The size thresholds are:

1. <= 100 pages → no TOC
2. 101–1200 pages → {{Category TOC}}
3. > 1200 pages → {{Large category TOC}}

{{Automatic category TOC}}

On category pages, {{Automatic category TOC}} can be placed wherever you want the TOC to be displayed.

On a category header template, it is best placed outside any <includeonly>...</includeonly> tags, so that the template is categorised as using this template.

No parameters are needed.

However, the parameters available to {{Category TOC}} may be supplied, and if {{Automatic category TOC}} calls {{Category TOC}}, those parameters will be passed on to {{Category TOC}}.

So, for example, {{Automatic category TOC|align=center}} will:

1. Have no effect if no TOC is generated
2. Align to the center if {{Category TOC}} is used
3. Have no effect if {{Large category TOC}} is used, because {{Large category TOC}} accepts no parameters

Each page using this template is categorised in one of three tracking categories:

• Category:Automatic category TOC generates no TOC
• Category:Automatic category TOC generates standard Category TOC
• Category:Automatic category TOC generates Large category TOC

Templates which transclude {{Automatic category TOC}} are categorised in

• Category:Templates using Automatic category TOC (population: 749)

... but only if the transclusion is outside any <noinclude>...</noinclude> tags

Purge this page to update the totals

This template uses the magic word {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} to count the number of pages in the category. Unfortunately, this function can return wildly erroneous results on some categories which have had many pages added and removed.

This bug is well-known, and has been documented in several places since 2010, including:

• phab:T18036
• phab:T221795
• phab:T69196

In the overwhelming majority of categories, the count is recorded accurately enough to support use of this template. However, there seemed to be some issue with {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} falsely returning zero in some cases. This is tracked in:

• Category:Automatic category TOC on pages where PAGESINCATEGORY returns zero (population: 12,014)

As of 19 April 2020, that problem seems to have been fixed by a small but cunning tweak to how {{PAGESINCATEGORY}} is called.

The category should contain only pages labelled as "empty". Purge page to update totals