git:20260622.98f3bfc to git:20260622.8cb1f08

---

name: wikipedia-wikiprojects

description: Understand and work with English Wikipedia's WikiProject system — finding relevant projects, interpreting assessment tables, using Popular pages and work lists, and navigating project directories

license: MIT

compatibility: opencode

depends_on: [wikimedia-api-access, wikipedia-page-anatomy]

skill_discovery_hints:

- keywords: ["WikiProject", "WikiProject directory", "WikiProject assessment", "Popular pages"]

- keywords: ["WikiProject banner", "project template", "task force", "work group"]

- keywords: ["article alerts", "cleanup listing", "WikiProject Council"]

last_verified: 2026-06-22

---

> ⚠️ **User-Agent required:** The API examples below use the Action API. All

> requests must include a descriptive `User-Agent` header. See the

> **[wikimedia-api-access](../wikimedia-api-access/SKILL.md)** skill for the

> correct format.

>

---

## SOP: What WikiProjects Are

WikiProjects are **volunteer communities** that organize work around a specific

topic area. They assess article quality, track improvements, coordinate clean-up

drives, and maintain topic-specific guidelines. Every WikiProject is itself a

wiki page (or set of pages) in the `Wikipedia:` namespace.

WikiProjects serve three main functions:

1. **Assessment** — rate articles by quality (Stub→Start→C→B→GA→FA) and

importance (Low→Mid→High→Top) within their topic area

2. **Coordination** — maintain work lists, article alerts, and cleanup listings

3. **Standards** — define style guides, reliable sources, and notability

criteria specific to their topic

---

## SOP: Finding WikiProjects

### The Curated Directory

The primary entry point is the manually maintained directory:

```

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Directory

```

This organizes projects by broad topic area (Culture, Geography, History,

Science, Technology, etc.) with active/inactive status indicators.

### The Bot-Maintained Directory

A complementary list, auto-generated from on-wiki data:

```

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Directory

```

This is updated by bot and includes subproject/task-force information that may

not appear in the manual directory.

### Category-Based Discovery

All WikiProjects are categorized under `Category:WikiProjects`:

```bash

# List all WikiProjects (paginated, up to 500 pages)

curl -s -H "User-Agent: MyBot/1.0 (user@example.com)" \

"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=categorymembers&\

cmtitle=Category:WikiProjects&cmtype=page&cmlimit=max&format=json"

```

Subcategories include:

- `Category:Active WikiProjects` — actively maintained

- `Category:Inactive WikiProjects` — dormant or defunct

- `Category:WikiProject Council` — meta-project about WikiProjects

### Searching by Topic

To find the WikiProject for a specific topic, search the `Wikipedia:` namespace:

```bash

# Search for WikiProjects about "Chemistry"

curl -s -H "User-Agent: MyBot/1.0 (user@example.com)" \

"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=search&\

srsearch=WikiProject Chemistry&srnamespace=4&format=json"

```

The naming convention is typically `Wikipedia:WikiProject <Topic>` or

`Wikipedia:WikiProject <Parent>/<Sub-topic>`.

---

## SOP: Understanding WikiProject Pages

Every active WikiProject has a main page (the project home) and may have

several important subpages:

### Common Subpages

| Subpage | Purpose | Example URL |

|---------|---------|-------------|

| `/Assessment` | Quality × importance matrix, statistics | `Wikipedia:WikiProject_Physics/Assessment` |

| `/Popular_pages` | Most-viewed articles in scope (bot-generated) | `Wikipedia:WikiProject_Physics/Popular_pages` |

| `/Article_alerts` | Automated notices: AfDs, PRODs, GANs, etc. | `Wikipedia:WikiProject_Physics/Article_alerts` |

| `/Cleanup_listing` | Articles needing cleanup, by type | `Wikipedia:WikiProject_Physics/Cleanup_listing` |

| `/Members` | List of project participants | `Wikipedia:WikiProject_Physics/Members` |

| `/To_do` | Manual task list maintained by members | `Wikipedia:WikiProject_Physics/To_do` |

Not all projects have all subpages — some are optional or require opt-in to

bot generation.

