Once Twinkle is installed, you will be presented with a number of additional tabs or links, depending on the page you are on.
Installing Twinkle is easy. Refer to the "quick info" section of the script's page for easy-to-follow instructions. Before you start using Twinkle, you should read this page to familiarize yourself with some of the possibilities and functions of Twinkle. There are multitudes of options that you can configure to change some of the default behaviours of Twinkle.
Note: Never forget that you take full responsibility for any action performed using Twinkle. You must understand Wikipedia policies and use this tool within these policies, or risk being blocked.
Several practice sandboxes exist that can be used to test the behavior of Twinkle.
Note: Please don't use these pages to test speedy deletion, nominate for deletion, or request page protection, as these will place notifications on actual Wikipedia admin boards. Also, please don't unlink backlinks in the sandboxes, as this will remove links to the sandboxes.
Twinkle installation may fail completely for several reasons:
If you have tried all of the above suggestions and you still cannot use Twinkle, or if you notice other problems, check the discussion page and, if needed, post the issue there. If you do, please include the following information:
You are strongly urged to have a look at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html for hints on how to report bugs effectively, to make sure the issue you are describing can be resolved as promptly as possible.
Previously, it was possible to install Twinkle modules individually. This method of installation no longer applies. The recommended ways to install Twinkle are described at Wikipedia:Twinkle#Installation.
Twinkle is made up of many "modules", each providing a quicker way of carrying out a certain maintenance task. Most modules can be accessed through the tabs along the top of each page (in the Monobook skin), or under the "TW" drop-down menu next to the search box (in the Vector skin). Some modules appear only on specific page types, besides on an article in any namespace, these are available when viewing diff pages ( "since mine" etc) and userpages ( warning etc).
Besides the main Twinkle menu offering options, Rollbacking and automatic welcoming appear right next to the revision links while viewing diffs and the former even on user contrib pages right after each individual edit.
CSD stands for Criteria for Speedy Deletion. If you believe an article meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion, you can use this Twinkle module to quickly tag it for deletion.
Click on the CSD tab. You will be presented with a list of reasons, which differ depending on which namespace the page you are viewing is in. Previously, when you selected one of the items, Twinkle began acting right away; now you must press submit to start the process. This can be changed in Twinkle preferences. You may be prompted for extra information (such as a rationale, URL of copyvio, etc.), and then the page will be tagged with the appropriate template (for instance, clicking "G5: Banned user" tags the page with {{ db-banned}}).
Admins can delete pages using Twinkle (and optionally the associated talk page and/or all redirects). The deletion reason can be changed before deletion takes place.
RPP/PP, short for Request for Page Protection, is a module which sends a request for protection or unprotection to the page of the same name. It is commonly used for heavily vandalized articles, or for articles that are current and are likely to have high traffic due to real-life events.
Click on the RPP tab on the article page. You will be prompted to choose the type of action, depending on which you will get different options:
If you open RPP on the page that doesn't exist you won't be able to select Tag page with protection template box and you will only be able to apply Create Protection.
For administrators, this module is called PP. Admins also get extra tools to actually apply protection to the page instead of just making a request.
PROD is short for Proposed Deletion, a process whereby articles or files that are deemed to be uncontroversial targets for deletion can be deleted if there is no objection within seven days. Twinkle allows you to quickly apply PROD tags.
A similar process, proposed deletion of biographies of living people, can be used on BLP articles that are completely unsourced. The article will then be deleted after seven days, unless at least one source (reliable or not) is introduced to the article. You can also use Twinkle to tag articles for BLP PROD.
The PROD tab only appears on articles, files and books, as they are the only pages eligible for the PROD deletion process.
Click on the PROD tab on the page. You will be prompted to choose a PROD type (regular PROD or BLP PROD - see above). If you select regular PROD, you will need to enter a reason explaining why the page may be eligible for deletion. BLP PROD nominations do not require a reason.
Proposed deletion tags are only for uncontroversial deletions. If the deletion may be controversial, consider using Twinkle's XfD module instead. On the other hand, if the page falls under one of the speedy deletion criteria, you should instead use the CSD module, to ensure more rapid page deletion.
