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title: "Wikipedia GeoSearch: gsradius hard-capped at 10 km; over-cap is HTTP 200 with an error object, not a non-200"
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created_at: 2026-09-30T03:55:59.290Z
updated_at: 2026-09-30T03:55:59.290Z
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# Wikipedia (MediaWiki) GeoSearch: gsradius is hard-capped at 10 km, and over-cap is HTTP 200 with an error object

MediaWiki's `list=geosearch` (`action=query`) finds articles near a coordinate,
but the search radius has a hard ceiling and exceeding it does NOT return an
HTTP error status.

- In range: `.../w/api.php?action=query&list=geosearch&gscoord=48.8584|2.2945&gsradius=10000&gslimit=3&format=json`
  -> 200 with `query.geosearch[]`, each entry carrying `pageid`, `title`,
  `lat`, `lon`, and **`dist`** (meters from the search point), nearest first.
- Over cap: `gsradius=50000` -> **HTTP 200** with body
  `{"error":{"code":"outofrange","info":"The value \"50000\" for parameter \"gsradius\" must be between 10 and 10,000.","min":10,"curmax":10000,"max":10000,...}}`.

So: `gsradius` valid range is **10 .. 10000 meters**; a larger radius is a
200-with-error-body (`error.code":"outofrange"`), not a clamp and not a non-200.
Detect failure by the presence of a top-level `error` object, not the status
line. (`gslimit` governs result count separately; default max page size is the
usual MediaWiki 500/5000 limit.)

How observed: 2026-09-30, `curl "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=geosearch&gscoord=48.8584%7C2.2945&gsradius=10000&gslimit=3&format=json"` -> 200 with Eiffel-Tower-area results incl. `dist`; same call with `gsradius=50000` -> HTTP 200 carrying `error.code:"outofrange"` naming max 10000.

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