Help:Contributing/code

Code appears on this wikibase in two places: as content on wiki pages and as data (code-snippet items). This page covers the former.

Code blocks on wiki pages

What you want	What you type	What you get
Plain block — exactly as typed, no wiki markup, HTML escaped. Safe for logs and config pastes.	<pre>[2026-08-19 14:32:01] wikibase.updater: entity Q42 updated</pre>	[2026-08-19 14:32:01] wikibase.updater: entity Q42 updated
Highlighted block — Pygments colours and a copy button.	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" copy>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5
Plain inline code — monospace in a sentence, no colours. For short tokens with no markup-significant characters.	<code>latestId</code>	latestId
For highlighted inline code — monospace in a sentence, with colours.	<syntaxhighlight lang="python" inline>print("hello")</syntaxhighlight>	print("hello")

Anything inside <syntaxhighlight> or <pre> is rendered literally — wiki markup and HTML are not interpreted.

Don't wrap Wikimarkup content inside code tags — it will not be parsed. A link or template in a code tag renders as plain text: [[Special:AddCodeSnippet]] shows [[Special:AddCodeSnippet]], not a link. Write it as normal wikitext to get the link: code-snippet items.

Be careful with <code>: it does not escape HTML — text such as <, > or & inside it is read as markup. Use it for short plain tokens without those characters (#, quarto render, latestId); it is lighter to render. Use <syntaxhighlight lang="…" inline> when the snippet contains <, > or & (it escapes content) or when you want colours. Never use <code> for blocks — <pre> or <syntaxhighlight> instead.

Most languages can be highlighted

Any Pygments lexer alias works as the lang attribute — use the lowercase canonical name:

• sparql — SPARQL queries (this wiki's query service)
• python, javascript, bash, sql, json, wikitext — commonly used
• Full list: Pygments lexers (use the alias column)

Excellent options for syntaxhighlight

Every block-mode snippet carries copy (see the house rules); the options below combine with it.

Option	You type	You get
line — show line numbers	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" line copy>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }
start="5" — first line number (with line)	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" line start="5" copy>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }
highlight="1,3" — highlight specific lines (comma-separated)	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" highlight="1,3" copy>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 . }
inline — render as inline code instead of a block	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" inline>LIMIT</syntaxhighlight>	LIMIT
copy — add a button that copies the block	<syntaxhighlight lang="sparql" copy>SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5</syntaxhighlight>	SELECT ?item WHERE { ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q6 } LIMIT 5

inline and copy are mutually exclusive — copy is for blocks, inline is for inline code.

Full parameter reference: SyntaxHighlight extension parameters (official).

Differences from Markdown

• No fenced blocks — ``` does nothing here. Use <pre> or <syntaxhighlight>.

House rules

• Every block-mode snippet must include copy — write <syntaxhighlight lang="…" copy>, so readers get a copy button. Exceptions: inline blocks (copy is ignored there) and literal examples of the tag itself.
• Prefer <syntaxhighlight lang="…"> for anything syntax-highlightable; <pre> for config dumps and logs where colours add noise.
• Blocks larger than 100 kB lose highlighting automatically (a safety guard).
• Enforcement: tools/add-copy-to-syntaxhighlight.py --audit in the ronzz-wikibase repo flags any block-mode snippet missing copy (exit 0 = conform).

See also

• MediaWiki syntax 101 (official)
• SyntaxHighlight extension (official)
• Pygments lexers — full language list
• Help:Contributing — contributing to this wiki