Revision as of 19:12, 17 October 2025

From Lorebooks to MediaWiki: quick tour

This page shows how a SillyTavern-style lorebook can live inside MediaWiki with Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) and Scribunto. Start with the finished experience, then dig into the pieces that make it work.

References for context:

TL;DR demo

Visit the example world page Farlandia and a concept such as Slime.

Run

{{#invoke:Lorebook|inject|world=Farlandia|context=Slime in Mossford}}

You get context like:

[slime: enemy, slimeball, made of gelatin, bounces to move, annoyance]
[Mossford(The town of Moss): town, mossy buildings, moss used for(magic, power), has(tavern, bank, inn, castle), kind people, wealthy]
[Farlandia's monsters: slimes, dragons]

{{user}}: Slime?
{{char}}: "Oh... Those things." She blushes, remembering their first battle.

That output mirrors the original lorebook behaviour while everything remains queryable inside the wiki.

Architecture snapshot

Templates capture lore in structured form (worlds and concepts).
SMW properties index every chunk for queries and recursion.
The Scribunto module reads those annotations, applies key logic, and emits prompt text or JSON.

Why it works

Template

MediaWiki allows users to create custom templates, which is easily reusable. We created two templates Template:World and Template:Concept to mimic actual lorebooks. Here are some example pages using these templates: Farlandia, Farlandia:Monsters, Slime, Mossford. The custom styles also renders them beautifully.

Semantic MediaWiki

SMW stores each lore snippet as property triples (world ownership, keys, recursion hints). Queries can list all concepts in a world, filter by keys, or export structured JSON.

Scribunto

The module mirrors Lorebook matching rules: ANY/AND/NOT key logic, constant/conditional entries, and recursive parent/child traversal. It can output prompt text or JSON for downstream tools. Here is the vibe coded script used in this example Module:Lorebook

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 == TL;DR demo ==
 # Visit the example world page [[Farlandia]] and a concept such as [[Slime]].
-# Run {{#invoke:Lorebook|inject|world=Farlandia|context=Slime in Mossford}}
+# Run <pre>{{#invoke:Lorebook|inject|world=Farlandia|context=Slime in Mossford}}</pre>
 # You get context like:
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 * SMW properties index every chunk for queries and recursion.
 * The Scribunto module reads those annotations, applies key logic, and emits prompt text or JSON.
-* Optional local tooling (<code>scripts/lorebook.lua</code>) lets you unit-test the logic before publishing.
-== Files in this demo repo ==
+== Why it works ==
-* [[Template:World]] – world header template (see <code>content/Template_World.wikitext</code>).
+=== Template ===
-* [[Template:Concept]] – lore/environment entries (see <code>content/Template_Concept.wikitext</code>).
+MediaWiki allows users to create custom templates, which is easily reusable. We created two templates [[Template:World]] and [[Template:Concept]] to mimic actual lorebooks. Here are some example pages using these templates: [[Farlandia]], [[Farlandia:Monsters]], [[Slime]], [[Mossford]]. The custom styles also renders them beautifully.
-* [[SMW Lorebook Properties]] – list of property pages to create.
-* Example pages: [[Farlandia]], [[Farlandia:Monsters]], [[Slime]], [[Mossford]].
-* Scribunto module source: <code>scripts/module_lorebook.lua</code> (upload as [[Module:Lorebook]]).
-* Optional pure-Lua harness + tests: <code>scripts/lorebook.lua</code> and <code>scripts/test_lorebook.lua</code>.
-== Setup checklist ==
-# Create the properties described in [[SMW Lorebook Properties]].
-# Upload [[Template:World]] and [[Template:Concept]].
-# Copy <code>scripts/module_lorebook.lua</code> into [[Module:Lorebook]].
-# Import the example pages (world + concepts) to see immediate results: [[Farlandia]], [[Farlandia:Monsters]], [[Slime]], [[Mossford]].
-# (Optional) Run <code>lua scripts/test_lorebook.lua</code> locally to verify the logic.
-== Why it works ==
 === Semantic MediaWiki ===
 SMW stores each lore snippet as property triples (world ownership, keys, recursion hints). Queries can list all concepts in a world, filter by keys, or export structured JSON.
 === Scribunto ===
-The module mirrors Lorebook matching rules: ANY/AND/NOT key logic, constant/conditional entries, and recursive parent/child traversal. It can output prompt text or JSON for downstream tools.
+The module mirrors Lorebook matching rules: ANY/AND/NOT key logic, constant/conditional entries, and recursive parent/child traversal. It can output prompt text or JSON for downstream tools. Here is the vibe coded script used in this example [[Module:Lorebook]]
-=== Gradual migration ===
-Because everything is on wiki pages, writers can iterate in the wiki UI while engineers consume the same data via queries or the module export.
-== Next steps ==
-* Add more concepts with stacked lorebooks or character-specific filters.
-* Expand the module to honour placement hints (before/after character, depth buckets).
-* Generate exports for SillyTavern or other front-ends directly from the wiki.