Block Content

Use this skill before writing or editing page content, post content, templates, template parts, patterns, or any other WordPress block markup.

Core Policy

• Use editable WordPress blocks for content and layout. Prefer core/group, core/columns, core/heading, core/paragraph, core/list, core/image, core/buttons, and theme CSS.
• Only use core/html blocks for inline SVGs, interaction markup with no block equivalent such as marquee or custom cursor markup, or a single bottom-of-page <script> block.
• Never use core/html to wrap text content, headings, layout sections, lists, or forms.
• For forms or features core blocks do not cleanly provide, load the plugin-recommendations skill and use editable plugin blocks.
• No decorative HTML comments such as <!-- Hero Section --> or <!-- Features -->. Only WordPress block delimiter comments are allowed.
• No custom class names on inner DOM elements. Put custom classes only on the outermost block wrapper via the block className attribute.
• Style buttons via .wp-element-button — the inner element WordPress applies the button's padding, background, and border to (shared by the button block and buttons from other blocks). A custom class on a button block sits on the .wp-block-button wrapper, so descend to .your-class .wp-element-button; never style the wrapper directly, or its padding stacks on top of the default and the button doubles in size.
• No inline style attributes or block style attributes for styling. Use className plus the theme's style.css.
• Prefer theme palette colors over hardcoded hex. Apply block colors with palette slug attributes — {"backgroundColor":"accent-1","textColor":"base"} — and in style.css reference palette colors as var(--wp--preset--color--<slug>). Discover the available slugs from the active theme's theme.json settings.color.palette (for a theme you are building, the palette you defined there); when you want a color the palette lacks, prefer adding it to the palette and referencing its slug. Keeping colors on the palette keeps sections in sync with Global Styles, theme switching, and light/dark variations. A raw hex value is fine for a deliberate one-off, but it should be the exception, not the default.
• Use core/spacer for empty spacing elements, not empty core/group blocks.
• No emojis anywhere in generated content.

Layout Cascade

WordPress constrains children of core/post-content and any constrained-layout container to theme.json's settings.layout.contentSize, which is about 700px by default. Custom CSS such as .hero { width: 100% } does not override core layout selectors like .is-layout-constrained > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull) because they are more specific.

Use these patterns:

• Full-bleed section, constrained inner content: for a full-width hero, banner, or CTA with centered content, use an outer core/group with {"align":"full","layout":{"type":"constrained"}}, then place normal inner blocks inside it.
• Full-bleed section, full-bleed inner content: for image grids, edge-to-edge galleries, and similar layouts, use outer and inner core/group blocks with {"align":"full","layout":{"type":"default"}}.
• Standard constrained content: omit align and write normal blocks.

The common failure is a hero or banner that was intended to be full-width but still renders in the narrow content column. Fix that in markup by adding align: "full" on the outer group or correcting the inner layout type, not by trying to force width in CSS.

Root Block Gap

WordPress inserts margin-block-start: var(--wp--style--block-gap) between the top-level children of the rendered template — between the header template part, the main group, and the footer template part (.wp-site-blocks > * + *). Core supplies a default gap (24px) even when the theme's theme.json never declares styles.spacing.blockGap, so a gap appears there that no markup asked for.

• Themes created with scaffold_theme already zero this in style.css (.wp-site-blocks > * + * { margin-block-start: 0; }) — sections butt edge-to-edge and own their vertical rhythm via their own padding. Keep that reset when editing the file.
• When working in a theme without that reset, add the same rule to the theme's style.css instead of compensating with negative margins or guessing at the extra space.
• Do not zero the gap by setting styles.spacing.blockGap: "0" in theme.json — that value cascades as the default gap inside every flow and constrained layout and collapses content rhythm site-wide.
• When you want visible space between top-level sections, add it deliberately (padding on the sections) so the spacing is designed, not inherited.

Skeleton-First Recipes

For long files over about 200 lines, write a small skeleton first and fill anchors across later Edit calls.

Theme CSS

For style.css, start with custom properties and anchor comments only:

:root {
	/* Map section variables onto the theme palette — reference preset slugs,
	   never hardcode hex here. The slugs come from theme.json's color palette. */
	--site-bg: var( --wp--preset--color--base );
	--site-text: var( --wp--preset--color--contrast );
}

/* === reset === */
/* === typography === */
/* === hero === */
/* === sections === */
/* === cta === */
/* === footer === */
/* === responsive === */

Keep the skeleton under 2KB. Fill one anchor per Edit, using the anchor line as old_string and replacing it with the anchor plus the new styles.

When scaffold_theme was used, do not Write over the scaffolded style.css; it already contains the required theme header. Use Edit to append the :root block and anchor comments below the existing content.

Page Content

For long page content:

1. Create the page empty:

wp_cli post create --post_content=""

2. Write <site>/tmp/page-<slug>.html, not a file inside the theme, with small section anchors:

<!-- section:hero -->
<!-- section:features -->
<!-- section:cta -->

3. Fill one anchor per Edit using editable blocks. Never wrap a section in core/html.
4. Validate before applying (mandatory gate). Once all anchors are filled, you MUST call validate_blocks with filePath pointing at <site>/tmp/page-<slug>.html and get a passing result — the core/html policy passes and editor validation reports all blocks valid. This is not optional and not a step you can defer to after wp_cli eval: the scratch file is block content, so it must be validated as a file while it still lives in a file. If validation reports invalid blocks, fix them in the file and call validate_blocks again until it passes. Never apply block content you have not validated.
5. Apply the validated content once:

wp_cli eval '$content = file_get_contents(ABSPATH . "tmp/page-<slug>.html"); wp_update_post(["ID" => <id>, "post_content" => $content]); echo "ok";'

Do not use --post_content-file=<host path>. wp_cli runs inside the PHP-WASM filesystem; the host site directory is mounted at /wordpress/, so ABSPATH === "/wordpress/". Host paths are not readable there and can silently update the post to empty content.

Validation

• Validation is a mandatory gate, not a cleanup step. You MUST call validate_blocks and get a passing result for any block content you generate before that content reaches the live site — before wp_cli post create/update, before wp_cli eval, and before importing a scratch file. Never apply, import, or save block content you have not validated. A build that skips validation is incomplete, even if the page renders.
• Run validate_blocks after every write or edit that creates or changes block content. Call it with filePath whenever the content lives in a file — including scratch files such as <site>/tmp/page-<slug>.html that you later import with wp_cli eval. The scratch file is the block content; validate the file, not just the eventual post. It first runs a static core/html policy check: if that reports invalid core/html blocks, editor validation is skipped — rewrite only those blocks as editable core or plugin blocks, then call validate_blocks again. Once the policy passes it validates in the live editor and applies safe serialization fixes directly to the file. If it says an auto-fix was applied, do not manually replace markup or call validation again unless you intentionally change block markup afterward. Use the diff only to inspect structural changes for CSS impact. Classes added or removed by the validator can affect layout and styling.