Wikisource is the Wikimedia Foundation's free library of source texts — public-domain and freely-licensed books, historical documents, legal texts, constitutions, speeches, and other transcribed primary-source works in over 70 languages. The platform exposes its content through the same API surfaces as all MediaWiki installations: the MediaWiki Action API (action=query|parse|edit at /w/api.php), the MediaWiki Core REST API (/w/rest.php/v1/ for page CRUD, search, history, and transforms), and the legacy Wikimedia REST API v1 (/api/rest_v1/ for cached reads at up to 200 RPS). All APIs are free at point of use and governed by the Wikimedia API usage guidelines — a contactable User-Agent is mandatory and serial requests are preferred over parallel bursts.
Wikisource publishes 10 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Citation API, Math API, Mobile API, and 7 more. Tagged areas include Open Data, Open Knowledge, Literature, Historical Documents, and Public Domain.
The Wikisource catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.
Wikisource’s developer surface includes engineering blog, documentation, status page, and 20 more developer resources.
Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the
Government & Public Sector regime, so
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Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it
carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts
themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already
holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in
front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created.
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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):
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The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market:
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not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.
Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted.
Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.
Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.
The primary programmatic interface to Wikisource, exposed at /w/api.php on each language subdomain. Operations are dispatched via the action= parameter (query, parse, edit, uplo...
Modern REST surface available on Wikisource at /w/rest.php/v1/. Provides page reads (source, HTML, bare metadata), full-text search, file metadata, page history, revision retrie...
Caching-optimised read API available at /api/rest_v1/ on each Wikisource language subdomain. Provides page summaries, full HTML, media lists, and language links for Wikisource p...
aid: wikisource
name: Wikisource
description: 'Wikisource is the Wikimedia Foundation''s free library of source texts — public-domain and freely-licensed books,
historical documents, legal texts, constitutions, speeches, and other transcribed primary-source works in over 70 languages.
The platform exposes its content through the same API surfaces as all MediaWiki installations: the MediaWiki Action API
(action=query|parse|edit at /w/api.php), the MediaWiki Core REST API (/w/rest.php/v1/ for page CRUD, search, history, and
transforms), and the legacy Wikimedia REST API v1 (/api/rest_v1/ for cached reads at up to 200 RPS). All APIs are free at
point of use and governed by the Wikimedia API usage guidelines — a contactable User-Agent is mandatory and serial requests
are preferred over parallel bursts.'
url: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Wikisource
deliveryModel:
model: saas
open_source: false
commercial: true
callable_host: false
label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
confidence: medium
source:
- openapi
- pricing
generated: '2026-08-28'
method: derived
accessModel:
pricing: free
onboarding: open
trial: false
try_now: true
public: true
gated: none
gated_source:
- onboarding
label: Free · Open access
confidence: low
source:
- plans
- security
generated: '2026-11-13'
method: derived
image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/120px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-10-06'
x-type: opensource
x-category: Open Data
x-tier: 2
x-tier-reason: Sister Wikimedia project; free public-domain text library with full MediaWiki API surface
tags:
- Open Data
- Open Knowledge
- Literature
- Historical Documents
- Public Domain
- Transcription
- Primary Sources
- Non-Profit
- Open Source
tags_raw:
- Open Data
- Open Knowledge
- Literature
- Historical Documents
- Public Domain
- Transcription
- Primary Sources
- Non-Profit
- Open Source
- Open-Source
apis:
- name: MediaWiki Action API
description: The primary programmatic interface to Wikisource, exposed at /w/api.php on each language subdomain. Operations
are dispatched via the action= parameter (query, parse, edit, upload, login, patrol, ...). Key for reading transcribed
texts, searching categories, and editing or proofread-status updating. JSON is the recommended response format. Requests
must carry a contactable User-Agent header.
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Action API
- Edit
- Search
- Parse
tags_raw:
- Action API
- Read
- Write
- Edit
- Search
- Parse
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
- type: Sandbox
url: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox
- type: Tutorials
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Tutorial
- type: Etiquette
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Etiquette
- name: MediaWiki Core REST API
description: Modern REST surface available on Wikisource at /w/rest.php/v1/. Provides page reads (source, HTML, bare metadata),
full-text search, file metadata, page history, revision retrieval and comparison, and wikitext-to-HTML / HTML-to-wikitext
transforms. Well-suited for integrations that need standard HTTP verbs rather than the action= dispatch style.
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:REST_API
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/rest.php/v1
tags:
- REST API
- Core
- Pages
- Search
- History
- Transforms
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:REST_API/Reference
- type: Sandbox
url: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:RestSandbox
- type: APIPortal
url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/Core_REST_API
- name: Wikimedia REST API v1
description: Caching-optimised read API available at /api/rest_v1/ on each Wikisource language subdomain. Provides page
summaries, full HTML, media lists, and language links for Wikisource pages. Backed by Varnish CDN; anonymous read traffic
is limited to approximately 200 requests per second per client. Provide a contactable User-Agent; GET is preferred for
cacheability.
humanURL: https://en.wikisource.org/api/rest_v1/
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/api/rest_v1
tags:
- REST API
- Cached
- Summary
- HTML
tags_raw:
- REST API
- Cached
- Summaries
- HTML
- Read
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://en.wikisource.org/api/rest_v1/
- type: Specification
url: https://en.wikisource.org/api/rest_v1/?spec
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-citation-api
name: Wikisource Citation API
description: generation of citation data
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Citations
tags_raw:
- Citation
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-citation-api-openapi.yml
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-math-api
name: Wikisource Math API
description: formula rendering
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Math
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-math-api-openapi.yml
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-mobile-api
name: Wikisource Mobile API
description: The Mobile API from Wikisource — 3 operation(s) for mobile.
