Publish Wordpress

Publish → WordPress

Publish a local markdown draft to WordPress using the WordPress REST API v2. Works with self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com Business or higher.

Setup

Required:

• WORDPRESS_BASE_URL — e.g. https://example.com (no trailing slash). The REST endpoint is {BASE}/wp-json/wp/v2.
• WORDPRESS_USERNAME — WP user with edit_posts and upload_files capabilities.
• WORDPRESS_APP_PASSWORD — an Application Password (Users → Profile → Application Passwords in WP admin). Not your login password.

Auth header for every request:

Authorization: Basic 
Content-Type: application/json

Optional:

• SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL — Slack notification on publish.

Inputs

1. Draft path — markdown file under posts/.
2. Post status — draft, pending, private, publish. Default draft.
3. Update existing? — skip, update, create-new. Default update if a post with the same slug exists.
4. Categories — comma-separated names or IDs. Will be created if they don't exist.
5. Tags — comma-separated; same behavior as categories.
6. Featured image — from the draft's hero_image frontmatter, or user override path/URL.
7. Field mapping override — optional JSON for custom post types or ACF fields.

Use AskUserQuestion for post status and existing-item handling.

Process

1. Preflight

• GET {BASE}/wp-json/ to confirm REST is reachable and auth works. A 401 means wrong username or app password.
• GET {BASE}/wp-json/wp/v2/users/me to confirm the user has the required capabilities.
• Cache the site's categories and tags for the session.

2. Load and transform

• Read the draft.
• Parse frontmatter.
• Convert markdown body to HTML. WordPress accepts HTML directly in the content field. Preserve: headings, paragraphs, lists, code, blockquotes, images, links. Convert fenced code blocks to ``.
• Strip HTML comments and any markdown-specific artifacts (e.g. inline frontmatter).

3. Featured image upload

If hero_image is a local path:

POST {BASE}/wp-json/wp/v2/media
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="{name}.webp"
Content-Type: image/webp (or png/jpeg)

Capture the returned id → use it as featured_media. Set alt_text via:

POST {BASE}/wp-json/wp/v2/media/{id}
{ "alt_text": "{hero_alt}", "caption": "{optional}" }

If hero_image is a URL, download it first, then upload — don't point WP at a remote URL.

4. Resolve taxonomies

For each category:

• Look up by name in the cache. If found, use the ID.
• If not found: POST /wp/v2/categories { "name": "{name}" }, use the returned ID.

Same for tags via /wp/v2/tags.

5. Check for existing post

GET /wp/v2/posts?slug={slug}&status=any&per_page=1

• Found + skip → stop and report.
• Found + update → POST /wp/v2/posts/{id} with updated fields.
• Found + create-new → append -2, -3, … to the slug until unique.
• Not found → create.

6. Create or update

POST /wp/v2/posts
{
  "title": "{title}",
  "slug": "{slug}",
  "status": "{status}",
  "content": "{html body}",
  "excerpt": "{meta_description}",
  "featured_media": {media_id},
  "categories": [ids],
  "tags": [ids],
  "meta": {
    "_yoast_wpseo_title": "{meta_title}",
    "_yoast_wpseo_metadesc": "{meta_description}",
    "_yoast_wpseo_focuskw": "{keyword}"
  }
}

Notes:

• Yoast and Rank Math meta keys are NOT writable via the WP REST API by default. The Yoast REST API is read-only, and neither plugin registers its meta fields with show_in_rest: true. Writing them via the standard meta block will silently fail or return a 400 unless the site has either (a) register_post_meta() calls in functions.php exposing the keys, or (b) a bridge plugin such as "WP REST Yoast Meta" installed. Before posting, attempt a test write and read it back. If the write didn't take, skip the meta block, log a warning, and tell the user which fields couldn't be set so they can update them manually in WP admin.
• For Yoast, the meta keys are _yoast_wpseo_title, _yoast_wpseo_metadesc, _yoast_wpseo_focuskw. For Rank Math, they are rank_math_title, rank_math_description, rank_math_focus_keyword. Ask which plugin is installed once per session and cache the answer.
• For ACF fields, post to /wp/v2/posts/{id} with acf: { field_name: value } after creation (requires the "ACF to REST API" plugin or ACF Pro 5.11+).
• Date fields: set date in ISO 8601 (site-local timezone). If publishing now, omit to use the server's current time.

7. Verify the live URL (if publishing)

• Fetch GET /wp/v2/posts/{id} to confirm the new values took.
• If status = publish, hit the returned link with a HEAD request and expect 200. If it's 404 or 5xx, warn the user.

8. Optional Slack notification

Same pattern as publish-webflow.

9. Publish log

Append to publish-log.md:

| {YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm} | wordpress | {status} | {title} | {post_id} | {link or "—"} | {result} |

10. Print summary

One block: post ID, status, live URL (if published), SEO plugin used, Slack notified, publish-log updated.

Fallbacks

• App password wrong or 2FA blocking: fail fast with the exact fix instruction ("Generate an Application Password under Users → Profile → Application Passwords").
• REST endpoint 404 or disabled: the site has REST API disabled by a security plugin; report the exact failing URL and tell the user to re-enable.
• Featured media upload fails: retry once; if it still fails, create the post without the featured image and log a warning.
• Yoast/Rank Math not installed: skip the SEO meta block and note it in the summary.
• Network error mid-upload: do not retry blindly — first check whether the post was created to avoid duplicates.

Safety

• Default status is draft. Never publish live without explicit user confirmation in the current session.
• Never delete posts. On slug collision in skip mode, stop and report.

Verification

1. GET /wp/v2/posts/{id} returns 200 with the expected title, slug, and body.
2. Featured image field is populated if hero_image was set.
3. Category and tag IDs match the requested names.
4. If published, the public URL returns 200.
5. publish-log.md has a new row.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: busyeugene
• Source: busyeugene/content-marketing-skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://busyless.space/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.