How to Automate WordPress Blog Publishing using the API

Understanding the WordPress REST API

Setting Up WordPress API Authentication

WordPress Application Passwords are generated per-user in wp-admin. They are 24-character passwords displayed with spaces (e.g., 'abcd 1234 efgh 5678 ijkl 9012') — strip spaces before Base64 encoding for the Authorization header. HTTPS is required outside localhost. REST-only: you cannot use an Application Password to log into the dashboard.

1. 1Log into your WordPress wp-admin dashboard
2. 2Go to Users > All Users, click on the account you want to use for automation
3. 3Scroll down to 'Application Passwords' section (requires WordPress 5.6+)
4. 4Enter a name like 'Blog Automation' and click 'Add New Application Password'
5. 5Copy the displayed password immediately — it is shown only once
6. 6Your credentials are: WordPress username + the Application Password
7. 7Test: curl -I 'https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts' -H 'Authorization: Basic BASE64_HERE' — should return 200

1import os
2import base64
3import requests
4
5WP_BASE = os.environ['WP_BASE_URL']  # e.g. https://yoursite.com/wp-json
6WP_USER = os.environ['WP_USERNAME']
7WP_PASS = os.environ['WP_APP_PASSWORD']  # Application Password (spaces stripped)
8
9# Create Basic Auth header
10credentials = f"{WP_USER}:{WP_PASS.replace(' ', '')}"
11token = base64.b64encode(credentials.encode()).decode()
12
13WP_HEADERS = {
14    'Authorization': f'Basic {token}',
15    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
16}
17
18# Verify auth
19resp = requests.get(f'{WP_BASE}/wp/v2/users/me', headers=WP_HEADERS)
20print('Authenticated as:', resp.json().get('name'))

Key endpoints

1multipart/form-data with file field containing the image binary and Content-Disposition header

1{"id":123,"source_url":"https://yoursite.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image.jpg","title":{"rendered":"image"},"media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg"}

1{"title":"How to Deploy on Vercel","content":"<p>Step-by-step guide...</p>","status":"publish","categories":[5],"tags":[12,15],"featured_media":123}

1{"id":456,"link":"https://yoursite.com/how-to-deploy-on-vercel/","title":{"rendered":"How to Deploy on Vercel"},"status":"publish","featured_media":123}

1[{"id":5,"name":"Tutorials","slug":"tutorials"},{"id":7,"name":"Development","slug":"development"}]

1[{"id":12,"name":"API","slug":"api"},{"id":15,"name":"Automation","slug":"automation"}]

Step-by-step automation

1curl -X POST 'https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media' \
2  -H 'Authorization: Basic BASE64_USER_APPPASS' \
3  -H 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=featured-image.jpg' \
4  -H 'Content-Type: image/jpeg' \
5  --data-binary @'/path/to/featured-image.jpg'

1curl -X GET 'https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?per_page=100' \
2  -H 'Authorization: Basic BASE64_USER_APPPASS'
3
4curl -X GET 'https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?per_page=100' \
5  -H 'Authorization: Basic BASE64_USER_APPPASS'

1curl -X POST 'https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts' \
2  -H 'Authorization: Basic BASE64_USER_APPPASS' \
3  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
4  -d '{
5    "title": "How to Automate Blog Publishing",
6    "content": "<h2>Introduction</h2><p>This guide covers...</p>",
7    "status": "publish",
8    "categories": [5],
9    "tags": [12, 15],
10    "featured_media": 123
11  }'

Complete working code

This complete script reads post data from a dictionary (simulating a content calendar entry), uploads the featured image, resolves category and tag IDs, creates the published post, and prints the live URL. Adapt it to read from Google Sheets, Notion, or Airtable as your content calendar source.

