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# Abilities API |
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[_Part of the **AI Building Blocks for WordPress** initiative_ |
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](https://make.wordpress.org/ai/2025/07/17/ai-building-blocks) |
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[](https://make.wordpress.org/ai/handbook/projects/abilities-api/Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/ai/handbook/projects/abilities-api/](https://make.wordpress.org/ai/handbook/projects/abilities-api/) |
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## Overview |
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- **Purpose:** provide a common way for WordPress core, plugins, and themes to describe what they can do ("abilities") in a machine‑readable, human‑friendly form. |
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- **Scope:** discovery, permissioning, and execution metadata only. Actual business logic stays inside the registering component. |
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- **Audience:** plugin & theme authors, agency builders, and future AI / automation tools. |
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## Design Goals |
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1. **Discoverability** - every ability can be listed, queried, and inspected. |
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2. **Interoperability** - a uniform schema lets unrelated components compose workflows. |
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3. **Security‑first** - explicit permissions determine who/what may invoke an ability. |
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4. **Gradual adoption** - ships first as a Composer package, migrates smoothly to core. |
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## Documentation |
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- **[](docs/README.mdDeveloper docs](docs/README.md](docs/README.md)**. |
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- **[](CONTRIBUTING.mdContributing Guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md)**. |
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## Inspiration |
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- **[](https://github.com/automattic/wp-feature-apiwp‑feature‑api](https://github.com/automattic/wp-feature-api](https://github.com/automattic/wp-feature-api)** - shared vision of declaring capabilities at the PHP layer. |
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- Command Palette experiments in Gutenberg. |
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- Modern AI assistant protocols (MCP, A2A). |
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## Current Status |
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| Milestones | State | |
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| ----------------------------------- | ----------- | |
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| Placeholder repository | **created** | |
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| Spec draft | **created** | |
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| Prototype plugin & Composer package | **created** | |
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| Community feedback (#core‑ai Slack) | **created** | |
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| Core proposal | in progress | |
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| Initial | **created** | |
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| WordPress 6.9 | in progress | |
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## How to Get Involved |
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- **Discuss:** `#core-ai` channel on WordPress Slack. |
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- **File issues:** suggestions & use‑cases welcome in this repo. |
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- **Prototype:** experiment with the [](https://github.com/WordPress/abilities-api/releases/latestfeature plugin](https://github.com/WordPress/abilities-api/releases/latest](https://github.com/WordPress/abilities-api/releases/latest) or the [](https://packagist.org/packages/wordpress/abilities-api`wordpress/abilities-api`](https://packagist.org/packages/wordpress/abilities-api](https://packagist.org/packages/wordpress/abilities-api) Composer package. |
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## License |
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WordPress is free software, and is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or (at your option) any later version. See [](LICENSE.mdLICENSE.md](LICENSE.md](LICENSE.md) for complete license. |
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<br/><br/><p align="center"><img src="https://s.w.org/style/images/codeispoetry.png?1" alt="Code is Poetry." /></p> |
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