wordpress-content

name	wordpress-content
description	Create and manage WordPress posts, pages, media, categories, and menus. Workflow: determine content type, choose method (WP-CLI or REST API), execute, verify. Use when creating blog posts, updating pages, uploading media, managing categories and tags, updating menus, or doing bulk content operations on WordPress sites.
compatibility	claude-code-only

WordPress Content

Create, update, and manage WordPress content — posts, pages, media, categories, tags, and menus. Produces live content on the site via WP-CLI or the REST API.

Prerequisites

• Working WP-CLI SSH connection or REST API credentials (use wordpress-setup skill)
• Site config from wordpress.config.json or wp-cli.yml

Workflow

Step 1: Determine the Operation

Task	Best Method
Create/edit single post or page	WP-CLI wp post create/update
Bulk create posts	WP-CLI loop or REST API batch
Upload images/media	WP-CLI wp media import
Manage categories/tags	WP-CLI wp term
Update navigation menus	WP-CLI wp menu
Scheduled posts	WP-CLI with --post_date
Complex HTML content	Write to temp file, pass to WP-CLI

Step 2: Create Content

Blog Posts

# Simple post
wp @site post create \
  --post_type=post \
  --post_title="My New Blog Post" \
  --post_content="<p>Post content here.</p>" \
  --post_status=draft \
  --post_category=3,5

# Post from HTML file (better for long content)
wp @site post create ./post-content.html \
  --post_type=post \
  --post_title="My New Blog Post" \
  --post_status=draft \
  --post_excerpt="A brief summary of the post." \
  --post_category=3,5 \
  --tags_input="tag1,tag2"

Post statuses: draft, publish, pending, future (use with --post_date)

Pages

wp @site post create \
  --post_type=page \
  --post_title="About Us" \
  --post_content="<h2>Our Story</h2><p>Content here...</p>" \
  --post_status=publish \
  --post_parent=0 \
  --menu_order=10

Scheduled Posts

wp @site post create \
  --post_type=post \
  --post_title="Scheduled Post" \
  --post_content="<p>This goes live tomorrow.</p>" \
  --post_status=future \
  --post_date="2026-02-23 09:00:00"

Step 3: Upload Media

# Upload from URL
wp @site media import "https://example.com/image.jpg" \
  --title="Product Photo" \
  --alt="Product front view" \
  --caption="Our latest product"

# Upload from local file (requires SCP first for remote sites)
scp ./image.jpg user@host:/tmp/image.jpg
wp @site media import /tmp/image.jpg --title="Local Upload"

Set featured image on a post:

# Get the attachment ID from the import output, then:
wp @site post meta update {post_id} _thumbnail_id {attachment_id}

Step 4: Manage Taxonomy

Categories

# List categories
wp @site term list category --fields=term_id,name,slug,count

# Create category
wp @site term create category "News" --slug=news --description="Company news and updates"

# Create child category
wp @site term create category "Product News" --slug=product-news --parent=5

# Assign category to post
wp @site post term add {post_id} category news

Tags

# Add tags during post creation
wp @site post create --post_title="..." --tags_input="seo,marketing,tips"

# Add tags to existing post
wp @site post term add {post_id} post_tag seo marketing tips

Step 5: Manage Menus

# List menus
wp @site menu list --fields=term_id,name,slug,count

# List items in a menu
wp @site menu item list main-menu --fields=db_id,type,title,link

# Add page to menu
wp @site menu item add-post main-menu {page_id} --title="About Us"

# Add custom link
wp @site menu item add-custom main-menu "Contact" "https://example.com/contact/"

# Reorder (set position)
wp @site menu item update {item_id} --position=3

Step 6: Update Existing Content

# Update post title and content
wp @site post update {post_id} \
  --post_title="Updated Title" \
  --post_content="<p>New content.</p>"

# Update from file
wp @site post update {post_id} ./updated-content.html

# Bulk update status
wp @site post list --post_type=post --post_status=draft --field=ID | \
  xargs -I {} wp @site post update {} --post_status=publish

Step 7: Verify

# Check the post
wp @site post get {post_id} --fields=ID,post_title,post_status,guid

# Get the live URL
wp @site post get {post_id} --field=guid

# List recent posts
wp @site post list --post_type=post --posts_per_page=5 --fields=ID,post_title,post_status,post_date

Provide the admin URL and live URL:

• Admin: https://example.com/wp-admin/post.php?post={id}&action=edit
• Live: https://example.com/{slug}/

---

Critical Patterns

HTML Content in WP-CLI

For anything beyond a sentence, write HTML to a temp file and pass it:

cat > /tmp/post-content.html << 'EOF'
<h2>Section Heading</h2>
<p>Paragraph content with <strong>bold</strong> and <a href="/link">links</a>.</p>
<ul>
  <li>List item one</li>
  <li>List item two</li>
</ul>
EOF

wp @site post create /tmp/post-content.html --post_title="My Post" --post_status=draft

Shell quoting in --post_content is fragile for complex HTML.

Bulk Operations

For creating many posts, use a loop with verification:

while IFS=, read -r title slug content_file category; do
  wp @site post create "$content_file" \
    --post_type=post \
    --post_title="$title" \
    --post_name="$slug" \
    --post_category="$category" \
    --post_status=draft
  sleep 0.5
done < posts.csv

Always create as draft first, review, then bulk-publish.

ACF Custom Fields

If Advanced Custom Fields is installed:

# Set ACF field
wp @site post meta update {post_id} field_name "value"

# Get ACF field
wp @site post meta get {post_id} field_name

ACF stores fields with both the field value and a reference key (_field_name → field_abc123).

REST API Alternative

When WP-CLI isn't available, use the REST API. See references/rest-api-endpoints.md for patterns.

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Reference Files

• references/rest-api-endpoints.md — REST API endpoints with authentication examples
• references/wp-cli-content.md — WP-CLI content management command reference