Introducing the Connectors API in WordPress 7.0

WordPress 7.0 introduces the Connectors APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. — a new framework for registering and managing connections to external services. The initial focus is on AI providers, giving WordPress a standardized way to handle API key management, provider discovery, and adminadmin (and super admin) UIUI User interface for configuring AI services.

This post walks through what the Connectors API does, how it works under the hood, and what pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. developers need to know.

Table of Contents

• What is a connector?
• How AI providers are auto-discovered
• The Settings > Connectors admin screen
• Authentication and API key management
• Public API functions
• Overriding connector metadata
• The initialization lifecycle
• Looking ahead

What is a connector?

A connector represents a connection to an external service. Each connector carries standardized metadata — a display name, description, logo, authentication configuration, and an optional association with a WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ plugin. The system currently focuses on providers that authenticate with an API key, but the architecture is designed to support additional connector types in future releases.

WordPress 7.0 comes with three featured connectors—Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI—accessible from the new Settings → Connectors screen, making installation seamless.

Each connector is stored as an associative array with the following shape:

array(
    'name'           => 'Anthropic',
    'description'    => 'Text generation with Claude.',
    'logo_url'       => 'https://example.com/anthropic-logo.svg',
    'type'           => 'ai_provider',
    'authentication' => array(
        'method'          => 'api_key',
        'credentials_url' => 'https://platform.claude.com/settings/keys',
        'setting_name'    => 'connectors_ai_anthropic_api_key',
    ),
    'plugin'         => array(
        'slug' => 'ai-provider-for-anthropic',
    ),
)

How AI providers are auto-discovered

If you’re building an AI provider plugin that integrates with the WP AI Client, you don’t need to register a connector manually. The Connectors API automatically discovers providers from the WP AI Client’s default registry and creates connectors with the correct metadata.

Here’s what happens during initialization:

1. Built-in connectors (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI) are registered with hardcoded defaults.
2. The system queries the AiClient::defaultRegistry() for all registered providers.
3. For each provider, metadata (name, description, logo, authentication method) is merged on top of the defaults, with provider registry values taking precedence.
4. The wp_connectors_init action fires so plugins can override metadata or register additional connectors.

In short: if your AI provider plugin registers with the WP AI Client, the connector is created for you. No additional code is needed.

The Settings > Connectors admin screen

Registered connectors appear on a new Settings > Connectors admin screen. The screen renders each connector as a card, and the registry data drives what’s displayed:

• name, description, and logo_url are shown on the card.
• plugin.slug enables install/activate controls — the screen checks whether the associated plugin is installed and active, and shows the appropriate action button.
• authentication.credentials_url is rendered as a link directing users to the provider’s site to obtain API credentials.
• For api_key connectors, the screen shows the current key source (environment variable, PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher constant, or database) and connection status.

Connectors with other authentication methods are stored in the PHP registry and exposed via the script module data, but currently require a client-side JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com registration for custom frontend UI.

Authentication and API key management

Connectors support two authentication methods:

• api_key — Requires an API key, which can be provided via environment variable, PHP constant, or the database (checked in that order).
• none — No authentication required.

The authentication method (api_key or none) is determined by the authentication metadata registered with the connector. For providers using api_key, a database setting name is automatically generated using the pattern connectors_{$provider_type}_{$provider_id}_api_key. It’s also possible to set a custom name using setting_name property. API keys stored in the database are not encrypted but are masked in the user interface. Encryption is being explored in a follow-up ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.: #64789.

For AI providers, there is a specific naming convention in place for environment variables and PHP constants: {PROVIDER_ID}_API_KEY (e.g., the anthropic provider maps to ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). For other types of providers, an environment variable (env_var_name) and a PHP constant (constant_name) can be optionally set to any value.

API key source priority

For api_key connectors, the system looks for a setting value in this order:

1. Environment variable — e.g., ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
2. PHP constant — e.g., define( 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY', 'sk-...' );
3. Database — stored through the admin screen, e.g. connectors_ai_anthropic_api_key setting

Public API functions

The Connectors API provides three public functions for querying the registry. These are available after init.

wp_is_connector_registered()

Checks if a connector is registered:

if ( wp_is_connector_registered( 'anthropic' ) ) {
    // The Anthropic connector is available.
}

wp_get_connector()

Retrieves a single connector’s data:

$connector = wp_get_connector( 'anthropic' );
if ( $connector ) {
    echo $connector['name']; // 'Anthropic'
}

Returns an associative array with keys: name, description, type, authentication, and optionally logo_url and plugin. Returns null if the connector is not registered.

wp_get_connectors()

Retrieves all registered connectors, keyed by connector ID:

$connectors = wp_get_connectors();
foreach ( $connectors as $id => $connector ) {
    printf( '%s: %s', $connector['name'], $connector['description'] );
}

Overriding connector metadata

The wp_connectors_init action fires after all built-in and auto-discovered connectors have been registered. Plugins can use this hook to override metadata on existing connectors.

Since the registry rejects duplicate IDs, overriding requires an unregister, modify, register sequence:

add_action( 'wp_connectors_init', function ( WP_Connector_Registry $registry ) {
    if ( $registry->is_registered( 'anthropic' ) ) {
        $connector = $registry->unregister( 'anthropic' );
        $connector['description'] = __( 'Custom description for Anthropic.', 'my-plugin' );
        $registry->register( 'anthropic', $connector );
    }
} );

Key points about the override pattern:

• Always check is_registered() before calling unregister() — calling unregister() on a non-existent connector triggers a _doing_it_wrong() notice.
• unregister() returns the connector data, which you can modify and pass back to register().
• Connector IDs must match the pattern /^[a-z0-9_-]+$/ (lowercase alphanumeric, underscores, and hyphens only).

Registry methods

Within the wp_connectors_init callback, the WP_Connector_Registry instance provides these methods:

Outside of the wp_connectors_init callback, use the public API functions (wp_get_connector(), wp_get_connectors(), wp_is_connector_registered()) instead of accessing the registry directly.

The initialization lifecycle

Understanding the initialization sequence helps when deciding where to hook in:

During the init action, _wp_connectors_init() runs and:

• Creates the WP_Connector_Registry singleton.
• Registers built-in connectors (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI) with hardcoded defaults.
• Auto-discovers providers from the WP AI Client registry and merges their metadata on top of defaults.
• Fires the wp_connectors_init action — this is where plugins override metadata or register additional connectors.

The wp_connectors_init action is the only supported entry point for modifying the registry. Attempting to set the registry instance outside of init triggers a _doing_it_wrong() notice.

Looking ahead

The Connectors API in WordPress 7.0 was optimized for AI providers, but the underlying architecture is designed to grow. Currently, only connectors with api_key authentication receive the full admin UI treatment. The PHP registry already accepts any connector type — what’s missing is the frontend integration for connectors with different authentication mechanisms.

Future releases are expected to:

• Expand support for additional authentication methods beyond api_key and none.
• Offer more built-in UI integrations beyond api_key.
• Provide a client-side JavaScript registration API for custom connector UI.

When those capabilitiescapability A capability is permission to perform one or more types of task. Checking if a user has a capability is performed by the current_user_can function. Each user of a WordPress site might have some permissions but not others, depending on their role. For example, users who have the Author role usually have permission to edit their own posts (the “edit_posts” capability), but not permission to edit other users’ posts (the “edit_others_posts” capability). land, the wp_connectors_init action will be the primary hook for registering new connector types.

Props to @jorgefilipecosta, @shaunandrews, @flixos90, @westonruter, @justlevine, and others for contributing to the Connectors screen and this dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase..

#7-0, #dev-notes, #dev-notes-7-0