wordpress-rest-curl/post.sh

#!/bin/bash
# WordPress posting script

# config:
EDITOR=vim
TRANSFORM=() # empty or a subset of: 'title' 'markdown'
USER="" # WP user to create the post
PASSWORD="" # application password generated for your WP user
SERVER="" # server hostname, optionally with subdirectories
STATUS="draft" # one of publish,future,draft,pending,private
CATEGORIES="" # comma separated integer IDs of categories
TAGS="" # comma separated integer IDs of tags
TMPFILE=/tmp/wordpress-post.txt # location of a temporary file with the post text
USER_AGENT="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) wordpress-rest-curl/1.0" # some hosts block curl's default UA as bot traffic

SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
source "$SCRIPT_DIR/lib/config.sh"

# CLI options:
#   --site NAME      after config.sh, also source $CONFIG_DIR/NAME.sh, whose
#                     values override config.sh's (lets you keep just the
#                     per-instance bits — USER/PASSWORD/SERVER — in each site
#                     file, and shared defaults in config.sh)
#   --edit POST_ID   update an existing post instead of creating a new one
#   --publish        shortcut for STATUS=publish
#   --file PATH      use PATH as the post source instead of opening $EDITOR
#   --date DATE      backdate the post to DATE, an ISO 8601 UTC timestamp
#                     (e.g. 2026-07-27T10:00:00Z, matching a Gitea commit
#                     date) — sent as the post's date_gmt
#   --category NAME  attach category NAME, looking up its ID or creating it
#                     if it doesn't exist yet (repeatable)
#   --tag NAME       same as --category, for tags (repeatable)
SITE=""
POST_ID=""
SOURCE_FILE=""
PUBLISH=0
DATE=""
CATEGORY_NAMES=()
TAG_NAMES=()
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
    case "$1" in
        --site)
            SITE="$2"; shift 2 ;;
        --edit)
            POST_ID="$2"; shift 2 ;;
        --publish)
            PUBLISH=1; shift ;;
        --file)
            SOURCE_FILE="$2"; shift 2 ;;
        --date)
            DATE="$2"; shift 2 ;;
        --category)
            CATEGORY_NAMES+=("$2"); shift 2 ;;
        --tag)
            TAG_NAMES+=("$2"); shift 2 ;;
        *)
            echo "Unknown argument: $1" >&2
            exit 1 ;;
    esac
done

wp_load_config

[[ "$PUBLISH" -eq 1 ]] && STATUS="publish"

# let the user provide the post content
if [[ -n "$SOURCE_FILE" ]]; then
    cp "$SOURCE_FILE" "$TMPFILE" || exit 1
else
    $EDITOR $TMPFILE || exit 1
fi
[[ -e $TMPFILE ]] || exit 1

# transformations
cp $TMPFILE $TMPFILE.trans
for T in "${TRANSFORM[@]}"; do
    if [[ "$T" == "title" ]]; then
        python3 >$TMPFILE.trans2 <<EOF
import re
with open('$TMPFILE.trans', 'r') as file:
    title = ''
    content = file.read()
    matches = re.match('^#+ (.+)', content, flags=0)
    if matches:
        title = matches.group(1)
        content = content[len(matches.group(0)) + 1:]
    with open('$TMPFILE.title', 'w') as titlefile:
        titlefile.write(title)
    print(content)
EOF
        TITLE=`cat $TMPFILE.title`
        rm $TMPFILE.title
        mv $TMPFILE.trans2 $TMPFILE.trans
    elif [[ "$T" == "markdown" ]]; then
        python3 >$TMPFILE.trans2 <<EOF
import markdown2
print(markdown2.markdown_path('$TMPFILE.trans'))
EOF
        mv $TMPFILE.trans2 $TMPFILE.trans
    fi
done
CONTENT=`cat $TMPFILE.trans`
rm $TMPFILE.trans

echo "--- START POST ---"
echo "$CONTENT"
echo "---  END POST  ---"
echo "Title: $TITLE"
echo "User: $USER"
echo "Server: $SERVER"
echo "Status: $STATUS"
CATEGORIES_DISPLAY="$CATEGORIES"
[[ ${#CATEGORY_NAMES[@]} -gt 0 ]] && CATEGORIES_DISPLAY="$CATEGORIES_DISPLAY (+ ${CATEGORY_NAMES[*]}, resolved/created on confirm)"
echo "Categories: $CATEGORIES_DISPLAY"
TAGS_DISPLAY="$TAGS"
[[ ${#TAG_NAMES[@]} -gt 0 ]] && TAGS_DISPLAY="$TAGS_DISPLAY (+ ${TAG_NAMES[*]}, resolved/created on confirm)"
echo "Tags: $TAGS_DISPLAY"
if [[ -n "$DATE" ]]; then
    echo "Date: $DATE"
fi
if [[ -n "$POST_ID" ]]; then
    echo "Editing post: $POST_ID"
fi
echo
read -p "Press enter to confirm..."

# build the JSON payload (categories/tags as real arrays, not comma strings)
CATEGORIES_JSON="[]"
if [[ -n "$CATEGORIES" ]]; then
    CATEGORIES_JSON=$(echo "$CATEGORIES" | tr ',' '\n' | jq -R 'select(length > 0) | tonumber' | jq -s '.')
fi
for NAME in "${CATEGORY_NAMES[@]}"; do
    ID=$(wp_resolve_term "/wp-json/wp/v2/categories" "$NAME") || exit 1
    CATEGORIES_JSON=$(jq -c --argjson id "$ID" '. + [$id] | unique' <<<"$CATEGORIES_JSON")
done

TAGS_JSON="[]"
if [[ -n "$TAGS" ]]; then
    TAGS_JSON=$(echo "$TAGS" | tr ',' '\n' | jq -R 'select(length > 0) | tonumber' | jq -s '.')
fi
for NAME in "${TAG_NAMES[@]}"; do
    ID=$(wp_resolve_term "/wp-json/wp/v2/tags" "$NAME") || exit 1
    TAGS_JSON=$(jq -c --argjson id "$ID" '. + [$id] | unique' <<<"$TAGS_JSON")
done

PAYLOAD=$(jq -n \
    --arg title "$TITLE" \
    --arg content "$CONTENT" \
    --arg status "$STATUS" \
    --argjson categories "$CATEGORIES_JSON" \
    --argjson tags "$TAGS_JSON" \
    --arg date_gmt "${DATE%Z}" \
    '{title: $title, content: $content, status: $status, categories: $categories, tags: $tags}
     + (if $date_gmt != "" then {date_gmt: $date_gmt} else {} end)')

POST_PATH="/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/"
[[ -n "$POST_ID" ]] && POST_PATH="/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/$POST_ID"

# push the post!
BODY=$(wp_api_call POST "$POST_PATH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data "$PAYLOAD") || exit 1
echo "$BODY"

# backup the posted data (temporarily until it is auto-removed)
mv $TMPFILE $TMPFILE.posted