interwiki

Interwiki is a navigation mechanism used by many wiki systems to link to pages on other wikis using a short, standardized prefix instead of a full URL. It enables users to move between related content across multiple language editions and sister projects within a wiki network, improving cross-project discovery and collaboration while reducing manual linking effort.

Mechanism and syntax: An interwiki prefix table maps each prefix to a base URL. When a link in the wiki markup uses the form prefix:PageName, the software resolves it by appending the page name to the base URL. In MediaWiki, this commonly appears as links like [[prefix:PageName]] or as external interwiki links, with administrators able to view or edit the prefix mappings via an interwiki management interface or page such as Special:Interwiki.

Common prefixes and examples: Prefixes often reflect related projects, such as wikipedia:, wiktionary:, wikibooks:, and commons:. Language editions may use language-specific prefixes like en:, de:, or fr: for directly linking to a page on a given Wikipedia. Some deployments also define project-specific prefixes such as wikt:, m: for Meta, or commons: for the Wikimedia Commons repository.

Scope and considerations: Interwiki links are widely used in Wikimedia projects and in many multi-wiki environments to streamline cross-project referencing. They require configuration of a prefix table and consistent page naming across wikis. Not all wiki platforms support interwiki, and where supported, prefixes and base URLs must be maintained to prevent broken links or misdirection.