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

No SSH access available

REST API with Application Password

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"

# Import and set as featured image in one step

wp @site media import "https://example.com/hero.jpg" \

  --title="Hero" --featured_image --post_id={id}

# List media

wp @site post list --post_type=attachment --fields=ID,post_title,guid

# Regenerate thumbnails

wp @site media regenerate --yes

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

# Update category

wp @site term update category {term_id} --name="Updated Name"

# Assign category to post

wp @site post term add {post_id} category news

#### Tags

# List tags

wp @site term list post_tag --fields=term_id,name,slug,count

# Create tag

wp @site term create post_tag "new-tag"

# 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,position

# 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/"

# Add category archive to menu

wp @site menu item add-term main-menu category {term_id}

# Reorder (set position)

wp @site menu item update {item_id} --position=3

# Delete menu item

wp @site menu item delete {item_id}

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

# Search posts

wp @site post list --s="search term" --fields=ID,post_title

# Bulk update status

wp @site post list --post_type=post --post_status=draft --field=ID | \

  xargs -I {} wp @site post update {} --post_status=publish

# Delete (trash)

wp @site post delete {post_id}

# Delete permanently

wp @site post delete {post_id} --force

Step 7: Post Meta and Custom Fields

# Get all meta for a post

wp @site post meta list {post_id} --fields=meta_key,meta_value

# Get specific meta

wp @site post meta get {post_id} meta_key

# Set meta

wp @site post meta update {post_id} meta_key "meta_value"

# Add meta (allows duplicates)

wp @site post meta add {post_id} meta_key "meta_value"

# Delete meta

wp @site post meta delete {post_id} meta_key

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

Step 8: Search and Replace

# Dry run first — always

wp @site search-replace "old text" "new text" --dry-run

# Execute

wp @site search-replace "old text" "new text" --precise

# Limit to specific table

wp @site search-replace "old" "new" wp_posts --precise

# Limit to specific column

wp @site search-replace "old" "new" wp_posts post_content --precise

Step 9: Export and Import

# Export all content

wp @site export --dir=/tmp/

# Export specific post type

wp @site export --post_type=post --dir=/tmp/

# Import

wp @site import /path/to/file.xml --authors=mapping.csv

Step 10: 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}/

REST API Reference

When WP-CLI is not available, use the WordPress REST API with Application Password auth.

Authentication

# Base64 encode credentials

AUTH=$(echo -n "username:xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx" | base64)

# Use in requests

curl -s https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts \

  -H "Authorization: Basic $AUTH" \

  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Endpoints

Resource

Endpoint

Posts

/wp-json/wp/v2/posts

Pages

/wp-json/wp/v2/pages

Media

/wp-json/wp/v2/media

Categories

/wp-json/wp/v2/categories

Tags

/wp-json/wp/v2/tags

All support GET (list/single), POST (create), PUT (update), DELETE.

Create Post via REST

curl -s https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts \

  -H "Authorization: Basic $AUTH" \

  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \

  -d '{

    "title": "My New Post",

    "content": "<p>Post content here.</p>",

    "status": "draft",

    "categories": [3, 5],

    "tags": [10, 12],

    "excerpt": "Brief summary",

    "featured_media": 456

  }' | jq '{id, link, status}'

Create Page via REST

curl -s https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/pages \

  -H "Authorization: Basic $AUTH" \

  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \

  -d '{

    "title": "About Us",

    "content": "<h2>Our Story</h2><p>Content...</p>",

    "status": "publish",

    "parent": 0

  }'

Upload Media via REST

curl -s https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media \

  -H "Authorization: Basic $AUTH" \

  -H "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=photo.jpg" \

  -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" \

  --data-binary @photo.jpg | jq '{id, source_url}'

Create Category via REST

curl -s https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories \

  -H "Authorization: Basic $AUTH" \

  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \

  -d '{"name": "News", "slug": "news", "description": "Company updates"}'

Query Parameters

Parameter

Purpose

Example

per_page

Results per page (max 100)

?per_page=50

page

Pagination

?page=2

search

Search term

?search=keyword

status

Filter by status

?status=draft

categories

Filter by category ID

?categories=3

orderby

Sort field

?orderby=date

order

Sort direction

?order=desc

_fields

Limit response fields

?_fields=id,title,link

Menus: Navigation menus have limited REST API support. The /wp-json/wp/v2/navigation endpoint exists for block-based navigation in FSE themes. For classic menus, use WP-CLI.

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.