The Tool Desk
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What a MediaWiki skin changes
A MediaWiki skin controls the presentation layer of a wiki: page chrome, navigation placement, typography, menus, responsive behavior, and the templates that turn wiki data into a rendered page. It does not replace the wiki database or article content. Installing a second skin therefore gives the site another interface; it does not create a second wiki.
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MediaWiki treats a skin as code loaded by the server. Two pieces must agree: the skin’s files must be in the installation’s skins/ directory, and the skin must be registered in LocalSettings.php. A directory that is present but not registered is unavailable to the wiki. A registration line pointing at a missing or incorrectly named directory can produce an error instead of a usable interface.
Before making a skin the site default, check that its release branch or tag matches the MediaWiki version running your wiki. A skin can look complete while still depending on APIs, registration conventions, or assets that changed between releases.
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Check compatibility before downloading anything
Match the skin to the MediaWiki release
If you obtain a skin from Git, check out the branch or tag intended for your MediaWiki release. Wikimedia projects commonly publish release-specific branches; use the branch or tag named in the skin’s own documentation rather than assuming the newest code is correct for an older wiki. If you download a tarball or ZIP, read the release notes and compatibility statement that accompany that archive.
MediaWiki’s official upgrade guidance warns that some older skins were not adapted to the newer skin registration system. Compatibility is therefore a recurring maintenance task, not a one-time installation check. Record the MediaWiki version, the skin version or commit, and any extra dependencies before enabling the skin so that a later upgrade can be traced to a known change.
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The general registration pattern is consistent, but individual skins can require dependencies, configuration variables, package-manager steps, or a particular directory name. Those instructions take precedence over the generic workflow in this article. Do not infer that a skin is ready for production merely because its folder contains a PHP file.
Check operational fit
For a wiki with several candidate skins, evaluate the items below before choosing one. The official documentation establishes the importance of release matching and skin-specific instructions; the other items are practical criteria for an administrator’s decision.
| Decision area | What to verify | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Release compatibility | Supported MediaWiki versions, matching Git branch or tag, and registration method | Prevents fatal errors and rendering problems after installation or upgrades |
| Maintenance | Recent releases, issue activity, and a documented upgrade path | An abandoned skin can become the limiting component of a maintained wiki |
| Feature and extension integration | Whether the navigation, search, forms, and extensions used by your wiki are supported | Skin templates can expose or hide interface elements supplied by extensions |
| Responsive and mobile behavior | How layouts adapt to narrow screens and touch input | A desktop preview does not establish that mobile pages are usable |
| Accessibility and right-to-left support | Keyboard navigation, contrast, semantics, and RTL layout behavior | These requirements can affect every reader, not just administrators |
| Customization surface | Available CSS, JavaScript, template, and configuration hooks | Determines whether the design can be adapted without editing vendor files |
| Performance and assets | Asset dependencies, image weight, and client-side scripts | Additional assets can affect page delivery and caching |
| Upgrade effort | Whether local overrides or template changes must be reapplied after updates | Migration work is part of the skin’s total cost of ownership |
Obtain the skin code
A standard MediaWiki tarball already includes several skins. If the one you need is not included, use one of the distribution methods documented for that skin:
- Download a release tarball from the skin’s official distribution page.
- Clone or download the skin from Wikimedia Git and check out the branch or tag matching your MediaWiki release.
- Download a ZIP archive, then unpack it on the server or on a deployment workstation.
- Use the documented
mediawiki-skins-cliworkflow when the skin supports it.
Keep the archive or Git commit used for deployment. If an upgrade later breaks the interface, that record lets you identify whether the skin changed, the MediaWiki core changed, or a dependency was omitted.
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Install a skin in the skins/ directory
1. Find the active MediaWiki installation
Identify the directory that contains your wiki’s LocalSettings.php, core directories, and existing skins/ folder. That is the installation root. On a server with multiple wikis, do not assume that a similarly named web directory is the one serving the target wiki.
2. Place the complete skin directory
Unpack or copy the skin as a direct subdirectory of the installation’s skins/ directory. For example, a skin whose registered name is ExampleSkin should normally have a path conceptually like:
/path/to/mediawiki/skins/ExampleSkin/The directory name and the registered skin name must match the skin’s instructions. Case differences can matter on typical case-sensitive servers. Avoid adding an extra nesting level such as skins/ExampleSkin/ExampleSkin/ when the archive already contains the top-level folder.
3. Preserve server readability
The web server and PHP process must be able to read the skin files. Use the ownership and permission pattern already used by the rest of the MediaWiki installation rather than making the skin world-writable. If the wiki is deployed from a build or release process, install the skin through that same process so that permissions and rollback behavior remain consistent.
