wik

wik retrieves information from Wikipedia in a command-line shell, according to its project description.

github.com/yashsinghcodes/wik
wik homepage screenshot

About wik

wik is an open-source command-line tool for viewing Wikipedia pages and searching Wikipedia articles from a terminal. It is written in Python and can be installed from source or from PyPI. The project's README lists support for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

wik saves fetched pages to disk so repeated queries are faster and can work offline. Caching can be disabled for a single run or cleared entirely. The tool retrieves content from Wikipedia, and its requirements include Python 3 and the beautifulsoup4 package.

Key features

  • View Wikipedia pages in the terminal with the -i or --info option
  • Search Wikipedia articles with a single query using -s or --search
  • Get a page summary with the -q or --quick option
  • Request results in another language with -l or --lang, default English
  • Retrieve a random Wikipedia article with the -x or --rand option
  • Store pages on disk, with options to disable or clear the cache
Best for: People who work in a terminal and want quick lookups of Wikipedia content without opening a web browser.
Good for
  • Open source and released under the MIT license
  • Can be installed from source or from PyPI using pip
  • Documented as running on Linux, macOS, and Windows
Watch out for
  • Requires Python 3 and the beautifulsoup4 package
  • Windows users must add Python to their environment variables, according to the README
  • Only retrieves content from Wikipedia

wik at a glance

Type
Open-source project
Pricing
Not confirmed. Check the site
Platforms
Linux, macOS, Windows
Open source
Yes · Source code
Language
English
Last checked
Oct 6, 2026 · Online when checked
Listed
Oct 5, 2026

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wik FAQ

How can I install wik?
On Linux or macOS, install it from PyPI with python3 -m pip install wik, or install from the cloned source with python3 -m pip install . in the repository folder. On Windows, the README gives the same steps using python in place of python3.
Can I use wik offline?
The README says that pages stored in the on-disk cache can be used offline. It does not state how uncached pages behave without a connection.
How do I turn off caching or clear it?
Use --no-cache with a command to disable caching for that run, or run wik --clear-cache to clear cached pages and exit.
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