Administrators have additional access to Twinkle's de-PROD tool, which automatically clears a daily PROD category.
XfD, short for Anything for Deletion, is a collective term for the venues where the deletion of pages on Wikipedia is discussed. You can use Twinkle to quickly start a deletion discussion for any page. You can additionally use it to request speedy renaming of categories through the speedy CFD process.
See Wikipedia:Deletion venues for help on choosing an appropriate discussion venue.
Upon running the XfD tool, several things happen: the page is tagged with a deletion notice; the deletion discussion is created (this involves creating a new page for AfD and MfD); the discussion page is transcluded onto the daily list (for AfD and MfD only); the page creator is notified (if you requested it); and (optionally for MfD) the owner of the userspace is notified.
Click on the XfD tab. In the window that appears, you can choose the deletion discussion forum that is appropriate for the page. Normally Twinkle's initial choice is fine, but sometimes it gets it wrong (especially for userboxes in the Template: namespace, which need to be sent to MfD).
When you choose (or Twinkle chooses for you) a discussion venue, you will be presented with additional options specific to that venue, as follows:
There is one option that applies to all deletion venues:
Of course, you must specify a reason why the page should be deleted. You can use full wiki formatting in your reason.
XfD-related pages can be added to your watchlist if you choose this option in your Twinkle preferences. By default, no pages are added to your watchlist when using Twinkle's XfD module. More information is available at the preferences panel.
No userspace log function exists for XfD, as records of all deletion discussions are kept in project space.
Sometimes, during XfD processing, Twinkle may stall, particularly while adding the discussion to the daily list. The reason for this is unknown; it is believed to be a server issue. If Twinkle stalls while nominating for XfD, be patient. You may need to wait more than 20 seconds in some cases.
Twinkle does not include a tool to help admins close XFD debates; if you are looking for one, you might like XFDcloser.
This option shows you a diff between the current revision of a page and the previous one.
Additionally, when viewing any diff, the options "since", "since mine" and "current" will be available.
This option unlinks backlinks, but is only available to extended confirmed users. Backlinks are links from other pages to a given page. Unlinking them delinks the terms linking to that given page. This is often necessary after speedy deletion to prevent a page on a non-notable, vandalism, or other problematic topic from being recreated. It prevents a bunch of redlinks from showing up all over the place when you delete an article. Depending on the article being deleted, you may or may not want to unlink backlinks.
The tag tab will tag the article, redirect or file with the template(s) of your choice.
All templates that are checked will be added to the article in their proper respective locations. For article tags, the date
parameter populated to the current month and year is automatically added. On articles, if there are two or more tags (already existing + selected), Twinkle will group the supported templates inside a {{
Multiple issues}} template. Any selected templates that are not supported in {{
Multiple issues}} are added normally.
As of June 2019, it is also possible to remove existing tags from articles (but not from redirects or files). Existing tags (even the ones that Twinkle doesn't normally support) are listed checked at the top. Unchecking a tag and submitting would remove the tag.
On redirect pages (in any namespace), the tab will present you with a set of redirect categorization tags, from Category:Redirect templates.
Deletable Image - This part of Twinkle tags files without fair use rationales, sources, or copyright information.
ARV stands for Advance Reporting and Vetting. When on any user namespace page, or on Special:Contributions/USER, click this button to report them to administrators for several possible infractions:
On user talk pages, the warn tab allows you to leave one of a variety of warning messages on a user's talk page. To use, first click the warn tab. A window will appear with the following options:
Clicking Submit will post the chosen warning to the user's talk page and then refresh the page in your browser.
Twinkle is capable of adding a custom list of templates that displays below the default set of warning templates. If you have installed Twinkle, you can use the "Custom warning templates to display" option in your Twinkle preferences under "Warn user".
The tb tab will allow you to easily leave a variety of user notification templates on other users' talk pages. It supports most of the options that you would have available as if you were leaving the template by hand.
