Local development quickstart
This page is a quickstart guide to setting up a local development for MediaWiki using PHP and Composer.
Install prerequisites
MediaWiki requires PHP 8.1.0+ and Composer 2.
Linux
On Ubuntu 22+ or Debian 12+, install the required packages using APT.
sudoaptinstallphpphp-intlphp-mbstringphp-xmlphp-apcuphp-curlphp-sqlite3composer
On Fedora 36+, install the required packages using DNF.
sudodnfinstallphpcomposer
On Arch Linux, install the required packages using pacman.
sudopacman-Sphpcomposer
Mac
Install the required packages using Homebrew and make it the active version of PHP, by linking it.
brewinstallphp@8.2composer brewlink--overwritephp@8.2
If the following command succeeds, it should show the PHP version. If it fails, likely your $PATH is not configured to find commands from brew.
php-v
Windows
You have the option to use the Windows Subsystem for Linux and follow the Linux instructions on this page. Or, to install MediaWiki directly on Windows, install the required packages using Chocolatey.
choco install -y php composer
To load the required PHP extensions, edit your php.ini file, and uncomment the following lines.
To find the location of php.ini, run php --ini, and look for Loaded Configuration File.
extension:fileinfo extension:intl extension:pdo_sqlite extension:zip extension:sodium
Clone MediaWiki
Use Git to clone the MediaWiki core repository and the default skin.
gitclonehttps://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/core.gitmediawiki
gitclonehttps://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/skins/Vector.gitmediawiki/skins/Vector
cdmediawiki
Cloning MediaWiki takes a few minutes. While you're waiting, if you plan to create and share patches, create a Wikimedia developer account if you don't already have one.
Install dependencies
From within your mediawiki directory, created above, use Composer to install MediaWiki's dependencies.
composerupdate
Install MediaWiki
Install MediaWiki with PHP's built-in SQLite database.
composermw-install:sqlite
Start server
Start PHP's built-in webserver, and open localhost:4000 in a browser to see your MediaWiki instance.
To log in as an administrator , use username Admin and password adminpassword.
composerserve
Next steps
- Take a tour of the MediaWiki codebase – Familiarize yourself with MediaWiki's core code by learning about entry points and top-level directories.
- Run unit tests – MediaWiki uses the PHPUnit framework for unit and integration testing of PHP code. Read the docs to run tests and find information about writing tests.
- Install extensions – Add extensions, like VisualEditor and Echo , to your development environment. See Manual:Developing extensions to learn about how extensions work.
- Debug your code – Learn how to configure debugging aids, and debug MediaWiki code step-by-step with XDebug.
- Submit a patch – Explore Good first bugs , and configure SSH access to Wikimedia Gerrit to submit a patch.