Publish to WordPress
Connect EarlyForge to WordPress and publish articles through the REST API.
Publish to WordPress
Connect a site to your WordPress installation to publish articles directly through the WordPress REST API. This guide covers credential setup, the default author and category, testing the connection, publishing, and scheduled publishing.
Prerequisites
- WordPress 5.6 or later with the REST API enabled (it is on by default)
- An account on your WordPress site with permission to publish posts (Administrator or Editor)
- HTTPS enabled on your WordPress domain
Connect your WordPress site
Create an application password in WordPress
In your WordPress admin, go to Users → Profile and scroll to the Application Passwords section. Enter the name EarlyForge and click Add New Application Password. Copy the generated password immediately — WordPress shows it only once.
Always use an application password, never your regular WordPress login password. Application passwords are scoped, revocable, and never expose your main credentials. You can revoke the EarlyForge application password at any time from the same screen.
Open the connection settings in EarlyForge
Go to Connectors → WordPress and click Add a site. You can connect several WordPress sites, each with its own credentials.
Enter your credentials
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| WordPress URL | https://myblog.com |
| Username | Your WordPress username (case-sensitive) |
| Application password | The password generated in step 1 |
Your credentials are saved inside this site's connection and encrypted by EarlyForge. They are never shown back to you in full and are used only to publish on your behalf.
Set the default author and category
Choose the defaults applied to every post published from this site:
- Default author — the WordPress user that posts are attributed to
- Default category — the WordPress category assigned to new posts
- Default status —
draft(review in WordPress first) orpublish(go live immediately) - Featured image — when enabled, the article's lead image is uploaded to your WordPress media library and set as the featured image
Test the connection
Click Test connection. EarlyForge sends a lightweight verification request to your WordPress REST API to confirm the URL is reachable and the credentials can create posts. A green confirmation appears on success.
Save the connection
Click Save. WordPress is now an active publishing destination for this site.
Publish an article
Once the connection is active, open any article and choose Publish → WordPress. EarlyForge formats the article as clean HTML, uploads the lead image, and creates the post with your default author, category, and status. When publishing succeeds you get a link to the live post.
You can connect more than one destination to a site and publish the same article to several at once. See cross-publishing below.
Scheduled publishing
Scheduled publishing is available on Pro and higher plans.
Instead of publishing by hand, you can let articles go out on a schedule:
- Generate articles automatically from a brief on a schedule, then publish them to WordPress without manual steps.
- Set a recurring publishing cadence for the site so finished articles are released at the times you choose, in your own time zone.
Scheduled posts respect your default status, so you can stage everything as drafts for a final review or publish live automatically.
Cross-publishing
WordPress can be your primary destination while EarlyForge also pushes the same article to other connected destinations (for example Medium or LinkedIn) for wider reach. Each destination keeps its own settings, and a failure on one destination never blocks the others.
Troubleshooting
Some security plugins (such as Wordfence or iThemes Security) disable the REST API. Confirm that the REST API is reachable, re-enable it in your security plugin if needed, and make sure pretty permalinks are enabled in Settings → Permalinks.
Reliability
If several publish attempts to WordPress fail in a row, EarlyForge briefly pauses publishing and retries automatically once your site is reachable again — you do not lose articles in the meantime. Monitor every delivery in Connectors → Activity, where failed attempts can be retried with one click.
What's next?
- Publish to Ghost — connect Ghost as an alternative CMS
- Connectors overview — auto-publish vs manual, Activity log, retries
- Connect LinkedIn — cross-publish for wider distribution
- Webhooks — send signed events to your own integrations