# Test Wikipedia (test.wikipedia.org): what it is for > Test Wikipedia, test.wikipedia.org, is where new MediaWiki code is tried first. What you may do there, how admin rights are given, and its sister test wikis. Canonical: https://xyrael.net/test-wikipedia Updated: 2026-10-31 Test Wikipedia, at test.wikipedia.org, is a Wikimedia wiki for testing the software, not for writing articles. It gets each week's new MediaWiki code before most other wikis, and it gives administrator rights only to trusted users and to people who need them, such as developers. ## A wiki for testing code Its main page describes it as a test wiki that normally runs the same version of MediaWiki as mediawiki.org and the other wikis of the first deployment group, sometimes configured with experimental features, so its content may be volatile and buggy. It is the last stop before live production, not a place for unreviewed code. On 31 October 2026 its version page reported **MediaWiki 1.48.0-wmf.1**, a weekly build of the 1.48 release due in 2027. You log in with your ordinary Wikimedia account. Teachers may also use it to show a class basic editing without disturbing a real project, though its interface can differ from an ordinary Wikimedia wiki. ## Where it sits in the weekly deployment train Wikimedia deploys new MediaWiki code every week in three steps, so a problem shows up on a few wikis before it reaches the large ones. Test Wikipedia is in the first group. **Wikimedia's weekly deployment groups (from Wikitech's Deployments/Train page, October 2026)** | Day | Group | Includes | | --- | --- | --- | | Tuesday | Group 0 | test.wikipedia.org, test.wikidata.org, mediawiki.org, office.wikimedia.org and closed wikis | | Wednesday | Group 1 | Wikidata, Commons, Meta-Wiki, the other sister projects, test2.wikipedia.org and three Wikipedias (Catalan, Hebrew, Italian) | | Thursday | Group 2 | All other Wikipedias, including English | ## What Test Wikipedia is not A page on the wiki, *What Test Wiki is not*, sets the limits in a list. In short, Test Wikipedia is not: - a place for content or anything meaningful — nonsense articles will not stay; - an area to play with administrator tools; for that it points to its list of [admin test wikis](/admin-test-wikis); - a place to try AutoWikiBrowser before you have permission to use it; - a web host, wiki host or file host; - a trial ground for new projects or language editions, which belong on the Wikimedia Incubator or Wikispore; - a place where libel is tolerated, or where anything goes. ## Becoming an administrator on Test Wikipedia Admin rights there exist so people can test features that need them, not to teach the tools. A bureaucrat decides each request, and two kinds of people qualify. **Administrator rights on Test Wikipedia (from its Wikipedia:Administrators page, October 2026)** | Question | Answer | | --- | --- | | Who qualifies | People active and trusted on other projects, preferably admins there, or with a real need such as developers | | How to ask | Create a subpage of Wikipedia:Requests/Permissions with the form on that page, then add it to the top of the list | | What admins can do | Block and unblock, delete and undelete, protect and unprotect, edit the MediaWiki namespace, see deleted edits | | How long it lasts | Rights are removed after one year of inactivity and can be asked for again | Bureaucrats grant and remove admin rights, grant bureaucrat rights and flag bot accounts; removing a bureaucrat is done by stewards on Meta-Wiki. Only admins can become bureaucrats, and the wiki asks people not to request rights on a bureaucrat's talk page unless they already know each other. On 31 October 2026 Test Wikipedia counted 278 administrators among 74,145 registered accounts, of which 359 had been active in the past month. ## test2.wikipedia.org and test.wikidata.org **Test2** began as a plainer sandbox wiki at a time when Test Wikipedia ran code straight from a shared file system and served as a slow staging wiki. Once that ended, test2 took on testing of cross-wiki features together with test.wikipedia.org and **Test Wikidata**. Because test2 is in group 1 and Test Wikidata in group 0, test2 sometimes runs older code than the Test Wikidata it draws data from, as many Wikipedias do against Wikidata. Test2 also has history with templates: Lua was installed there for testing in 2012, with an open invitation to every editor, before it reached the English Wikipedia in 2013 (see [Lua modules](/lua-modules-scribunto)). Its main page repeats the same warning: anything may be edited but nothing is kept, and it is not a place to play with admin tools. ## The Beta Cluster Earlier in the pipeline sits the **Beta Cluster**, a separate wiki farm in Wikimedia's Cloud VPS that copies features from many production wikis. Test Wikipedia's main page sends developers and users there to test new features, gadgets and user scripts before they are deployed. Since 2024 its maintainers have said it is largely unmaintained while they move common uses to on-demand test environments such as PatchDemo and Catalyst. ## Which test wiki to use **Where each kind of test belongs** | You want to | Use | | --- | --- | | Try a new MediaWiki feature before it reaches Wikipedia | test.wikipedia.org | | Test a feature that links wikis or uses Wikidata | test2.wikipedia.org with test.wikidata.org | | Try a gadget or user script | The Beta Cluster, or test.wikipedia.org | | Practise deleting, protecting and blocking | A public admin test wiki, or your own wiki | | Start a new language edition | The Wikimedia Incubator | | Practise ordinary editing | Your [Wikipedia sandbox](/wikipedia-sandbox) | ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Test Wikipedia part of Wikipedia? It is a Wikimedia wiki at test.wikipedia.org and uses the same accounts, but it is not an encyclopedia: it exists to test MediaWiki code and settings. ### Can I write articles on Test Wikipedia? No. Content there is volatile and not kept. Write in your Wikipedia sandbox or the Draft namespace instead. ### Can I become an admin on Test Wikipedia to learn the tools? Usually not. Rights go to people trusted on other projects or with a real need, such as developers. To practise the tools, use a public admin test wiki or install MediaWiki yourself. ### Which MediaWiki version does Test Wikipedia run? The newest weekly build. On 31 October 2026 it reported 1.48.0-wmf.1; its Special:Version page always shows the current one.