# Cite

The Cite extension to MediaWiki provides a way for wiki editors to add references and footnotes to articles.

See [mw:Extension:Cite] for technical documentation on installing and configuring the extension.  See [mw:Help:Cite] for user documentation.

Cite is responsible for implementing the `<ref>` and `<references>` tags in wikitext.  Integrations are provided for the MediaWiki wikitext parser, Parsoid, [WikiEditor], [VisualEditor], and the reading interface.

## Terminology

* CE – ContentEditable, see [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Global_attributes/contenteditable)
* Cite – Citation, the act of referencing a source.
* DC – Dublin Core, used as a prefix in Parsoid's RDFa.
* Details – Attribute that marks a sub-reference as such as well as provides the sub-reference's extra content.
* DM – Data model
* List-defined reference (LDR) – When a named `<ref>` is defined inside of a `<references>` section.
* MW – MediaWiki
* MWT – MediaWiki transclusion. Used by Parsoid in e.g. `about="#mwt1"`. This "about id" marks a "DOM forest" of un-nested siblings as belonging to the same template transclusion. More in the [Parsoid DOM spec](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Specs/HTML/2.8.0#DOM_Ranges).
* Note – An item in the reference list, a.k.a. a "footnote". Link targets use "note" since the first 2005 draft of this extension. [More details](docs/backlink-anchor-format.md).
* Ref – Reference
* Reflist – Refers to either community-maintained `{{reflist}}` templates or the raw `<references>` tag that marks the position in the article where the reference list should appear.
* SA – Standalone
* Selser – Selective serializer, an extra step in Parsoid's HTML to wikitext serialization to minimize the diff.
* VE – [VisualEditor]
* WT – Wikitext

## History
* The Cite extension was actually meant to implement a `<cite>` tag in [2005](https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/rECITfcbbd70a). Because that conflicts with the HTML tag it became `<citation>` the [same day](https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/rECIT2e67b02c). In 2014 the tag was [removed](https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/149593) and moved to a separate [CiteThisPage](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CiteThisPage) extension, along with the [Special:Cite](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:CiteThisPage/Extension:CiteThisPage) special page.
* The original [2005](https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/rECITb714bf09) draft of this extension suggested a `<ref[ key]>` syntax, e.g. `<ref Britannica>…</ref>`, and called that concept "key". This was changed to `<ref name="Britannica">` just [3 days](https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/rECITb2711042) later. Still the term "key" remained in various places. See [T299280](https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T299280#9384546) for the full history.
* A 2019 draft suggested an alternate sub-referencing syntax where `<ref extends="Britannica">` was meant to address a parent reference by name. This got replaced with the `details="…"` syntax in 2025.

[mw:Extension:Cite]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Cite
[mw:Help:Cite]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Cite
[VisualEditor]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:VisualEditor
[WikiEditor]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Extension:WikiEditor