Some (but not all) of the templates supported are:
More may be added in the future.
The wel tab will welcome the user with a selected template.
If an article is specified in the input field, and the template supports an article link, Twinkle will automatically link the template to the article you specified. All templates that support this are marked with an asterisk ("*"). In the case of normal welcome templates, the article would be one that the user contributed positively to. In the case of problem user welcome templates, the article would be one that the user vandalized or did not contribute positively to. This input field is automatically populated if the vanarticle
URL parameter is found, which is populated by Twinkle after doing a rollback.
Twinkle is capable of supporting a custom list of templates that displays below the standard set of Welcome templates. If you have installed Twinkle, you can add a list of templates that you would like to be added to the Welcome dialogue by changing the "Custom welcome templates to display" option in your Twinkle preferences. Any templates added to this list, when selected, will simply be placed on the user's talk page with no heading, no arguments, and will be followed by your signature.
The shared IP tab will tag the IP as a shared IP address.
Most of the Shared IP templates require that the name of the organization that owns or operates the IP address be entered. If one of these templates is selected, Twinkle will require that you fill in the "Organization name" input field, which supports wikitext.
When you view a diff between versions of a page, Twinkle will place extra links above the two columns of the diff display.
The "Restore this version" link appears above any version that is not the latest version (in either or both columns) and when used will revert to that version, effectively undoing any changes since. A box is provided to input an edit summary.
When the newer version in the diff is the latest version of the page, three "rollback" links instead appear above it. Any of these will revert all consecutive edits by the same editor immediately preceding the new version. Any bot edits that follow the editor's consecutive edits can also be included in the revert.
Thus rollback is identical to the core undo functionality, only it will potentially include a whole chunk of edits by the same editor (and optionally bot edits too) at the same time.
A welcome link will also appear next to a user in a diff view if the user's talk page is empty. Depending on your preferences, this link will automatically welcome the user with the template specified in the "Template to use when welcoming automatically" preference, or open the user's talk page with Twinkle's welcome dialogue already visible (by default). This feature is available when viewing any diff across all namespaces.
As well as having access to more features in some of the main modules, administrators also have some modules to themselves:
The easiest way to configure Twinkle is by using the preferences panel, located at Wikipedia:Twinkle/Preferences. There is a wide variety of options available.
The Twinkle preferences panel works by saving a JSON object to Special:MyPage/twinkleoptions.js, which is then read by Twinkle every time you load a page. (That might sound like a performance hit, but your browser will normally cache your personal options page, so it doesn't have to be downloaded every time.)
If the preferences panel goes wrong, or you want to set up some of the advanced preferences described below, you can manually edit Special:MyPage/twinkleoptions.js. Its format is as follows (non-JavaScript-savvy users beware):
window.Twinkle.prefs = {
"optionsVersion": 2,
"revertMaxRevisions": 13,
"proddeleteChunks": 20,
"watchTaggedPages": true,
"talkbackHeading": "Talkback just for you..."
};
These parameters are handy to tweak if your browser or network connection is struggling to perform operations without encountering database locks or network timeouts. They are not shown in the preferences panel, and must be modified by manually editing Special:MyPage/twinkleoptions.js.
Regular users can take advantage of the following parameter:
revertMaxRevisions
50
.Administrators can use other parameters to fine-tune batch operations, etc.
batchdeleteChunks
50
.batchMax
5000
.batchProtectChunks
50
.batchundeleteChunks
50
.proddeleteChunks
50
.In the Monobook skin, each Twinkle module is given its own tab. This can take up a large amount of screen space, especially for administrators, and you may prefer to hide some rarely-used Twinkle tabs. To hide tabs, go to Wikipedia:Twinkle/Preferences#general and use the "Turn off the selected Twinkle modules:" option.
With the advent of temporary watchlisting, the default watch time for most options is 1 month. Notable exceptions are for welcoming users (3 months), SPI report creation (yes), XfD discussion (default prefs), and RfPP requests (yes).
Possible values for watchlisting (in your Twinkle preferences) are: