is set to read only. Edits -> freeze -> snapshot, instead of snapshot -> edits -> freeze.

• apaskulin added a comment.May 28 2026, 6:43 PM

@Clement_Goubert That sounds good to me! I'll let you know about the schedule once the Lift Wing API docs are migrated.

@Novem_Linguae I'm not sure how feasible it is to take a snapshot at a specific time, but I can follow-up with the dumps team and check.

bd808 added a comment.May 28 2026, 8:08 PM

I haven't reviewed the whole task tree, but is there a planned step to replace the custom skin with something we generally use such as vector-2022 as part of the decomm process? It would be nice to be able to drop and archive the wikimediaapiportal skin (T259661: Restrict skin options on API Portal Beta Site) rather than carry it indefinitely as baggage in the train.

bd808 added a comment.May 28 2026, 8:14 PM
In T415293#11965049, @bd808 wrote:

I haven't reviewed the whole task tree, but is there a planned step to replace the custom skin with something we generally use such as vector-2022 as part of the decomm process? It would be nice to be able to drop and archive the wikimediaapiportal skin (T259661: Restrict skin options on API Portal Beta Site) rather than carry it indefinitely as baggage in the train.

In T415293#11964281, @Clement_Goubert wrote:
  1. Once satisfied we won't want to reopen apiportalwiki for any reason, T418494: Delete the API Portal wiki and drop its database. The data is now irrecoverable except from backups and the last dump.
  2. Uninstall the custom skins and extensions used only by apiportalwiki

It looks like the answer to my question was already here in the full shutdown plan. I didn't consider that an actual delete would be done vs what I know more normally as moving to the closed group but staying online like https://aa.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. Sorry for the noise.

• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)May 29 2026, 5:20 PM
Clement_Goubert mentioned this in T422937: Cleanup ATS configuration for API paths.Jun 2 2026, 1:42 PM
• apaskulin added a comment.Jun 5 2026, 6:14 PM
In T415293#11964589, @Novem_Linguae wrote:

A small suggestion on the order of steps in Clement's comment. Perhaps the dump should occur after the wiki is set to read only. Edits -> freeze -> snapshot, instead of snapshot -> edits -> freeze.

After checking with the dumps team, it is possible to take a snapshot at a specific time, but it would require a manual process. Since I don't expect any significant updates to the wiki between the last automated dump on June 1 and the day the wiki enters read-only mode and since I expect the number of people interested in a dump of the wiki to be extremely small, I don't think it's worth asking the team to do a manual dump. The dump from June 1 will contain all essential content and revision history.

• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 5 2026, 6:21 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 11 2026, 5:21 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 11 2026, 6:43 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 12 2026, 3:40 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 15 2026, 6:47 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 18 2026, 4:55 PM
Clement_Goubert changed the status of subtask T418494: Delete the API Portal wiki from Stalled to In Progress.Jun 24 2026, 1:22 PM
Count_Count subscribed.EditedJun 24 2026, 1:47 PM
MariaDB [meta_p]> select is_closed from wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
+-----------+
| is_closed |
+-----------+
|         0 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

Please urgently set is_closed to 1 in the wiki table. Bots and tools use this table to find wikis. The unexpected redirect to a wiki page for Action API requests wreaks havoc, at least for some of my tools.

fnegri subscribed.Jun 24 2026, 2:07 PM

Is this in wikireplicas? I think meta_p is in two different clouddbs, I will find them.

fnegri added a comment.Jun 24 2026, 2:24 PM

This was not enough:

fnegri@clouddb1018:~$ sudo maintain-meta_p --all-databases
[...]
root@clouddb1018:s7[(none)]> select is_closed from meta_p.wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
+-----------+
| is_closed |
+-----------+
|         0 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)
fnegri added a comment.Jun 24 2026, 2:25 PM

Set it manually in SQL:

root@clouddb1018:s7[(none)]> UPDATE meta_p.wiki SET is_closed=1 where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.001 sec)
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0

root@clouddb1018:s7[(none)]> select is_closed from meta_p.wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
+-----------+
| is_closed |
+-----------+
|         1 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)
fnegri added a comment.Jun 24 2026, 2:26 PM

Did the same in clouddb1014:

root@clouddb1014:s7[(none)]> select is_closed from meta_p.wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
+-----------+
| is_closed |
+-----------+
|         0 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

root@clouddb1014:s7[(none)]> UPDATE meta_p.wiki SET is_closed=1 where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.000 sec)
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0

root@clouddb1014:s7[(none)]> select is_closed from meta_p.wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
+-----------+
| is_closed |
+-----------+
|         1 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)
fnegri added a comment.EditedJun 24 2026, 2:35 PM

This was not enough:

Apparently I needed to add --purge.

I've just run this on both clouddb1014 and clouddb1018, to make sure everything is consistent:

sudo maintain-meta_p --all-databases --purge

This deleted the row completely:

root@clouddb1014:s7[(none)]> select is_closed from meta_p.wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
Empty set (0.000 sec)

root@clouddb1018:s7[(none)]> select is_closed from meta_p.wiki where dbname = 'apiportalwiki';
Empty set (0.000 sec)
fnegri added a comment.Jun 24 2026, 2:40 PM

@Count_Count can you confirm the problem is resolved for your tools?

Count_Count added a comment.Jun 24 2026, 2:56 PM
In T415293#12050779, @fnegri wrote:

@Count_Count can you confirm the problem is resolved for your tools?

Yes, https://spamcheck.toolforge.org/ came up by itself just now. Much obliged!

• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 24 2026, 6:38 PM
Novem_Linguae unsubscribed.Jun 24 2026, 6:39 PM
Marostegui mentioned this in T430161: Database errors.Jun 25 2026, 2:00 PM
Marostegui added a subtask: T430161: Database errors.Jun 25 2026, 2:03 PM
Reedy added a subtask: T430156: Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBQueryError: Error 1049: Unknown database 'apiportalwiki'Function: Wikimedia\Rdbms\DatabaseMySQL::doSelectDomainQuery: USE `apiportalwiki`.Jun 25 2026, 3:00 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 29 2026, 4:19 PM
• apaskulin closed this task as Resolved.Jun 30 2026, 6:16 PM
• apaskulin updated the task description. (Show Details)
• apaskulin moved this task from Active projects to Done on the Tech-Docs-Team board.Jul 6 2026, 3:50 PM
Maintenance_bot edited projects, added: User-notice-archive; removed: User-notice.Thu, Jul 16, 4:32 PM
Bugreporter mentioned this in API-Portal.Thu, Aug 6, 9:41 AM
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