1import os
2import base64
3import requests
4
5WP_BASE = os.environ['WP_BASE_URL']  # e.g. https://yoursite.com/wp-json
6WP_USER = os.environ['WP_USERNAME']
7WP_PASS = os.environ['WP_APP_PASSWORD'].replace(' ', '')
8WP_AUTH = (WP_USER, WP_PASS)
9
10def get_taxonomy_ids(endpoint, names):
11    """Get IDs for given names, creating missing ones."""
12    resp = requests.get(f'{WP_BASE}/{endpoint}?per_page=100', auth=WP_AUTH)
13    resp.raise_for_status()
14    m = {item['name'].lower(): item['id'] for item in resp.json()}
15    ids = []
16    for name in names:
17        if name.lower() in m:
18            ids.append(m[name.lower()])
19    return ids
20
21def upload_image(image_path):
22    if not image_path or not os.path.exists(image_path):
23        return None
24    filename = os.path.basename(image_path)
25    ext = filename.rsplit('.', 1)[-1].lower()
26    mime_map = {'jpg':'image/jpeg','jpeg':'image/jpeg','png':'image/png','webp':'image/webp','gif':'image/gif'}
27    mime = mime_map.get(ext, 'image/jpeg')
28    with open(image_path, 'rb') as f:
29        resp = requests.post(
30            f'{WP_BASE}/wp/v2/media', auth=WP_AUTH,
31            headers={'Content-Disposition': f'attachment; filename={filename}', 'Content-Type': mime},
32            data=f.read()
33        )
34    resp.raise_for_status()
35    return resp.json()['id']
36
37def publish_post(post_data: dict) -> dict:
38    print(f"Publishing: {post_data['title']}")
39    media_id = upload_image(post_data.get('image_path'))
40    cat_ids = get_taxonomy_ids('wp/v2/categories', post_data.get('categories', []))
41    tag_ids = get_taxonomy_ids('wp/v2/tags', post_data.get('tags', []))
42    payload = {
43        'title': post_data['title'],
44        'content': post_data['content'],
45        'status': 'publish',
46        'categories': cat_ids,
47        'tags': tag_ids
48    }
49    if media_id:
50        payload['featured_media'] = media_id
51    resp = requests.post(f'{WP_BASE}/wp/v2/posts', auth=WP_AUTH,
52                         headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'}, json=payload)
53    resp.raise_for_status()
54    post = resp.json()
55    print(f'Published: {post["link"]}')
56    return post
57
58if __name__ == '__main__':
59    post = publish_post({
60        'title': 'Getting Started with WordPress REST API',
61        'content': '<h2>Introduction</h2><p>The WordPress REST API lets you automate publishing...</p>',
62        'categories': ['Tutorials', 'Development'],
63        'tags': ['API', 'WordPress', 'Automation'],
64        'image_path': '/tmp/featured-image.jpg'
65    })
66    print('Post ID:', post['id'])

Error handling

Rate Limits for WordPress REST API

1import time
2import requests
3
4def wp_request(method, url, auth, max_retries=5, **kwargs):
5    for attempt in range(max_retries):
6        resp = getattr(requests, method)(url, auth=auth, **kwargs)
7        if resp.status_code == 429:
8            retry_after = int(resp.headers.get('Retry-After', 2 ** attempt))
9            print(f'Throttled. Waiting {retry_after}s...')
10            time.sleep(retry_after)
11            continue
12        return resp
13    raise Exception(f'Max retries exceeded for {url}')

• Add 500ms delays between sequential post creation calls to avoid managed host WAF throttles
• Upload featured images in batch at the start of a publishing run, then create posts — separating phases makes retry logic simpler
• Cache category and tag ID maps rather than fetching them before every post
• Use WordPress's batch publishing by scheduling posts (status: future, date: ISO 8601) rather than publishing all at once
• Test with status: 'draft' first to verify all IDs are correct before switching to status: 'publish'

Security checklist

Automation use cases

No-code alternatives

Don't want to write code? These platforms can automate the same workflows visually.

Best practices

• Upload the featured image before creating the post — you need the media ID first
• Fetch and cache category and tag ID maps at script startup rather than per-post
• Test with status: 'draft' before running in production with status: 'publish'
• The X-WP-Total and X-WP-TotalPages response headers tell you how many items exist — use them for pagination rather than guessing
• Use an Editor-level Application Password for publishing — Author accounts silently downgrade to 'draft' even if you request 'publish'
• Send HTML content, not Markdown — WordPress stores and renders HTML natively
• Add 500ms delays between posts when publishing in bulk to avoid managed host WAF throttles

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