Template:Cite

Template documentation

{{Cite}} is intended to provide an easy way to format citations. Citations should still be wrapped with the <ref> and </ref> tags.

Usage

{{cite
|source-name    = 
|year           = 
|month          = 
|day            = 
|title          = 
|retrieved-date = 
|source         = 
|archive-url    = 
|archive-date   = 
}}

The archive-url and archive-date parameters are optional but recommended — archiving the source guards against link rot if the original is later removed, privated, or restructured. See the Archived sources example below.

Example

{{cite
|source-name    = Destiny
|year           = 2006
|month          = October
|day            = 31
|title          = This is an example of a title
|retrieved-date = November 27, 2024
|source         = https://destiny.gg/
}}

produces Destiny (October 31, 2006). "This is an example of a title". Retrieved November 27, 2024.

---

The template also supports incomplete citations, though ideally any user adding a citation should add the full citation.

{{cite
|source-name    = Destiny
|year           = 2006
|month          = October
|day            =
|title          = This is an example of a title
|retrieved-date = November 27, 2024
|source         = https://destiny.gg/
}}

produces Destiny (October, 2006). "This is an example of a title". Retrieved November 27, 2024.

Archived sources

When a source has been deleted, privated, or is otherwise no longer reliably accessible — or simply to guard against future link rot — provide an archived snapshot (e.g. from the Wayback Machine or archive.today) using the archive-url and archive-date parameters. The citation will display "Archived from the original on [date]", with the date linking to the archived snapshot.

{{cite
|source-name    = YouTube
|year           = 2012
|month          = December
|day            = 26
|title          = A conversation with Vaush (Irishladdie): feminism and the revolution
|retrieved-date = May 26, 2026
|source         = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JC1voCu54
|archive-url     = https://web.archive.org/web/20250121000946/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JC1voCu54
|archive-date    = January 21, 2025
}}

produces YouTube (December 26, 2012). "A conversation with Vaush (Irishladdie): feminism and the revolution". Archived from the original on January 21, 2025. Retrieved May 26, 2026.

Parameters

No description.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers block formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
source-name	source-name	The name of the source's origination.	Content	suggested
year	year	The year the material you are citing was posted.	Number	suggested
month	month	The month the material you are citing was posted. Use the full name of the month (i.e. "January", "October", etc.) rather than the abbreviation (i.e. JAN, Sept. etc.) or number of the month (i.e. "1", "06", etc.)	Content	suggested
day	day	The day the material you are citing was posted.	Number	suggested
title	title	The title of the work/post/video/etc. you are citing. The template automatically wraps the title in quotation marks and links it to the source URL, so do not add quotation marks or italics yourself.	Unknown	optional
retrieved-date	retrieved-date	The date you retrieved the material. Use the MONTH DAY, YEAR format, for example: "October 22, 2024"	Content	suggested
source	source	The URL the material is from. Enter a bare URL only (no brackets or masking) — the template uses it as the link target for the title.	URL	suggested
archive-url	archive-url	The URL of an archived snapshot of the source (e.g. a Wayback Machine or archive.today capture). Recommended for all citations to guard against link rot.	URL	optional
archive-date	archive-date	The date the archived snapshot was taken. Use the MONTH DAY, YEAR format, for example: "January 21, 2025"	Content	optional