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Mobile
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-mobile-api-openapi.yml
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-page-content-api
name: Wikisource Page content API
description: page content in different formats
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Page content
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-page-content-api-openapi.yml
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-reading-lists-api
name: Wikisource Reading lists API
description: Private lists of selected pages
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Reading Lists
tags_raw:
- Reading lists
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-reading-lists-api-openapi.yml
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-recommendation-api
name: Wikisource Recommendation API
description: contribution recommendations
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Recommendations
tags_raw:
- Recommendation
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-recommendation-api-openapi.yml
- aid: wikisource:wikisource-transforms-api
name: Wikisource Transforms API
description: convert content between HTML and Wikitext
humanURL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
baseURL: https://en.wikisource.org/w/api.php
tags:
- Transforms
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/wikisource-transforms-api-openapi.yml
common:
- url: https://wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:News
type: Blog
- url: https://wikisource.org/w/api.php?hidebots=1&hidecategorization=1&hideWikibase=1&translations=filter&urlversion=1&days=7&limit=50&action=feedrecentchanges&feedformat=atom
type: BlogRSS
- type: AgenticAccess
url: agentic-access/wikisource-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
url: security/wikisource-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
url: security/wikisource-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
url: https://wikisource.org
- type: Website
title: English Wikisource
url: https://en.wikisource.org
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page
- type: APIPortal
url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
- type: APICatalog
url: https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/API_catalog
- type: Foundation
url: https://wikimediafoundation.org/
- type: Governance
url: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation
- type: License
url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
title: CC BY-SA 4.0 (text content)
- type: Policy
url: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Wikimedia_Foundation_API_Usage_Guidelines
title: API Usage Guidelines
- type: Policy
url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Etiquette
title: API Etiquette
- type: TermsOfService
url: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Terms_of_Use
- type: GitHubOrganization
url: https://github.com/wikimedia
- type: SourceCode
url: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/
title: Wikimedia Gerrit (canonical source)
- type: Status
url: https://www.wikimediastatus.net/
- type: BulkDownload
url: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/
title: Wikimedia Database Dumps (includes Wikisource)
- type: Plans
url: plans/wikisource-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
url: rate-limits/wikisource-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
url: finops/wikisource-finops.yml
features:
- name: 70+ Language Editions
description: Wikisource operates in over 70 language editions; each subdomain ({lang}.wikisource.org) exposes the full MediaWiki
API surface at the same paths.
- name: Public-Domain Source Texts
description: Hosts transcribed books, legal texts, constitutions, speeches, and historical documents no longer under copyright
— all freely accessible via the API.
- name: Proofread Page Extension
description: Wikisource uses the ProofreadPage MediaWiki extension; its status levels (without text, not proofread, problematic,
proofread, validated) are queryable via the Action API.
- name: Wikitext-to-HTML Transforms
description: Convert raw wikitext (including Wikisource templates and page-scan transclusions) to rendered HTML via /transform/wikitext/to/html/{title}.
- name: Cached Anonymous Reads at 200 RPS
description: The REST API v1 layer is Varnish-cached, supporting anonymous read bursts up to ~200 requests/s per client
without authentication.
- name: OAuth 2.0 Write Access
description: Page edits and proofread-status updates authenticate via OAuth 2.0 tokens issued at meta.wikimedia.org — the
same mechanism across all Wikimedia projects.
- name: Bulk Text Dumps
description: Full periodic XML dumps of every Wikisource language edition are available at dumps.wikimedia.org for offline
corpus processing.
useCases:
- name: Digitised Literature and Corpus Research
description: Access transcribed works of literature, philosophy, and science for NLP corpus building, stylometric analysis,
or training data curation.
- name: Legal and Historical Document Retrieval
description: Retrieve constitutions, treaties, legislation, and court opinions as structured wikitext or rendered HTML for
legal research platforms.
- name: AI Grounding with Primary Sources
description: Ground LLM responses with primary-source citations rather than encyclopedic summaries — page summaries and
full HTML available via the REST API.
- name: Multilingual Text Collection
description: Pull source texts across 70+ language editions for multilingual NLP models, translation studies, or cross-lingual
information retrieval.
- name: Proofread Status Monitoring
description: Query and update ProofreadPage statuses to build community dashboards or automated quality-assurance workflows
for text digitisation projects.
- name: Offline Reading Applications
description: Consume periodic bulk dumps to ship offline-readable collections of public-domain literature to schools and
low-connectivity environments.
integrations:
- name: Wikipedia
description: Wikipedia articles often link to Wikisource for full-text versions of cited primary sources via interwiki links.
- name: Wikidata
description: Wikisource works are described as Wikidata items (edition type Q3331189); author pages link to Wikidata QIDs
for authority control.
- name: Wikimedia Commons
description: Page-scan images underlying the ProofreadPage workflow are hosted on Commons and accessed via the Commons Action
API.
- name: Internet Archive
description: Many Wikisource digitisation projects use scans sourced from the Internet Archive's Open Library collection.
solutions:
- name: Free Public-Domain Text Library
description: A non-profit, volunteer-curated repository of transcribed source texts funded by the Wikimedia Foundation —
freely readable and downloadable with no API keys required.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: kin@apievangelist.com
Wikisource API — frequently asked questions
Does Wikisource have an API?
Yes. APIs.io lists 10 APIs from Wikisource, including MediaWiki Action API, MediaWiki Core REST API and Wikimedia REST API v1, and 7 more.
Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Wikisource API?
Yes. APIs.io indexes 7 OpenAPI specifications for Wikisource, each linked for download from this page.
How much does the Wikisource API cost?
APIs.io lists 1 pricing plan for Wikisource, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.
Is the Wikisource API ready for AI agents?
Wikisource has a Kin Score of 31.9 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 25.1 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-13.
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