### The Assessment Table

The `/Assessment` subpage (when present) is the most information-dense page:

```

┌──────────┬───────┬──────┬────┬─────┬──────┬──────┬───────┐

│ │ Top │ High │Mid │ Low │ None │Total │ │

├──────────┼───────┼──────┼────┼─────┼──────┼──────┼───────┤

│ FA │ 12 │ 45 │ 89 │ 134 │ 0 │ 280 │ │

│ GA │ 23 │ 67 │156 │ 289 │ 0 │ 535 │ │

│ B │ 45 │ 234 │567 │1234 │ 0 │ 2080 │ │

│ C │ 34 │ 456 │890 │2345 │ 0 │ 3725 │ │

│ Start │ 12 │ 345 │678 │4567 │ 0 │ 5602 │ │

│ Stub │ 3 │ 89 │234 │1890 │ 0 │ 2216 │ │

│ List │ 5 │ 23 │ 45 │ 123 │ 0 │ 196 │ │

│ Unassess │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │ 450 │ 450 │ │

│ Total │ 134 │1259 │2659│10582│ 450 │15084 │ │

└──────────┴───────┴──────┴────┴─────┴──────┴──────┴───────┘

```

**How to read it:**

- **Top/High importance** + **Stub/Start quality** = highest-priority

improvement targets

- **High importance + B/C quality** = good articles that could be improved to GA

- **Unassessed** articles haven't been rated yet — evaluate them first

### The Popular Pages Table

The `/Popular_pages` subpage is **bot-generated** from pageview data and shows

the most-read articles within the project's scope:

| Rank | Page | Views | Quality | Importance |

|------|------|-------|---------|------------|

| 1 | Physics | 1,234,567 | B | Top |

| 2 | Albert Einstein | 987,654 | FA | Top |

| 3 | Quantum mechanics | 876,543 | B | Top |

| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |

The data is pre-sorted by pageviews descending. The bot (`Community_Tech_bot`)

updates these ~monthly.

**Master index of all Popular_pages reports:**

```

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Community_Tech_bot/Popular_pages

```

This page indexes every WikiProject that has opted into the bot, organized by

topic category. Browse it to discover which projects have traffic data.

---

## SOP: Interpreting WikiProject Banners on Talk Pages

WikiProjects add **banner templates** to article talk pages. A single article

can be tagged by multiple WikiProjects. Example:

```wikitext

{{WikiProject Physics|class=B|importance=Top}}

{{WikiProject Biography|class=B|importance=Mid|s&a-work-group=yes}}

{{WikiProject Chemistry|class=C|importance=Low}}

```

### What the Banner Tells You

| Parameter | Meaning | Values |

|-----------|---------|--------|

| `class` | Quality rating | `FA`, `GA`, `B`, `C`, `Start`, `Stub`, `List`, `NA` |

| `importance` | Priority within project | `Top`, `High`, `Mid`, `Low`, `NA` |

| Work group flags | Task force membership | Varies by project (e.g., `s&a-work-group`) |

### Checking Programmatically

```python

import requests

def get_wikiproject_banners(title):

"""Fetch WikiProject banner templates from a talk page."""

headers = {'User-Agent': 'MyBot/1.0 (user@example.com)'}

# Get the talk page wikitext

params = {

'action': 'parse', 'page': f'Talk:{title}',

'prop': 'wikitext', 'format': 'json',

}

resp = requests.get(

'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php',

params=params, headers=headers, timeout=30

)

resp.raise_for_status()

wikitext = resp.json()['parse']['wikitext']['*']

# Extract WikiProject templates

import re

projects = []

for match in re.finditer(r'\{\{(WikiProject[^}|]+)\}\}', wikitext):

banner = match.group(1)

# Parse class and importance

class_match = re.search(r'\|class=(\w+)', banner)

imp_match = re.search(r'\|importance=(\w+)', banner)

name_match = re.match(r'WikiProject[_ ](\w+)', banner)

if name_match:

projects.append({

'project': name_match.group(1),

'class': class_match.group(1) if class_match else None,

'importance': imp_match.group(1) if imp_match else None,

})

return projects

# Example

for p in get_wikiproject_banners('Albert Einstein'):

print(f"{p['project']}: {p['class']} / {p['importance']}")

```

### Check if a Project Exists

```python

def has_project(project_name):

"""Check if a WikiProject page exists."""

headers = {'User-Agent': 'MyBot/1.0 (user@example.com)'}

params = {

'action': 'query',

'titles': f'Wikipedia:WikiProject_{project_name}',

'format': 'json',

}

resp = requests.get(

'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php',

params=params, headers=headers, timeout=10

)

pages = resp.json()['query']['pages']

return '-1' not in pages # '-1' means page doesn't exist

# Check common projects

for project in ['Physics', 'Medicine', 'Chemistry', 'Mathematics']:

exists = has_project(project)

print(f"WikiProject {project}: {'✓ exists' if exists else '✗ not found'}")

```

---

## SOP: Finding High-Impact Work

### Most Active WikiProjects

Projects with large assessment tables and frequent edits signal active

communities. To gauge activity:

1. **Check the Assessment table** — a large table with recent updates indicates

active assessment

2. **Check the Popular_pages page** — if it exists and is current, the project

opted into automated tooling

3. **Check Recent Changes** — search for recent edits tagged with the project's

banner template

### Finding Top-Priority Work

The highest-ROI improvement targets for any project:

1. **Top/High importance + Stub/Start quality** — these are the most-read

articles in the worst shape. Prioritize them.

