Wikimedia Commons User Rights Log Scraper

Wikimedia Commons User Rights Log Scraper

Scrape Wikimedia Commons user rights logs by username, target user, or all changes, up to a million entries per run. Each row includes the old and new user groups, the acting admin, timestamp, and the log comment. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Wikimedia Commons does not offer a bulk export of its user rights log, and the on-wiki Special:Log page is built for browsing one screen at a time. This Actor reads the public MediaWiki API directly, filters by the acting user or the affected target user, and returns every matching rights change in one fixed schema. It is the fastest way to get a complete, analyzable record of who gained or lost sysop, bureaucrat, or other rights on Commons.

Who uses it	What they scrape Wikimedia Commons for
Wikimedia researchers	Studying how administrator and bureaucrat rights are granted and revoked over time
Community governance analysts	Auditing changes to advanced permissions for transparency or dispute resolution
Tool developers	Building dashboards or alerts that track when specific users gain or lose rights
Journalists covering Wikipedia	Investigating patterns in who receives elevated permissions on Commons

What it does

This Actor collects Wikimedia Commons user rights log entries by acting user, target user, or all changes, and returns each entry as a flat row with the old and new groups, metadata, timestamp, and comment.

• 👤 Filter by acting user: return only log entries performed by a specific admin or bureaucrat.
• 🎯 Filter by target user: return only entries that changed the rights of a particular account.
• 📦 Bulk export: pull up to 1,000,000 entries in a single run for full-history analysis.
• 🧾 Structured rows: every entry includes old and new groups, metadata, timestamp, and the log comment.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Wikimedia Commons data

📊 Audit admin promotions.

A governance researcher pulls all rights changes for the last five years, filters by target user, and builds a timeline of who became an administrator and when.

🔍 Investigate a specific account.

A journalist enters a username as the target and gets every rights change that account ever received, including the acting admin and the log comment.

📈 Track rights trends.

A data analyst collects all rights changes monthly and charts the number of sysop grants and revocations to spot governance shifts.

🛠️ Build a monitoring tool.

A developer schedules the Actor to run daily, filters by target user, and feeds new rights changes into a Slack alert for a watchlist of accounts.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	The public MediaWiki API needs no registration or authentication.
Complete history	Access every rights change back to the beginning of the log, not recent pages.
Clean schema	Old and new groups are parsed into separate fields for easy comparison.
Flexible export	Save results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for any downstream tool.

What a Wikimedia Commons record looks like

Every record returns as one flat JSON row. Here is a real one from a run:

{
 "logId": 406092773,
 "title": "User:CollationBot",
 "pageId": 197039701,
 "logPage": 197039701,
 "type": "rights",
 "action": "rights",
 "user": "Krd",
 "timestamp": "2026-08-26T13:09:29Z",
 "comment": "[[Commons:Bots/Requests/CollationBot]]",
 "scrapedAt": "2026-08-26T20:16:59.217Z"
}

Every value above comes from a real run. A field a record does not have comes back as null.

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with an acting username, a target username, or leave both empty to collect all rights changes. The maxItems limit controls how many entries are returned, and filters are applied by the API as it reads the log. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200
}

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Wikimedia Commons User Rights Log Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Wikimedia Commons through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/wikimedia-commons-user-rights-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that the username you entered exists and is spelled exactly, including capitalization. Also verify that the account has at least one rights change in the log. If you used both user and targetUser filters, try removing one to broaden the search.

The run stops before reaching my maxItems.

The API may return fewer entries than requested if there are no more matching log events. The Actor stops when the API signals there are no further pages, even if maxItems is higher.

I see an error about the API endpoint.

Wikimedia Commons occasionally rate-limits or briefly blocks automated requests. Wait a few minutes and retry. If the problem persists, check that the endpoint URL is still valid.

The old and new groups fields look like JSON.

The API returns groups as arrays, and the Actor stores them as JSON strings in the dataset. You can parse them in your analysis tool or use the JSON export format.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a Wikimedia account or API key?	No. The Actor uses the public MediaWiki API endpoint, which requires no authentication for reading log events.
Can I get all user rights changes, not recent ones?	Yes. The API supports pagination back to the first entry, and the Actor follows the continue parameter until it reaches your maxItems limit.
What is the difference between the user and targetUser filters?	The user filter matches the account that performed the rights change, usually an admin or bureaucrat. The targetUser filter matches the account whose rights were changed.
What data does each row contain?	Each row includes the log ID, acting user, target user, old and new groups, old and new metadata, timestamp, and the log comment.
Can I export the results to Excel?	Yes. The Actor supports CSV, JSON, Excel, and XML export formats.
Is there a limit on how many entries I can scrape?	Free users are limited to 10 items for preview. Paid users can set maxItems up to 1,000,000.
Does this Actor scrape the live log or a snapshot?	It reads the live log via the API at the time of the run, so results reflect the current state of the log.
Can I filter by a specific date range?	The input schema does not include date filters. You can filter by acting user or target user, and then filter the exported data by timestamp in your own analysis.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.

💰 How much does it cost to scrape Wikimedia Commons User Rights Log?

This Actor uses pay-per-result pricing: $0.004 per result collected. You are billed only for the results you receive, so a run that returns nothing costs nothing.