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

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.

Reference Files

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

wordpress-content