# Wikimedia Commons Template Scraper (`parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes template pages from Wikimedia Commons via the public API. Returns each template's page ID, namespace, and title as a flat row. Filter by search term and set a max items limit.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.62 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

[![ParseForge](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/main/banner.jpg)](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp)

### Wikimedia Commons Template Scraper

**Scrape template content and metadata from Wikimedia Commons, up to a million per run.** Every template comes with its page ID, namespace, and title. No API key or login required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Wikimedia Commons hosts thousands of templates that structure its media descriptions, licenses, and navigation. Finding and extracting their raw content or metadata manually is slow and repetitive. This Actor reads the public Wikimedia Commons API directly, filters templates by a search term, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

| Who uses it | What they scrape Wikimedia Commons for |
|---|---|
| Digital archivists | Catalog which metadata templates are available for a specific media collection. |
| WikiProject maintainers | Audit template usage and naming conventions across a Commons category. |
| GLAM professionals | Identify the correct Commons templates for institution-specific upload campaigns. |
| Bot developers | Build a local index of template titles to automate file description edits. |

### What it does

This Actor collects Wikimedia Commons template pages by search term or retrieves all templates, and returns each one as a flat row with its page ID, namespace, and title.

- 🔍 **Search filter:** supply a search term to retrieve only templates whose title contains that string.
- 📄 **Bulk retrieval:** leave the search term empty to fetch every template in the Template namespace.
- ⚙️ **Max items control:** set a hard limit on the number of templates returned, from 1 up to 1,000,000.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

### What you can do with Wikimedia Commons data

**🗂️ Build a template inventory.**

A digital archivist runs the Actor without a search term to get a complete list of all Commons templates, then filters the CSV for institution-related names.

**🔎 Find a specific license template.**

A GLAM upload coordinator searches for 'CC-BY' to retrieve every Creative Commons license template title and its page ID for a batch upload script.

**🤖 Feed a bot with template metadata.**

A bot developer scrapes all template titles and page IDs once a week to keep a local lookup table for automated file description corrections.

**📊 Audit template naming patterns.**

A WikiProject maintainer searches for 'Information' to list all information-template variants, then reviews the titles for consistency.

### Why choose this scraper

| | What you get |
|---|---|
| **Template title** | The exact page name of each template in the Commons Template namespace. |
| **Page ID** | The stable numeric identifier for every template page. |
| **Namespace** | Confirms the page belongs to the Template namespace (ns=10). |
| **Flat output** | Every template is a single row, ready for spreadsheets or databases. |

### What a Wikimedia Commons record looks like

Every record returns as one flat JSON row. Here is a real one from a run:

```json
{
 "pageId": 3716844,
 "namespace": 10,
 "title": "Template:!!",
 "scrapedAt": "2026-09-04T04:56:51.035Z"
}
```

Every value above comes from a real run. A field a record does not have comes back as `null`.

### Configure the run

Drive the Actor with an optional search term to filter templates by title, and set a maximum number of items to control the output size. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

```json
{
 "maxItems": 10
}
```

A larger pull:

```json
{
 "maxItems": 200
}
```

### Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. [Upgrade your Apify plan](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

### Run it

1. [Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).
2. Open the [Wikimedia Commons Template Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper?fpr=vmoqkp).
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click **Start**.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the **Dataset** tab.

Run it programmatically through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) (`run-sync-get-dataset-items`) or the [ApifyClient](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) for JavaScript and Python.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Wikimedia Commons through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper"
```

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

### Troubleshooting

**Why am I getting no results for my search term?**

The search does a prefix match on the template title. Check that your term matches the beginning of a template name. Try a shorter or more general prefix.

**The run stopped before reaching my max items limit.**

The Actor stops when the API returns no more matching templates. If your search term is specific, there may be fewer templates than your max items value.

**I get an error about the API request failing.**

Wikimedia Commons may occasionally rate-limit or have downtime. The Actor will retry automatically. If the problem persists, wait a few minutes and run it again.

**The output only shows 10 items even though I set a higher max.**

Free Apify accounts are capped at 10 items for this Actor. Upgrade to a paid plan to scrape more than 10 templates per run.

### FAQ

| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Does this Actor download the template wikitext or the metadata? | It returns the metadata for each template page: the page ID, namespace, and title. It does not fetch the raw wikitext content of the template. |
| Do I need a Wikimedia account or API key to use this? | No. The Actor uses the public Wikimedia Commons API, which requires no authentication or API key. |
| How many templates can I scrape in one run? | Free users are limited to 10 items for a preview. Paid users can set the max items up to 1,000,000 per run. |
| Can I filter templates by namespace other than Template? | No, this Actor is hardcoded to the Template namespace (ns=10) on Wikimedia Commons. It cannot retrieve pages from other namespaces. |
| What format does the output come in? | You can export the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform. |
| Does the search term support wildcards or regular expressions? | The search term is passed to the Wikimedia API's 'apfrom' parameter, which does a prefix-based string match. It does not support wildcards or regex. |
| Will this Actor work for other Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia? | No, it is configured specifically for Wikimedia Commons. For Wikipedia templates, you would need a different Actor targeting that site's API. |
| How often is the template data updated? | The Actor fetches data live from the Wikimedia Commons API on each run, so you always get the current state of the templates. |

### Related actors

Browse the full [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp) for more scrapers.

🆘 **Need help?** Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

### Pricing

This Actor uses **pay-per-result** pricing: **$0.004 per result** collected. You are billed only for the results you receive, so a run that returns nothing costs nothing.

⚠️ **Disclaimer.** This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.

# Actor input Schema

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Free users: Limited to 10 items (preview). Paid users: Optional, max 1,000,000

## `search` (type: `string`):

Optional search term to filter templates by title. Leave empty to retrieve all templates.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Complete dataset of all scraped records.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxItems": 10,
    "search": ""
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "maxItems": 10,
    "search": "",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "search": ""
}' |
apify call parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,parseforge/wikimedia-commons-templates-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/xD0wD312EygfuiEJS/builds/DvdEUVcbuHGeFki1f/openapi.json