Architecture
Stack
| Layer | Component |
|---|---|
| Wiki + structured data | MediaWiki + Wikibase extension |
| Database | MariaDB 10.11 |
| Search | Elasticsearch |
| Query service | Blazegraph (Wikibase Query Service) |
| TLS termination | Traefik + Let's Encrypt |
| Container orchestration | Docker Compose |
Based on the upstream Wikibase Suite release pipeline.
Data model
A row in a wikified table is a Wikibase item (Q-ID).
A column is a Wikibase property (P-ID), defined globally and reused across tables.
A cell is a statement on an item using a property — and statements carry their own revision history through the item's revision log.
A "table" is then a set of items sharing a common schema (a set of properties). Membership can be declared via "instance of" statements (Wikidata P31) or recovered by SPARQL queries against the schema.
Why Wikibase
It is the only mature open-source platform that natively combines:
- Structured data with statement-level granularity, qualifiers, and references
- Properties as wiki entities with their own revision history (schema-as-wiki)
- Full revision history per entity
- Battle-tested permissions: autoconfirmed → reviewer → admin → oversighter, with RevisionDelete and suppression
- First-class Wikidata federation
Alternatives surveyed — Semantic MediaWiki, the Cargo extension, Wiki.js, Dolt with a custom frontend — each lacked at least one of these, with the closest alternative requiring months of build work to reach parity.
Federation
Federated Properties is enabled. Local items reference Wikidata Q-IDs via P31 (instance-of) and other Wikidata properties directly, without re-defining them locally.
Federated SPARQL queries can join local data against Wikidata in a single query. Structured data is CC0 so it can flow back to Wikidata frictionlessly via QuickStatements or curated bots.
Cell-level history UX gap
Wikibase stores statement-level history — every statement change is part of an item revision — but does not ship a UI for "show me the history of this single cell." Closing that gap is the principal engineering investment after Hello World, planned as the CellHistory MediaWiki extension.
Trust model
Deferred from Hello World. Hello World uses only MediaWiki's stock access-level ladder. The designed stake-and-slash vouching system is documented in Trust Model and will be implemented as the TrustGraph extension in a later phase.