Good first bugs



This page provides a list of little bugs and tiny missing features which annoy users and which are relatively easy for a new MediaWiki coder to fix.

This is one way to start getting familiar with the MediaWiki code base. Note that these tasks to not have assigned mentors so you will be more "on your own". If you prefer to work on software projects with mentors, check out the list of software projects that we recommend.

You must have read the "Set up your development environment" and "Suggested reading" sections of How to become a MediaWiki hacker already to understand the infrastructure, workflows and communication expectations.

Potential bugs to work on
The following sections describe a few example areas in which you can contribute, but you are not limited to these areas!

In the upper right corner of a task (bug report) in Phabricator you can see the product and component that the problem is located in.

This provides you a hint about the Git repository that the code is located in, and about the development team which you could contact if you want to discuss it in a "broader" way (as comments in bug reports should preferably refer to the specific problem described in the report only).

Documentation
List of open bug reports and enhancement requests related to documentation with the "easy" keyword ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/bmPJ8iXpC3.C/#R|

Pywikibot
PyWikibot is a Python-based framework to write bots for MediaWiki.

Ask your general development questions on the Pywikibot mailing list and the #pywikibot IRC channel.

List of open easy Pywikibot bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/Ti2w8jl2dQE5/#R|

Multimedia
Ask your general Multimedia development questions on the multimedia mailing list and the #wikimedia-multimedia IRC channel.

List of open easy Multimedia bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/K.5Y3b8fbZbn/#R|

Mobile Apps
There are numerous applications for mobile devices (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, …) to access Wikimedia wikis.

Read the general development information and ask your questions on the Mobile mailing list and the #wikimedia-mobile IRC channel.

List of open easy Mobile applications bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/05.a5v7wlZxm/#R|

Reading
The reading team builds the software that serves our readers.

We also manage the mobile web experience.

Read the general development information and ask your questions on the Mobile mailing list and the #wikimedia-mobile IRC channel.

List of open easy reading web tasks ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/UGGuypsToMqQ/|

Wikidata
Wikidata is a centralized knowledge base for structured data, such as interwiki references and statistical information.

Ask your general development questions on the Wikidata mailing list, the #wikidata IRC channel and on the wiki.

List of open easy Wikidata bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/zH.SGfhpQyC4/#R|

Huggle
Huggle is a desktop application for dealing with vandalism on Wikimedia projects, written in C++ and QT.

List of open easy Huggle bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/zZ8QQy8yH1R2/#R|

Browser Tests & Quality Assurance
Automated browser tests help Wikimedia engineers produce quality user facing software faster.

See the page on Browser testing for more on what technologies we use and how to get involved.

For more general information, see Quality Assurance.

List of open easy Browser Test bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/0Q30Z2TNOXDU/#R|

Language Engineering (Localization/Translation/Internationalization)
Ask your general Language Engineering development questions on the mediawiki-i18n mailing list and the #mediawiki-i18n IRC channel.

List of open easy Language Engineering bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/lfW76SqWto3z/#R|

VisualEditor and Parsoid
VisualEditor is MediaWiki's WYSIWYG editor.

Ask your general VisualEditor development questions on the wikitech mailing list and the #mediawiki-visualeditor IRC channel.

List of open easy VisualEditor bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/4jbNe9zXNG2a/#R|

VisualEditor is powered by Parsoid, a wikitext parser and runtime.

Ask your general Parsoid development questions on the wikitext mailing list and the #mediawiki-parsoid IRC channel.

List of open easy Parsoid bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/DXzLdrHdBk4d/#R|

Discovery / Search
The Discovery team builds the path of anonymous discovery to a trusted and relevant source of knowledge.

Ask your general development questions on the Discovery mailing list and on the #wikimedia-discovery IRC channel.

List of open easy Discovery / Search bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/qW51XhCCd8.7/#R|

Analytics
The Analytics team empowers and supports data-informed decision making in Wikimedia.

Ask your general development questions on the Analytics mailing list.

List of open easy Analytics bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/rKiAEoHQruRE/#R|

Design
Fixing design bugs or requests requires existing graphics skills working with a Vector graphics application (e.g. Inkscape).

Basic knowledge of CSS can also be helpful for integration.

Ask your general development questions on the Design mailing list and the #wikimedia-design IRC channel.

List of open easy design bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/_xoOHrMKoJ8m/#R|

Skins
Skins allow users to customize the look and feel of MediaWiki.

Basic knowledge of CSS and PHP is helpful.

Check the project page in Phabricator for more information on each skin and contact information.

List of open easy skin bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/baZ2C7i31hkV/#R|

System messages and localization/translation problems
System messages in MediaWiki or its extensions often need small corrections to the English text, but the source text can only be changed in the code by developers, contrary to translations.

This has grown into a large backlog of usually very easy fixes (which might be as easy as fixing a typo).

Also, many messages are unclear and require better documentation (see Localisation).

Missing documentation can also be added by just editing the  subpage of the message on translatewiki.net, like all translations, but may require some study of the code to understand what a message is for: it's therefore optimal to start understanding the code, and very useful for the translators (who do not have such skills).

List of open string change bug reports and enhancement requests ]] (under "Blocked by")'''
 * '''[[phab:T40638|

Collaboration
The Collaboration team mainly works on Echo and Flow.

Ask questions regarding Collaboration team projects on the #wikimedia-collaboration IRC channel.

List of open easy Collaboration team bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/DGGB3r4qdur3#R|

MediaWiki
MediaWiki is the core software which provides basic wiki functionality.

It is complex, written in PHP, and some areas might not have clear maintainership.

Ask your general development questions on the wikitech mailing list and the #wikimedia-dev and #mediawiki IRC channels.

List of open easy MediaWiki bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/CZe9PaTP.aVy/#R|

Phlogiston
Phabricator is used by Wikimedia for project management, software bug reporting and feature requests.

Phlogiston is a set of SQL, Python, and R scripts to report on Phabricator data, particularly burnup reports and forecasting.

List of open easy Phlogiston bug reports and enhancement requests ]]
 * [[phab:project/board/1796/query/CUdtv7rO0Rkw/|

Semantic MediaWiki
Semantic MediaWiki is one of the biggest and most popular MediaWiki extensions.


 * List of SMW issues suitable for newcomers

And many more…
Still not enough ideas? There are more fields you can explore - MediaWiki has hundreds of extensions and tools! Check out the complete list of bugs recommended for new contributors:

List of open easy bug reports and enhancement requests ]]'''
 * '''[[phab:maniphest/query/77grtOAqxCDa/#R|

If you have any trouble or questions, please ask for help via IRC or feel free to contact Srishti Sethi or Andre Klapper.