MediaWiki has several application programming interfaces (APIs).

MediaWiki offers the following web APIs:

• the MediaWiki Action API (api.php)
• the MediaWiki REST API (rest.php)

The Action API provides a much broader set of functionality, while the REST API (which is newer) has better-structured URLs and runs faster.

MediaWiki also includes the following software APIs:

• the MediaWiki PHP API, which can be used to develop extensions for MediaWiki in PHP
• the MediaWiki JavaScript API (mw), which can be used to develop user scripts and gadgets to extend the MediaWiki user interface

Note that the MediaWiki Action API and the MediaWiki JavaScript API are both modular: both can be extended by extensions, so the available API modules can differ from wiki to wiki.^[1] While the API modules built into MediaWiki Core are available in most MediaWiki wikis, built-in Action API modules can also be disabled.

Within the context of the MediaWiki website the Action API can be accessed from JavaScript via the mw.Api JavaScript API. (mw.ForeignApi for allowed cross-site requests, e.g. between WMF wikis.) For libraries to access the MediaWiki Action API from your favorite programming language, see API:Client code.

For information about APIs available for Wikimedia wikis, see Wikimedia APIs.

Suggestions and ideas for the MediaWiki APIs are tracked on Phabricator:

• Phabricator tasks for the MediaWiki-Action-API
• Phabricator tasks for the MediaWiki-Core-Hooks that are part of the PHP API
• Phabricator tasks related to JavaScript in MediaWiki core or extensions
• Phabricator tasks for the MediaWiki-REST-API