Hello World,

This is an advance notice that the Wikimedia Search Platform team will be migrating the search backend for the CirrusSearch extension [1] to OpenSearch. [2] This is in the early stage of planning, with work tentatively slated to begin in the October 2024 - December 2024 timeframe and continue through mid-2025.

If you run a MediaWiki server with the CirrusSearch extension, you may want to prepare for a migration in your installation as well. There will be changes to MediaWiki PHP code in order to ensure that CirrusSearch works well with an OpenSearch backend, and there will likely be incompatibilities with the old search backend as extension and connection library code is replaced.

The Search Platform team is available for questions in case you are investigating the transition and how it may affect your MediaWiki search backend setup. The Search Platform team is available on Libera IRC on the #wikimedia-search channel and it hosts monthly office hours the first Wednesday of the month [3], which are announced on the wikitech-l mailing list.

Thank you.

Adam Baso

[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CirrusSearch