Contributing to the Wiki

You can check what pages need fixing/content on the github Issues section.

This wiki is hosted on GitHub Pages using mdBook, a modern static site generator.

However, don't worry! It is simpler than it seems. You do not need to download the code (although you can if you want to edit it locally). Follow the steps below:

1) If you do not have one yet, register for a GitHub Account here.

2) Fork the wiki by going to the main project page here and pressing the Fork button on the top right.

3) Your fork is now ready to contribute to! You can edit pages directly on GitHub using the web editor.

4) When you feel that your changes are good enough, open a pull request to the main repository. To do this, go to your fork and click Pull Requests → New Pull Request, then follow the prompts.

5) Make sure you regularly sync your fork with the main repository to stay up to date! On your fork page, click Sync fork and select Update branch to pull in the latest changes.

Editing on GitHub (No Download Required)

The simplest way to contribute is to edit directly on GitHub:

Navigate to the file you want to edit in the src/ folder
Click the Edit (pencil icon) button in the top right
Make your changes in the markdown editor
Scroll down, write a commit message describing your changes, and click Commit changes
Create a pull request with your changes
A maintainer will review and merge if approved

Wiki pages are written in markdown (.md files) — learn more about markdown syntax here.

Local Development (Download & Edit)

If you prefer to edit the files locally, test changes, or experiment with the website layout:

Prerequisites

Windows: mdBook is prepackaged as mdbook.exe in this repository (no installation needed!)
macOS/Linux: Install Rust then run cargo install mdbook

Setup

Fork and clone the repository to your computer
Using your preferred git client (or GitHub Desktop), clone your fork
Navigate to the civ13-wiki/ folder in your terminal/command prompt

Building & Serving

Windows (Using Prepackaged mdbook.exe):

# Build and open in browser
.\mdbook.exe build --open

# For development with live reloading
.\mdbook.exe serve

macOS/Linux:

# Build and open in browser
mdbook build --open

# For development with live reloading
mdbook serve

The wiki will be served at http://localhost:3000. When using mdbook serve, the page automatically refreshes whenever you save changes to markdown files.

File Organization

src/ — All markdown source files (the content you edit)
src/SUMMARY.md — Wiki table of contents and navigation structure
images/ — Images and sprites used in pages
book/ — Compiled output (generated automatically, do not edit)
theme/ — mdBook theme customization

Adding Images

When adding images to wiki pages:

Upload your image to the images/ folder (or appropriate subfolder like images/entities/, images/food/, etc.)
Reference it in markdown using: ![description](images/your-image.png)
Make sure the filename is unique to avoid conflicts with existing images

Images

DMI Sprites (`<dmi-sprite>`)

The wiki supports rendering sprites directly from .dmi files (the icon format used by BYOND/SS13) using a custom HTML element.

Note

Sprites are fetched over HTTP and will only display when the wiki is served via a web server (e.g. ./mdbook.exe serve, or the live GitHub Pages site). They will not appear when opening an .html file directly from the filesystem (file://), due to browser security restrictions on cross-origin fetching.

Basic syntax

<dmi-sprite src="URL_TO_FILE.dmi" state="state_name"></dmi-sprite>

Attributes

Attribute	Required	Default	Description
`src`	✅ Yes	—	Full URL to the `.dmi` file. Use raw GitHub URLs, e.g. `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/civ13/civ13/master/icons/...`
`state`	✅ Yes	`""`	The icon state name inside the DMI to display (case-sensitive, must match exactly).
`dir`	No	`south`	Direction to display. Accepts: `south`, `north`, `east`, `west`, `southeast`, `southwest`, `northeast`, `northwest` (or their BYOND numeric codes `1`, `2`, `4`, `8`, etc.). Falls back to `south` if the state has fewer dirs.
`animated`	No	`false`	Set to `"true"` to play the animation if the state has multiple frames.
`scale`	No	`1`	Integer pixel scale multiplier. Use `2` or `3` for a larger display (e.g. a 32×32 sprite becomes 64×64 or 96×96).

Examples

Static sprite (south-facing, default size):

<dmi-sprite src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/civ13/civ13/master/icons/obj/items.dmi" state="knife"></dmi-sprite>

Animated sprite, scaled up 2×:

<dmi-sprite src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/civ13/civ13/master/icons/mob/human.dmi" state="human" dir="south" animated="true" scale="2"></dmi-sprite>

Centred in a paragraph (wrap in a <div> or <p>):

<div style="text-align: center;">
  <dmi-sprite src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/civ13/civ13/master/icons/lobby/lights_out.dmi" state="lights_out" animated="true" scale="2"></dmi-sprite>
</div>

Tips

The src must be a raw GitHub URL (starting with https://raw.githubusercontent.com/), not a regular GitHub page URL.
State names are case-sensitive and must match the name as it appears inside the .dmi file exactly.
If nothing appears, check that the state name is correct and that you are viewing the page through a server (not via file://).
You can mix <dmi-sprite> with regular markdown or HTML — it is an inline element by default.