Flask-Wiki

A lightweight, file-based wiki system built as a Flask extension. Create, edit, search, and manage wiki pages stored as Markdown files on the filesystem -- no database required.

Features

• Markdown pages with metadata (title, tags)
• Full-text search powered by Whoosh
• File/image uploads
• WikiLinks ([[Page Name]] syntax)
• Multilingual support
• Rich editor with live preview (EasyMDE)
• Customizable templates and permissions

Installation

pip install flask-wiki

Quick start

from flask import Flask
from flask_wiki import Wiki

app = Flask(__name__)
app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'your-secret-key'
Wiki(app)

Or using the application factory pattern:

from flask import Flask
from flask_wiki import Wiki

wiki = Wiki()

def create_app():
    app = Flask(__name__)
    app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'your-secret-key'
    wiki.init_app(app)
    return app

The wiki will be available at /help by default (configurable via WIKI_URL_PREFIX).

Initialize the search index

Before using search, initialize the Whoosh index:

flask flask_wiki init-index
flask flask_wiki index

How it works

Wiki pages are plain Markdown files stored in a content directory (./data by default). The URL structure mirrors the filesystem: /help/guides/setup maps to data/guides/setup.md.

Each page file has an optional metadata header followed by the Markdown body:

title: My Page Title
tags: setup, guide

# Content starts here

Regular markdown content...

The wiki registers a Flask Blueprint with routes for viewing, editing, searching, and managing pages. Uploaded files (images) are stored in a subfolder and served via middleware.

Permissions

Flask-Wiki uses a callable-based permission system. The host application provides functions that return True or False to control access. By default, everything is open (all lambdas return True).

There are four permission settings:

Setting	Purpose
WIKI_READ_VIEW_PERMISSION	Controls access to read routes (view pages, search). Returns 403 if False.
WIKI_EDIT_VIEW_PERMISSION	Controls access to edit routes (edit, delete, upload). Returns 403 if False.
WIKI_READ_UI_PERMISSION	Controls visibility of read-related UI elements in templates.
WIKI_EDIT_UI_PERMISSION	Controls visibility of edit buttons/links in templates.

Each permission is a callable (no arguments) that is evaluated per-request. This lets you integrate with any authentication system -- Flask-Login, session-based auth, API tokens, etc.

Example: integrating with Flask-Login

from flask_login import current_user

app.config['WIKI_READ_VIEW_PERMISSION'] = lambda: current_user.is_authenticated
app.config['WIKI_EDIT_VIEW_PERMISSION'] = lambda: current_user.is_authenticated and current_user.has_role('editor')
app.config['WIKI_EDIT_UI_PERMISSION'] = app.config['WIKI_EDIT_VIEW_PERMISSION']

The VIEW permissions are enforced server-side via route decorators. The UI permissions only toggle visibility of buttons and links in the templates -- they do not enforce access control on their own. Typically you'll set the UI permissions to match the view permissions, but you can separate them if needed (e.g., show a "log in to edit" button to anonymous users).

Configuration

Content & storage

Key	Default	Description
WIKI_HOME	'home'	Default page for /
WIKI_URL_PREFIX	'/help'	URL prefix for the wiki blueprint
WIKI_CONTENT_DIR	'./data'	Directory for Markdown files
WIKI_UPLOAD_FOLDER	'./data/files'	Directory for uploaded images
WIKI_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS	{'png','jpg','jpeg','gif','svg'}	Allowed upload types
WIKI_INDEX_DIR	'./index'	Whoosh search index directory

Templates

All templates can be overridden by setting these config values to your own template paths:

Key	Default
WIKI_BASE_TEMPLATE	'wiki/base.html'
WIKI_PAGE_TEMPLATE	'wiki/page.html'
WIKI_EDITOR_TEMPLATE	'wiki/editor.html'
WIKI_SEARCH_TEMPLATE	'wiki/search.html'
WIKI_FILES_TEMPLATE	'wiki/files.html'
WIKI_NOT_FOUND_TEMPLATE	'wiki/404.html'
WIKI_FORBIDDEN_TEMPLATE	'wiki/403.html'

Internationalization

Key	Default	Description
WIKI_CURRENT_LANGUAGE	lambda: 'en'	Callable returning the current language code
WIKI_LANGUAGES	{'en': 'English', 'fr': 'French', 'de': 'German', 'it': 'Italian'}	Available languages

Pages can have per-language variants using filename suffixes: page_fr.md, page_de.md, etc. The wiki automatically loads the correct variant based on WIKI_CURRENT_LANGUAGE.

Markdown

Key	Default	Description
WIKI_MARKDOWN_EXTENSIONS	{'codehilite', 'fenced_code'}	Additional Python-Markdown extensions

The extensions toc, meta, tables, and a built-in Bootstrap extension are always loaded.

Development

Requirements

• Python >=3.10,<3.15
• uv

Setup

git clone <repo-url>
cd flask-wiki
uv sync --frozen

Run the example app

cd examples
uv run flask flask_wiki init-index
uv run flask flask_wiki index
uv run flask run --debug
# Visit http://localhost:5000/help

Run tests

uv run poe run_tests

License

BSD 3-Clause. See LICENSE for details.