Enable the skin in LocalSettings.php
Open the LocalSettings.php belonging to the wiki and add one load statement for every skin that administrators want to make available:
wfLoadSkin( 'SkinName' );Replace SkinName with the exact name specified by the skin. The spelling and capitalization in this call are not a display label; they identify the skin’s registered code. A skin can be installed on disk and still remain unavailable until this line is present.
MediaWiki’s skin-configuration documentation states: “For any skin in your /skins directory that you wish to use, you must enable it in your LocalSettings.php file.” Treat that statement as the minimum registration requirement, then apply any additional steps listed on the skin’s page.
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Place the line in the same configuration area where other extensions or skins are loaded, and keep a copy of the file before editing. A PHP syntax error in LocalSettings.php can prevent the entire wiki from loading, so make one small change at a time and check the site immediately afterward.
Confirm registration
Open the wiki in a private browser window and test a normal page, a talk page, a search page, and at least one page supplied by an important extension. Check both an account with administrator rights and an ordinary user account. A skin that renders the main page correctly can still expose missing menus, broken forms, or extension-specific layout problems elsewhere.
Change the default skin
Registration makes a skin available; it does not necessarily make it the default. Set the default with the lowercase symbolic name from the skin definition:
$wgDefaultSkin = 'vector';Use the skin’s documented symbolic name, not its marketing title or directory label. The value in this setting is case-sensitive in the sense that it must match the name MediaWiki defines for that skin.
When the default value changes, existing users who were using the previous default are switched to the new default. Users can still choose another enabled skin in Preferences unless the administrator has configured the wiki to suppress alternative skins. A default change therefore changes the baseline experience without necessarily forcing every user to use one interface forever.
Roll out a default safely
- Enable the skin with
wfLoadSkin()while leaving the existing default unchanged. - Preview the new skin on representative pages and test it with ordinary user permissions.
- Fix skin-specific dependencies, CSS, JavaScript, logo settings, and extension integration issues.
- Change
$wgDefaultSkinto the lowercase symbolic name only after the preview passes. - Ask users to hard-refresh or clear stale cached assets only if the skin documentation identifies caching as an issue; do not delete unrelated caches as a first response.
Preview a skin without changing the site default
MediaWiki provides a low-risk preview path. Append ?useskin=skinname to a page URL, replacing skinname with the skin’s symbolic name. For example:
https://your-wiki.example/wiki/Main_Page?useskin=skinnameThe parameter applies the selected skin to that request without changing $wgDefaultSkin. Use it to inspect logged-out and logged-in views, narrow and wide browser windows, long article pages, tables, images, forms, and pages generated by extensions.
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Skin-development documentation also describes ?useskin=json for inspecting template data. That mode is useful when developing or debugging a skin, not as a replacement for checking the normal HTML interface that readers will use.
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- Open the main page, a long article, a talk page, a category, a search result, and a page with an infobox or table.
- Sign in as an administrator and as a regular user; compare visible tools and personal links.
- Test keyboard-only navigation, focus visibility, heading order, and text zoom.
- Resize the browser to a phone-sized viewport and check menus, tables, images, and edit controls.
- Test right-to-left content if the wiki serves an RTL language.
- Exercise critical extensions, especially forms, visual editors, media galleries, and authentication-related pages.
- Record console errors, missing icons, unstyled elements, and links that become unreachable before changing the default.
Offer, restrict, or remove skins
Keep only maintained choices enabled
Every enabled skin increases the set of templates, styles, and assets that must remain compatible with the current MediaWiki release. Remove the wfLoadSkin() line for a skin that should no longer be offered. After disabling it, remove its files from skins/ if the wiki no longer needs them. Do not delete the directory first and leave a load statement behind; that can turn a deliberate removal into a startup failure.
Re-enabling a previously disabled skin does not lose users’ skin settings according to the core skin documentation. The settings become usable again when the skin is installed and registered, provided that the skin still supports the current MediaWiki release.
Separate availability from the default
A skin can be enabled for testing without being the default, and the default can be changed without deleting other enabled skins. This separation is useful for staged rollouts: keep the established skin available while reviewers test the replacement through Preferences or ?useskin=, then remove the old option only after the migration is complete.
