templatedata-from-readme

name	templatedata-from-readme
description	Convert a Markdown Parameters table in a wiki template README to a `<templatedata>` JSON block ready for embedding on a Template namespace doc page. Use when deploying a Template:* page's README to its /doc subpage (called by deploy-to-wiki), or when the user asks to "generate templatedata" / "preview templatedata" for a README.

templatedata-from-readme

Pure transformation skill: takes a README.md following the wiki-tools template-doc convention and returns a <templatedata> block that mirrors the Parameters table.

When to invoke

• Deploy pipeline for a Template:*/doc page — deploy-to-wiki delegates to this skill.
• Ad-hoc preview: user wants to see the TemplateData JSON before deploy.
• Pre-commit validation: catch malformed Parameters tables before they break the wiki.

Input format

A README.md following the wiki-tools convention. The Parameters table can be 6 columns (Label is derived from Name) or 7 columns (Label provided explicitly). Either form may append an optional trailing Aliases column. The skill detects the shape from the header row names, not the count.

6-column form (default):

# Template:Foo/Bar

One-paragraph intro describing what the template renders. This becomes
the TemplateData top-level `description`.

## Usage
...

## Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|------|------|----------|---------|-------------|---------|
| `paramA` | string | Yes |  | Brief desc. | `value` |
| `paramB` | number | No | `0` | Another desc. | `42` |
| `paramC` | string | No | (falls back to lookup) | Optional with prose default. | `xyz` |

## Behavior
...

7-column form (explicit Label, useful for acronyms/abbreviations):

| Name | Label | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|------|-------|------|----------|---------|-------------|---------|
| `uuid` | UUID | string | No | (falls back to SMW) | Entity UUID. | `80ee3b95-...` |
| `paramB` | Param B | number | No | `0` | Another desc. | `42` |

Optional trailing Aliases column (on either form) — for parameters the underlying module accepts under alternative arg names:

| Name | Label | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example | Aliases |
|------|-------|------|----------|---------|-------------|---------|---------|
| `model` | Model | string | No |  | Series/model grouping. | `Constellation` | `series` |
| `generation` | Generation | string | No |  | Mark within the series. | `Mk IV` | `Generation`; `mark` |
| `name` | Name | string | No |  | Display name. | `Andromeda` |  |

Output format

A wikitext block:

<templatedata>
{
    "description": "<intro paragraph text>",
    "params": {
        "paramA": { "label": "ParamA", "description": "Brief desc.", "type": "string", "required": true, "example": "value" },
        "paramB": { "label": "ParamB", "description": "Another desc.", "type": "number", "required": false, "default": "0", "example": "42" },
        "paramC": { "label": "ParamC", "description": "Optional with prose default.", "type": "string", "required": false, "example": "xyz" }
    },
    "paramOrder": ["paramA", "paramB", "paramC"],
    "format": "inline"
}
</templatedata>

Conversion rules

Column indices below assume the 6-column form. For the 7-column form, shift Type/Required/Default/Description/Example one cell right and read Label from cell 2.

README cell	TemplateData field	Rule
Name	key in params	Strip backticks. Used verbatim.
Label (optional, 7-col only)	label	Use the cell value as-is (preserves acronym casing like "UUID").
Type	type	Lowercase. Validate against vocabulary (see below). Fall back to unknown and warn if unrecognized.
Required	required	Yes / Y / true → true; everything else → false.
Default	default	Wrapped in parens (e.g. (falls back to ...)) → prose, omit from JSON. Wrapped in backticks → strip and use as string. Empty cell → omit.
Description	description	Plain string. Strip surrounding whitespace, and strip markup the same way the top-level description does — backticks, and both Markdown and wikitext link syntax. VisualEditor renders this as plain text, so `Stanton` and [[Module:SystemMap/systems.json]] reach the editor verbatim, punctuation and all.
Example	example	Strip backticks. Empty cell → omit.
Top-level	description	First paragraph after the H1 title. Strip link syntax to plain text — both Markdown [Text](URL) → Text and wikitext [[Page|Text]] → Text, [[Page]] → Page. TemplateData descriptions are rendered as plain text by VisualEditor; link syntax leaks through ugly.
Top-level	paramOrder	Order of rows in the table.
Top-level	format	Default inline. Override via HTML comment in the README: <!-- templatedata: format=block -->.
Aliases (optional trailing column)

Type vocabulary

Validated against MediaWiki's TemplateData type list:

string, number, boolean, wiki-page-name, wiki-user-name, wiki-template-name, wiki-file-name, date, url, line, unbalanced-wikitext, content, unknown.

Unrecognized types fall back to unknown with a warning printed to the user.

Process

1. Locate the H1 title (first # ... line). Everything after it up to the next blank line is the top-level description.
2. Find the Parameters section — heading ## Parameters followed by a Markdown table. If absent, return nil and tell the caller (the template has no params; the caller decides whether to omit the block or report an error).
3. Parse the table — header row, separator (|---|---|...), then body rows. Detect form by the header names: Name | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example is 6-column; Name | Label | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example is 7-column; either may carry a trailing Aliases column. Reject other shapes — halt with an error pointing at the offending row.
4. Apply the conversion rules above to each row.
5. Look for HTML comment overrides anywhere in the README:
   • <!-- templatedata: format=block --> → format: "block"
   • <!-- templatedata: format=inline --> → format: "inline"
   • <!-- templatedata: suggestedvalues <param> = a; b; c --> → adds "suggestedvalues": ["a", "b", "c"] to that param. Values are ;-separated (so a value may contain commas/spaces, e.g. Active for Squadron 42); trimmed; empty entries dropped. <param> must be a key in the Parameters table (silently ignored otherwise). Use one directive per param. suggestedvalues are non-restrictive hints VE offers as a dropdown/autocomplete — right for closed or curated vocabularies (a family of ship; ground; gravlev, a size or production-state enum).
6. Emit the block with the JSON pretty-printed and wrapped in <templatedata>...</templatedata>.

Edge cases

• No Parameters section → return nil.
• Empty table body (header only) → emit <templatedata> with empty params so VisualEditor doesn't show "Unknown template parameters".
• Pipe character in cell content must be escaped as \| per CommonMark; the parser must respect that.
• Multi-line cell content — Markdown tables don't natively support newlines in cells. Use <br> (HTML) — passes through to TemplateData fine.
• suggestedvalues — supported via the <!-- templatedata: suggestedvalues <param> = a; b; c --> escape-hatch comment (see Process step 5), not a table column.
• Aliases — supported via the optional trailing Aliases column. When the column is present, empty cells simply omit aliases — no need to strip the column for alias-free params.
• autovalue / sets / maps — not supported. Add an escape-hatch HTML comment convention (as done for suggestedvalues) or extend the table when needed; otherwise report as out-of-scope.

Output discipline

• JSON must be valid and parseable. Use a JSON serializer, not string concatenation.
• Tab indent for the JSON body (matches the existing on-wiki blocks; a 4-space emission re-indents the entire block and buries the real diff in whitespace noise).
• Never inject extra whitespace before <templatedata> or after </templatedata> — callers control surrounding whitespace.

Validation

Before emitting:

• All params keys are non-empty after backtick stripping.
• All type values are in the vocabulary (or warned-and-coerced to unknown).
• paramOrder covers every key in params, in the same order they appeared.
• Top-level description is a non-empty string.