config.md

Config

Allows to persist options

wb config <key> [value]

Summary

• commands
  • get
  • set
  • path
  • reset
• options
  • credentials
  • bot
  • maxlag
  • lang
  • json
  • clipboard
  • verbose
  • custom Wikibase instance
  • custom SPARQL endpoint
• environment variables
• Backup config

commands

get

# Output the current config and the help menu
wb config
# Output the config value for the key 'clipboard'
wb config clipboard
# For wb config credentials

set

wb config clipboard true

path

get config file path

wb config path

reset

Reset a single parameter to come back to its default value

wb config instance reset

or clear the whole config

wb config reset

options

credentials

Required for write operations

# Output the current credentials for a given instance
# If no credentials are set for this instance, start a prompt session to add credentials,
# either OAuth tokens (recommended) or a username and password
wb config credentials https://www.wikidata.org
# Reset those credentials
wb config credentials https://www.wikidata.org reset
# Get the prompt again
wb config credentials https://www.wikidata.org
# Test your credentials validity
wb config credentials https://www.wikidata.org test

⚠️ Be aware that your credentials will be persisted on your file system as clear text (until we find a better way to do that). It is thus recommended to use OAuth* tokens when possible, with minimal authorizations.

(*) Yes, just the sight of word OAuth might give you chills, but setting up an owner-only consumers is actually super fast (no need for validation) and rather simple: just follow the wb config credentials https://my.wikibase.instance prompt instructions.

⚠️ Individual calls to wb do re-login every time, as cookies are not stored between sessions. An excessive number of logins to Wikibase should be avoided: if you need to perform a lot of edits, you are strongly advised to use the batch mode.

bot

Set a bot flag on requests made by a bot account is required and can be done by setting the config.bot value:

# Default: false
wb config bot true

maxlag

Set the maxlag value

# Default: 5
wb config maxlag 10

lang

Set the preferred language (same as -l, --lang)

# Default: process.env.LANG.slice(0, 2)
wb config lang nl

json

Format the output of commands as JSON, when possible (same as -j, --json)

# Default: false
wb config json true

clipboard

Copy command results to the clipboard, when this option is available (same as -c, --clipboard)

# Default: false
wb config clipboard true

verbose

Set commands to print verbose output (same as -v, --verbose)

# Default: false
wb config verbose true

custom Wikibase instance

You may want to use those commands against a different Wikibase than wikidata.org (same as -i, --instance)

# Default: https://wikidata.org/w/api.php
wb config instance https://mywikibase.instance/w/api.php

You're all set to make requests against your custom instance:

wb label Q1
wb claims Q1
wb data Q1
wb open Q1

custom SPARQL endpoint

You can also set a custom SPARQL endpoint (same as -e, --sparql-endpoint)

# Default: https://query.wikidata.org/sparql
wb config sparql-endpoint https://example.com/sparql

You're all set to make requests against your custom instance:

wb query --property P2002 --object timberners_lee

environment variables

Alternatively to using wb config, you can set environment variables. Priority is given to the command line options, then environment variables, then config values.

export WB_INSTANCE=https://wikibase-registry.wmflabs.org/w/api.php ; wb label Q2
# => Wikibase
export WB_INSTANCE=https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php ; wb label Q2
# => Earth

Available variables:

• WB_BOT
• WB_CLIPBOARD
• WB_INSTANCE
• WB_JSON
• WB_LANG
• WB_MAXLAG
• WB_SPARQL_ENDPOINT
• WB_VERBOSE

Those variables can be useful if you work with several instances, you could set aliases in your shell environment to target specifically one instance or the other:

wdt(){
  export WB_INSTANCE=https://test.wikidata.org
  wb "$@"
}
wdt search foo

Backup config

Backup:

wb config --json > config.json
# or
cp $(wb config path) config.json

Restore:

cp config.json $(wb config path)