2. **Popular pages with low quality** — cross-reference the Popular_pages table

with the Assessment table to find widely-read articles that need improvement

3. **Unassessed articles** — pages that haven't been rated at all. Assess them

first before any other action.

### Using the Database for Bulk Analysis

For deep analysis, the `page_assessments` table provides programmatic access.

See the **[wikimedia-page-assessment](../wikimedia-page-assessment/SKILL.md)**

skill for SQL queries, schema documentation, and pre-built reports.

---

## SOP: Task Forces and Work Groups

Large WikiProjects often have **task forces** (or work groups) — sub-projects

focused on a narrower topic within the parent project.

Examples:

- `WikiProject Physics` → `Task Force: Biographies`, `Task Force: Relativity`

- `WikiProject Medicine` → `Task Force: Cardiology`, `Task Force: Pharmacology`

Task forces are listed on the parent project's main page, typically in a

sidebar or infobox. The naming convention is:

```

Wikipedia:WikiProject <Parent>/<Task Force>

```

---

## Guardrails

### ❌ Don't Assume All Projects Are Active

Many WikiProjects are dormant. Check the `/Assessment` subpage — if it exists

and has recent data, the project is likely active. If not, the project may be

defunct.

### ❌ Don't Create New WikiProjects Lightly

Creating a new WikiProject requires significant community buy-in. Propose at

`Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Proposals` first. Most topic areas are already

covered by existing projects or task forces.

### ❌ Don't Edit Assessment Tables Manually

Assessment data is generated by bots from talk page banners. Don't edit the

`/Assessment` subpage directly — update the banner on the article's talk page

instead.

### ❌ Don't Confuse WikiProjects with Portals

WikiProjects are workspaces for editors. Portals (`Portal:`) are reader-facing

entry points to a topic. They are different namespaces with different purposes.

---

## Cross-References

| Related Skill | Why |

|--------------|-----|

| **[wikimedia-api-access](../wikimedia-api-access/SKILL.md)** | User-Agent and API patterns for WikiProject queries |

| **[wikipedia-page-anatomy](../wikipedia-page-anatomy/SKILL.md)** | Article structure — where WikiProject banners appear on talk pages |

| **[wikipedia-talk-page](../wikipedia-talk-page/SKILL.md)** | Talk pages — WikiProject banners are placed here |

| **[wikimedia-page-assessment](../wikimedia-page-assessment/SKILL.md)** | SQL queries for page_assessments table — bulk analysis of project data |

| **[wikimedia-pageviews](../wikimedia-pageviews/SKILL.md)** | Pageview data — Popular_pages combines views with assessments |

| **[wikipedia-categories](../wikipedia-categories/SKILL.md)** | Category system — WikiProjects often maintain topic-specific categories |

---

## Tooling

### 🔧 List WikiProjects (`scripts/list-wikiprojects.sh`)

List active WikiProjects by category:

```bash

./scripts/list-wikiprojects.sh # All WikiProjects

./scripts/list-wikiprojects.sh active # Active only

./scripts/list-wikiprojects.sh science # Science category

```

### 🔧 Check Project (`scripts/check-project.sh`)

Check whether a WikiProject exists and show its metadata:

```bash

./scripts/check-project.sh Physics

./scripts/check-project.sh "United States History"

```

### 🐍 WikiProject Discovery (`assets/discover-wikiprojects.py`)

Python tool for discovering WikiProjects by topic:

```python

from assets.discover_wikiprojects import find_project, list_active

# Find the most relevant project for a topic

project = find_project("quantum physics")

print(project) # → WikiProject Physics

# List all active projects

active = list_active()

print(f"{len(active)} active WikiProjects")

```

### 🐍 Banner Parser (`assets/banner-parser.py`)

Parse WikiProject banners from talk pages:

```python

from assets.banner_parser import parse_banners

banners = parse_banners("Albert Einstein")

# → [{'project': 'Physics', 'class': 'B', 'importance': 'Top'}, ...]

```

### 📚 WikiProject Reference (`references/wikiproject-directory.md`)

Reference guide covering:

- Complete list of major active WikiProjects by topic area

- Common banner parameters and their meanings

- Subpage naming conventions

- Task force and work group patterns

- Bot-maintained pages and their update schedules