A template which determines the correct maintenance category for the current page, which is designed for use in any MediaWiki system messages that categorize the page when certain events happen. Typically, these are error categories like Category:Pages with module errors, which is controlled by MediaWiki:Scribunto-common-error-category.

To prevent such categories from being flooded with junk, this template makes sure that the following kinds of page are placed in a separate /hidden subcategory, which is contained within the main category:

For example, the input {{maintenance category|Pages with module errors}} will return Pages with module errors on most pages, but Pages with module errors/hidden on any pages which match the criteria above.

Parameters

|1= (required)
The name of the category.
|cat= (optional)
If this is specified, the result is returned as a category link, rather than the raw name of the category. This is for system messages like MediaWiki:Pfunc expr unrecognised word, which contain the category as part of an error message.