Transclude random excerpt transcludes the lead of an article as an excerpt. It is designed for use in portals. It returns the text of an article up to but excluding the first header, after removing:

• initial templates such as infoboxes, hatnotes and article improvement tags
• noinclude sections
• references and footnotes
• images, unless specifically retained

{{Transclude random excerpt | 1= | 2= | paragraphs= | files= | fileargs= | errors= }}

The template accepts any number of page names as unnamed parameters. One of them is selected randomly, and the page with that title is transcluded. (If the selected page is invalid, the template will choose again.) Include a namespace where necessary. There are no other positional parameters, but there are some optional named parameters:

• A list of paragraphs such as paragraphs=1,3-5; the default is all paragraphs.
• A list of file (image) numbers such as files=1; the default is no images. Non-free images are removed.
• Arguments to pass to File: such as fileargs=left to move images to the left; the default is none.
• errors= to allow Lua error messages to appear in the output
• showall= to show all articles simultaneously
• list= to show a list of articles  Coding not compatible with mobile versions of Wikipedia causing display and accessibility problems

paragraphs= and files= each accept a comma-separated list containing numbers and/or number ranges in the format min-max. Alternatively, files= can accept the name of a single image, e.g. files=My image file.jpg.

showall= shows all articles simultaneously. This option is intended for a subpage aimed at editors as well as readers. Using this template on a subpage with <noinclude>|showall=</noinclude> and transcluding the subpage on a main page will show all excerpts on the subpage but only one on the main page, without repeating the template and its arguments.

• |more=no – to suppress link to the article at the end of the excerpt. |more=custom text to customize the link text at the end of the excerpt. Default is "Full article...".
• keepSubsections=1 will cause Article#Section to retain any subsections of that section
• keepRefs=1 will keep references for display in a {{reflist}} or similar
• nobold=1 will cause bold text to be displayed in normal font

Each page to be transcluded may be specified either plain or as a wikilink, possibly piped. Links to sections also work, and extract the named section rather than the lead. Examples: Article; Article#Section; [[Article]]; [[Article#Section|A section of an article]]. (Any piped text will be ignored.)

Any of the above formats may be followed by option(s) separated by pipes, e.g. Article|paragraphs=2. Such options override any global options for the given page only. Note that the characters | and = have special meaning within calls to templates but can be escaped using {{!}} and {{=}} respectively. Examples: Article#Section{{!}}files{{=}}2; [[Article|Some page]]{{!}}files{{=}}3,4{{!}}more{{=}}Click here. (= need not be escaped if the parameter is explicitly numbered, e.g. 1=Article{{!}}files=2).

Special characters such as pipes within page options must be doubly escaped, replacing their double braces by {{((}} and {{))}}. For example, to set display Custom image.jpg on the left with a custom caption, set fileargs to left|Custom caption using Article{{!}}files{{=}}Custom image.jpg{{!}}fileargs{{=}}left{{((}}!{{))}}Custom caption. To add a wikilink within a caption, escape the link brackets and any pipe twice using {{!((}}, {{))!}} and possibly {{!}}, e.g. Caption with {{((}}!(({{))}}Pipe (computer science){{((}}!{{))}}piped{{((}}))!{{))}} link. This text can be achieved more simply using {{Doubly escaped wikilink}}, e.g. Caption with {{Doubly escaped wikilink|Pipe (computer science)|piped}} link.

• {{Transclude lead excerpt}}: specifies the article explicitly
• {{Transclude list item excerpt}}: chooses the article randomly from those listed on a page
• {{Transclude linked excerpt}}: chooses the article randomly from those linked from a page
• {{Transclude selected excerpt}}: chooses the article from a list using an index such as the week number

The templates were discussed at Use of direct transclusion in portals and the newer portal transclusion templates.