This page is part of the MediaWiki Action API documentation.

MediaWiki API may require your application or client to provide authenticated user credentials and login for (a) querying information or data-modifying actions (b) making large queries with a higher request-per limit.

Two methods to authenticate

There are two ways to authenticate to the MediaWiki Action API:

Method 1. login

Bots and other non-interactive applications should use owner-only OAuth consumers if available as it is more secure. If not available or not applicable to the client, the login action may be used with bot passwords.

API documentation

The following documentation is the output of Special:ApiHelp/login, automatically generated by the pre-release version of MediaWiki that is running on this site (MediaWiki.org). Special:ApiHelp/login

{  
   "login": {  
      "lguserid": 21,
      "result": "Success",
      "lgusername": "William"
   }
}

/*
	login.js
	MediaWiki API Demos
	Demo of `Login` module: Sending request to login
	MIT License
*/

var api = new mw.Api();

api.login( 'your_bot_username', 'your_bot_password' ).done( function ( data ) {
	console.log( 'You are logged in as ' + data.login.lgusername );
} );

/*
	edit.js

	MediaWiki API Demos
	Demo of `Login` module: Sending post request to login

	MIT license
*/

var request = require( 'request' ).defaults( { jar: true } ),
	url = 'https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php';

// Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
function getLoginToken() {
	var params = {
		action: 'query',
		meta: 'tokens',
		type: 'login',
		format: 'json'
	};

	request.get( { url: url, qs: params }, function ( error, res, body ) {
		var data;
		if ( error ) {
			return;
		}
		data = JSON.parse( body );
		loginRequest( data.query.tokens.logintoken );
	} );
}

// Step 2: POST request to log in.
// Use of main account for login is not
// supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
// (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
function loginRequest( loginToken ) {
	var params = {
		action: 'login',
		lgname: 'bot_username',
		lgpassword: 'bot_password',
		lgtoken: loginToken,
		format: 'json'
	};

	request.post( { url: url, form: params }, function ( error, res, body ) {
		if ( error ) {
			return;
		}
		console.log( body );
	} );
}

// Start From Step 1
getLoginToken();

<?php

/*
    login.php

    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Login` module: Sending post request to login
    MIT license
*/

$endPoint = "https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php";

$login_Token = getLoginToken(); // Step 1
loginRequest( $login_Token ); // Step 2

// Step 1: GET request to fetch login token
function getLoginToken() {
	global $endPoint;

	$params1 = [
		"action" => "query",
		"meta" => "tokens",
		"type" => "login",
		"format" => "json"
	];

	$url = $endPoint . "?" . http_build_query( $params1 );

	$ch = curl_init( $url );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "/tmp/cookie.txt" );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/cookie.txt" );

	$output = curl_exec( $ch );
	curl_close( $ch );

	$result = json_decode( $output, true );
	return $result["query"]["tokens"]["logintoken"];
}

// Step 2: POST request to log in. Use of main account for login is not
// supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
// (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword
function loginRequest( $logintoken ) {
	global $endPoint;

	$params2 = [
		"action" => "login",
		"lgname" => "your_bot_username",
		"lgpassword" => "your_bot_password",
		"lgtoken" => $logintoken,
		"format" => "json"
	];

	$ch = curl_init();

	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endPoint );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query( $params2 ) );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "/tmp/cookie.txt" );
	curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/cookie.txt" );

	$output = curl_exec( $ch );
	curl_close( $ch );

	echo( $output );
}

#!/usr/bin/python3

"""
    login.py

    MediaWiki API Demos
    Demo of `Login` module: Sending post request to login
    MIT license
"""

import requests

USERNAME = "your_bot_username"
PASSWORD = "your_bot_password"

S = requests.Session()

URL = "https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php"

# Retrieve login token first
PARAMS_0 = {
    'action':"query",
    'meta':"tokens",
    'type':"login",
    'format':"json"
}

R = S.get(url=URL, params=PARAMS_0)
DATA = R.json()

LOGIN_TOKEN = DATA['query']['tokens']['logintoken']

print(LOGIN_TOKEN)

# Send a post request to login. Using the main account for login is not
# supported. Obtain credentials via Special:BotPasswords
# (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:BotPasswords) for lgname & lgpassword

PARAMS_1 = {
    'action': "login",
    'lgname': USERNAME,
    'lgpassword': PASSWORD,
    'lgtoken': LOGIN_TOKEN,
    'format': "json"
}

R = S.post(URL, data=PARAMS_1)
DATA = R.json()

print(DATA)
assert DATA['login']['result'] == 'Success'

Method 2. clientlogin

Interactive applications such as custom editors or patrolling applications that provide a service without intending to fully replace the website or mobile apps that aim to completely replace access to the web-based user interface should use the clientlogin action. However, one should prefer using OAuth if it is available for authenticating the tool, as it is easier and more secure. This module is available since MediaWiki 1.27.

