WordPress Best Practices

Comprehensive coding standards for WordPress development, optimized for AI agents and LLMs.

Overview

This skill provides 25 rules organized across 8 categories:

1. Security Hardening (security-) - Output escaping, input sanitization, nonces [CRITICAL]
2. Database Optimization (database-) - Autoload options, transients, meta queries [HIGH]
3. Performance (perf-) - Asset enqueuing, lazy loading, heartbeat [HIGH]
4. Plugin Development (plugin-) - Prefixing, hooks, activation/deactivation [MEDIUM-HIGH]
5. Theme Development (theme-) - Template hierarchy, child themes, customizer [MEDIUM]
6. REST API (api-) - Permissions, schemas, namespacing [MEDIUM]
7. Multisite (multisite-) - Network admin, site switching [LOW-MEDIUM]
8. Gutenberg/Blocks (blocks-) - Block patterns, InnerBlocks [LOW-MEDIUM]

Usage

Reference this skill when:

• Developing WordPress plugins
• Creating or modifying themes
• Building custom Gutenberg blocks
• Implementing REST API endpoints
• Optimizing WordPress performance

Build

pnpm build    # Compile rules to AGENTS.md
pnpm validate # Validate rule files