APIexposes endpoints that allow external applications to interact with almost all core WordPress data types. By sending JSON requests usi

Core Capabilities and Endpoints

• Posts, Pages & Custom Post Types: Create, retrieve, edit, and delete content. This includes managing post statuses (draft/publish), assigning featured images, and handling revisions.
• Media Library: Upload images and documents, retrieve attachment data, update media metadata (alt text, titles), and delete files.
• Taxonomies: Create, retrieve, and manage categories, tags, and custom taxonomy terms.
• Users: Fetch user directories, create new accounts, update profiles, and manage roles.
• Comments: Retrieve comment threads, approve, mark as spam, reply to, or delete comments.
• Settings: Read and update global site configurations, such as the site title, tagline, and reading preferences.

Custom and Plugin Extensions

• Custom Endpoints: Developers can expose bespoke backend PHP functions to the API by registering custom routes using the register_rest_route() function.
• Abilities API: A newer WordPress feature that provides endpoints under the /wp-abilities/v1 namespace, allowing external systems to discover and execute predefined, granular actions (abilities) securely.
• Third-Party Plugins: Major plugins automatically inject their own namespaces into the REST API. For example, WooCommerce adds endpoints to manage products, customers, and orders entirely via API.

Authentication Requirements

While basic read operations (like fetching published posts) are publicly accessible by default, functions that create, modify, or delete data require authentication. WordPress supports Cookie authentication for internal requests, Application Passwords for external apps, and protocols like OAuth or JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for headless and decoupled setups.