Customize skins without editing vendor files
Use wiki-level CSS and JavaScript pages for routine presentation overrides. Editing files inside the skin directory makes upgrades harder because a new release can overwrite those edits or make them incompatible.
| Page | Scope |
|---|---|
MediaWiki:Common.css |
CSS applied across skins |
MediaWiki:Common.js |
JavaScript applied across skins |
MediaWiki:Vector.css |
CSS specific to the Vector skin |
MediaWiki:Vector.js |
JavaScript specific to Vector |
MediaWiki:Minerva.css |
CSS specific to the Minerva skin |
MediaWiki:Minerva.js |
JavaScript specific to Minerva |
User:name/skin.css |
Per-user CSS override for a named skin |
User:name/skin.js |
Per-user JavaScript override for a named skin |
Replace the italicized parts with the actual account and skin names when creating per-user pages. Keep global rules in Common.css only when they genuinely work across all enabled skins; put a rule in the skin-specific page when it depends on that skin’s markup or class names.
Prefer documented hooks and stable selectors. A selector copied from a rendered page can change in a skin update, while a supported configuration or hook is more likely to survive. Keep a change log for custom CSS and JavaScript, and test those pages whenever the skin or MediaWiki core is upgraded.
Troubleshoot a failed installation
The skin does not appear in Preferences
- Confirm that the directory is directly under the active installation’s
skins/directory. - Check that the directory name and the
wfLoadSkin()name match the skin’s instructions, including capitalization. - Verify that the line is in the correct
LocalSettings.phpand that the file has no PHP syntax error. - Check the skin’s release branch or tag and any required dependencies.
The wiki shows an error immediately after adding the line
Temporarily remove or comment out the new registration line to restore the previous configuration, then inspect the skin’s installation requirements. A missing dependency, unsupported registration method, wrong class name, or incomplete archive is more likely than a problem with the wiki’s article content. Reinstall the complete release after correcting the cause.
The skin loads but the page is unstyled or incomplete
Compare the installed directory with the original archive and look for omitted assets or nested directories. Check browser developer tools for failed asset requests, then verify that the web server can read the files. Review the skin’s documented dependencies and test a page that does not use custom site CSS; a rule in Common.css can hide or restyle elements unexpectedly.
An extension works in one skin but not another
Skin templates do not expose every interface element in the same place. Confirm that the extension supports the skin and follow any integration instructions on the extension or skin page. Keep the affected skin as a test option rather than making it the default until critical workflows, including editing and authentication, work correctly.
The problem appears after a MediaWiki upgrade
Treat the upgrade as a compatibility event. Verify, in order:
- The skin branch or tag matches the new MediaWiki release.
- The skin still uses the registration method expected by that release.
- All documented dependencies are installed at compatible versions.
- Logo and other skin settings are still valid.
- The rendered layout, navigation, forms, extension pages, mobile view, and RTL view still work.
- Custom CSS and JavaScript do not rely on markup that the upgrade changed.
If the current skin is not yet adapted, keep the previous compatible skin available while you update or replace it. Do not solve a rendering regression by copying random files from a different release; align the complete skin version with the complete MediaWiki release instead.
Plan a repeatable skin lifecycle
For a production wiki, treat skins like other deployable code. Maintain a short inventory containing the MediaWiki release, each enabled skin, its version or commit, its compatibility statement, and its local CSS or JavaScript overrides. Test upgrades in a staging copy before changing the production default. Use ?useskin= for page-by-page review, then change $wgDefaultSkin only when the replacement has passed the same workflows as the old default.
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When retiring a skin, first remove its load statement and verify that users can still access the intended replacement. Then remove unused files through the normal deployment process. Preserve the version record and configuration history so a later administrator can understand why the skin was removed and whether it can safely be restored.
Quick reference
| Goal | Action |
|---|---|
| Install code | Place the complete skin directory under the wiki’s skins/ directory. |
| Register a skin | Add wfLoadSkin( 'SkinName' ); to LocalSettings.php. |
| Set the default | Set $wgDefaultSkin = 'lowercase-name'; using the skin’s symbolic name. |
| Preview safely | Append ?useskin=skinname to a page URL. |
| Inspect template data | Use the documented ?useskin=json development view. |
| Disable availability | Remove the skin’s wfLoadSkin() line, then remove unneeded files. |
| Apply global CSS or JavaScript | Use MediaWiki:Common.css or MediaWiki:Common.js. |
| Apply skin-specific overrides | Use the matching MediaWiki:Skin.css or .js page. |
What to remember
A successful skin change has four separable parts: a compatible release, a complete directory under skins/, an exact wfLoadSkin() registration, and a tested default or preview choice. Keep the skin enabled only while it is maintained, place local styling in wiki pages rather than vendor files, and repeat compatibility checks whenever MediaWiki changes.
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