wiki-fetch

Wikipedia parser for Python and the CLI. Dependency-free.

own HTTP client, own HTML parser

Installation

uv add wiki-fetch

pip install wiki-fetch

Usage

CLI

Option	Flag	Long	Default	Example
Article URL	`-u`	`--url`	None	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors
Search query	`-q`	`--query`	None	The Doors (band)
Language edition	`-l`	`--lang`	English	English
Article part	`-p`	`--part`	all	infobox
Blocks to keep	`-i`	`--item`	all	first
Output format	`-o`	`--output`	text	text

Give --url or --query; --url wins if both are set. A query takes the first search result. A disambiguation page comes back whole, its lists of links included.

wiki-fetch -u https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors -p infobox -i first

output

Infobox: 
    The Doors: 
        The Doors: 
            Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/The_Doors_1968.JPG/250px-The_Doors_1968.JPG
            Caption: The Doors in 1966. From left to right: Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger
        Background information: 
            Origin: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
            Genres: 
                Psychedelic rock
                blues rock
                acid rock
            Years active: 
                1965-1973
                1978
                1993
                1997
                2000
                2011-2012
                2012-2013
                2025
            Labels: 
                Elektra
                Rhino
            Spinoffs: 
                The Psychedelic Rangers
                Butts Band
                Nite City
                Manzarek-Krieger
            Spinoff of: Rick & the Ravens
            Past members: 
                Jim Morrison
                Ray Manzarek
                Robby Krieger
                John Densmore
            Website: thedoors.com
            Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/The_Doors_Logo.png/250px-The_Doors_Logo.png
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors

Exit codes: 0 printed a result, 1 fetch failed or the page holds no article, 2 bad input.

Python

Argument	Values	Description
url	`str`	Article URL
query	`str`	Search query
lang	`str`	Language name, endonym or code
part	`infobox`, `paragraph`, `table`, `list`, `thumb`, `toc`, `all`	Article part
item	`first`, `last`, `all`	Blocks to keep

from wiki_fetch import Wiki

page = 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors'
output = Wiki(lang='English').search(url=page, part='infobox', item='first')
print(output.json)

search returns one object holding the result four ways: output.dict, output.json, output.text, output.toml. item="first" and item="last" yield one dictionary per part, item="all" a list of them.

output

{
    "Infobox": {
        "The Doors": {
            "The Doors": {
                "Image": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/The_Doors_1968.JPG/250px-The_Doors_1968.JPG",
                "Caption": "The Doors in 1966. From left to right: Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger"
            },
            "Background information": {
                "Origin": "Los Angeles, California, U.S.",
                "Genres": [
                    "Psychedelic rock",
                    "blues rock",
                    "acid rock"
                ],
                "Years active": [
                    "1965-1973",
                    "1978",
                    "1993",
                    "1997",
                    "2000",
                    "2011-2012",
                    "2012-2013",
                    "2025"
                ],
                "Labels": [
                    "Elektra",
                    "Rhino"
                ],
                "Spinoffs": [
                    "The Psychedelic Rangers",
                    "Butts Band",
                    "Nite City",
                    "Manzarek-Krieger"
                ],
                "Spinoff of": "Rick & the Ravens",
                "Past members": [
                    "Jim Morrison",
                    "Ray Manzarek",
                    "Robby Krieger",
                    "John Densmore"
                ],
                "Website": "thedoors.com",
                "Image": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/The_Doors_Logo.png/250px-The_Doors_Logo.png"
            }
        }
    },
    "URL": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors"
}

toml

URL = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors"

[Infobox."The Doors"."The Doors"]
Image = "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/The_Doors_1968.JPG/250px-The_Doors_1968.JPG"
Caption = "The Doors in 1966. From left to right: Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger"

[Infobox."The Doors"."Background information"]
Origin = "Los Angeles, California, U.S."
Genres = ["Psychedelic rock", "blues rock", "acid rock"]
"Years active" = ["1965-1973", "1978", "1993", "1997", "2000", "2011-2012", "2012-2013", "2025"]
Labels = ["Elektra", "Rhino"]
Spinoffs = ["The Psychedelic Rangers", "Butts Band", "Nite City", "Manzarek-Krieger"]
"Spinoff of" = "Rick & the Ravens"
"Past members" = ["Jim Morrison", "Ray Manzarek", "Robby Krieger", "John Densmore"]
Website = "thedoors.com"
Image = "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/The_Doors_Logo.png/250px-The_Doors_Logo.png"

Every error descends from WikiError, so one except WikiError catches the lot.