API documentation

The following documentation is the output of Special:ApiHelp/clientlogin, automatically generated by the pre-release version of MediaWiki that is running on this site (MediaWiki.org). Special:ApiHelp/clientlogin

{  
   "clientlogin":{  
      "status":"PASS",
      "username":"William"
   }
}

#!/usr/bin/python3

"""
    clientlogin.py

    MediaWiki Action API Code Samples
    Demo of `clientlogin` module: Sending post request to login

    This demo app uses Flask (a Python web development framework).

    MIT license
"""

import requests
from flask import Flask, render_template, flash, request

S = requests.Session()
URL = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php"

# App config.
DEBUG = True
APP = Flask(__name__)
APP.config.from_object(__name__)
APP.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'enter_your_secret_key'


@APP.route("/", methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def show_form():
    """ Render form template and handle form submission request """

    if request.method == 'POST':
        username = request.form['username']
        password = request.form['password']
        start_client_login(username, password)

    return render_template('clientlogin_form.html')

def start_client_login(username, password):
    """ Send a post request along with login token, user information
    and return URL to the API to log in on a wiki """

    login_token = fetch_login_token()

    response = S.post(url=URL, data={
        'action': "clientlogin",
        'username': username,
        'password': password,
        'loginreturnurl': 'http://127.0.0.1:5000/',
        'logintoken': login_token,
        'format': "json"
    })

    data = response.json()

    if data['clientlogin']['status'] == 'PASS':
        flash('Login success! Welcome, ' + data['clientlogin']['username'] + '!')
    else:
        flash('Oops! Something went wrong -- ' + data['clientlogin']['messagecode'])

def fetch_login_token():
    """ Fetch login token via `tokens` module """

    response = S.get(
        url=URL,
        params={
            'action': "query",
            'meta': "tokens",
            'type': "login",
            'format': "json"})
    data = response.json()
    return data['query']['tokens']['logintoken']

if __name__ == "__main__":
    APP.run()

<!DOCTYPE html>
  <title>MediaWiki Log in</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="static/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css">

<div class="container">
  <h2>MediaWiki Log in</h2>
  <form action="" method="post" role="form">
    <div class="form-group">
      <div class="form-field">
        <div class="label-field">Username</div>
        <input name="username">
      </div>
      <div class="form-field">
        <div class="label-field">Password</div>
        <input type="password" name="password">
      </div>
    </div>
    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Log in</button>
  </form>
  <br>
  {% with messages = get_flashed_messages(with_categories=true) %}
  {% if messages %}
  {% for message in messages %}
  <div class="alert alert-info">
    {{ message[1] }}
  </div>
  {% endfor %}
  {% endif %}
  {% endwith %}
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>

{
    "clientlogin": {
        "status": "REDIRECT",
        "redirecttarget": "https://openid.example.net/openid-auth.php?scope=openid&response_type=code&client_id=ABC&redirect_uri=https://wiki.example.org/wiki/Special:OpenIDConnectReturn&state=XYZ123",
        "requests": [
            {
                "id": "OpenIdConnectResponseAuthenticationRequest",
                "metadata": {},
                "required": "required",
                "provider": "OpenID Connect at example.net",
                "account": "",
                "fields": {
                    "code": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "label": "OpenID Code",
                        "help": "OpenID Connect code response"
                    },
                    "state": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "label": "OpenID State",
                        "help": "OpenID Connect state response"
                    },
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

{
    "clientlogin": {
        "status": "UI",
        "message": "Two-factor authentication",
        "requests": [
            {
                "id": "TwoFactorAuthenticationRequest",
                "metadata": {},
                "required": "required",
                "provider": "",
                "account": "",
                "fields": {
                    "code": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "label": "Code",
                        "help": "Two-factor authentication code"
                    }
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

{
    "clientlogin": {
        "status": "PASS",
        "username": "Alice"
    }
}

Additional notes

• On wikis that allow anonymous editing, it's possible to edit through the API without logging in, but it's highly recommended that you do log in. On private wikis, logging in is required to use any API functionality.
• It is recommended to create a separate user account for your application. This is especially important if your application is carrying out automated editing or invoking large or performance-intensive queries. With that, it is easy to track changes made by the application and apply special rights to the application's account.
• If you are sending a request that should be made by a logged-in user, add assert=user parameter to the request you are sending in order to check whether the user is logged in. If the user is not logged-in, an assertuserfailed error code will be returned.
• To check if an account has bot rights, add assert=bot parameter to the request. If the account does not have bot rights, an assertbotfailed error code will be returned.

See also

• API:Logout
• API:Userinfo - Returns information about the currently logged-in user
• Interactive login with action=clientlogin in mwapi