Template:Lead too short/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Lead too short.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

If you plan to make breaking changes to this template, move it, or nominate it for deletion, please notify Twinkle's users and maintainers at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle as a courtesy, as the standard installation of Twinkle adds and removes this template. Thank you!

This template is used on approximately 10,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Usage

Place {{Lead too short|date=November 2024}} at the top of articles where the lead section is much shorter than what is recommended, relative to the length of the article. The appropriate length of the lead section depends on the total length of the article. If the lead fails to provide an adequate summary of the article's key points, without necessarily being too short, use the template {{lead rewrite}} instead.

You can use the |reason= parameter to specify the reason why the lead is too short, as in the following example:

{{Lead too short|date=November 2024|reason=Your critique here.}}

Do not use this template on stub articles. Stub articles are by definition underdeveloped articles - it is not yet appropriate to tag them as having a lead too short.

Notes

This template will categorize tagged articles into Category:Wikipedia introduction cleanup and Category:Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify.

Tracking category

Category:All pages needing cleanup (34,206)

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Lead too short in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Lead too short

Use this cleanup template to indicate that the lead section of an article is too short relative to the length of the article and should be expanded.

Template parameters
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	`date`	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value `{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}`	Line	required
Reason	`reason`	The reason why the lead is too short (e.g., what it is missing)	String	optional
Talk page section	`talk`	Section name on the talk page for further discussion	Line	optional

Redirects

This template contains a self-reference (it refers to Wikipedia in its contents).
This template should not be substituted. Bots rely on the transcluded form for dating and categorisation.