Error	Raised when
`InputError`	an argument is rejected
`FetchError`	the transport fails
`StatusError`	Wikipedia answers 4xx or 5xx
`DecodeError`	the body does not decode
`PageError`	the page holds no article
`SelectorError`	the selector is outside the CSS subset

StatusError and DecodeError sit under FetchError.

Specification

Parts of page	Output formats
`infobox`	`text`
`paragraph`	`json`
`table`	`dict`
`list`	`toml`
`thumb`
`toc`
`all`

The parser normalises image addresses: protocol-relative links become https, Wikipedia's utm_* tracking parameters go, every other parameter stays. toml writes bare keys where TOML allows them and spells a missing value the way text does, as null.

Languages

--lang takes an English name, an endonym or a code, ignoring case and surrounding space: German, Deutsch and de are the same edition. Thirty editions are known by name, most by endonym too. The rest answer to their subdomain code, ISO 639-1 where one exists and 639-3 otherwise, with an optional variant suffix: fi, ceb, zh-yue. Anything else raises InputError.

Selectors

select and select_one in wiki_fetch.base.html.query read this subset of CSS:

Pattern	Example
type	`table`
id	`#content`
class	`.infobox`
attribute	`[colspan]`
attribute value	`[typeof="mw:File"]`
attribute prefix	`[typeof^="mw:File"]`
descendant	`table .infobox-label`
child	`div > figure`
grouping	`.noprint, .navbox`

Classes match by token, so .box finds class="box wide" and skips class="boxed". Anything outside the table raises SelectorError, pseudo-classes and sibling combinators included.

License

Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.md.

Development Status
- 5 - Production/Stable
Environment
- Console
Intended Audience
- Developers
Operating System
- OS Independent
Programming Language
- Python :: 3 :: Only
Topic
- Internet :: WWW/HTTP :: Dynamic Content :: Wiki
Typing
- Typed

Metadata

Development Status
- 5 - Production/Stable
Environment
- Console
Intended Audience
- Developers
Operating System
- OS Independent
Programming Language
- Python :: 3 :: Only
Topic
- Internet :: WWW/HTTP :: Dynamic Content :: Wiki
Typing
- Typed

Release files for wiki-fetch 1.0.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for wiki-fetch 1.0.0
File	Size	Uploaded
wiki_fetch-1.0.0.tar.gz	274.5 kB	Sep 16, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for wiki-fetch 1.0.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
wiki_fetch-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl 39.4 kB Sep 16, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 313.8 kB

Release files / wiki_fetch-1.0.0.tar.gz

Download URL	wiki_fetch-1.0.0.tar.gz
Size	274.5 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`d809339a761f73aa5f88346f057b3807ead58b8d5d21164b1736dbfe88d08945`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`3628f70edfc49d4f8f3d7fd02de007051c06f4187947728495b73cfd68b24c85`
Upload date	Sep 16, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`uv/0.12.15 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.12.15","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"Ubuntu","version":"24.04","id":"noble","libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":true}`

Release files / wiki_fetch-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	wiki_fetch-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size	39.4 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`f02dc5aff5a035dfa50ca0976cd4665351ded706fd428c5d3624edb5d077c02a`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`7648a8885387069bef17ff83f2183b18c687de272940eaa32ffc17405f6b829a`
Upload date	Sep 16, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`uv/0.12.15 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.12.15","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"Ubuntu","version":"24.04","id":"noble","libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":true}`