Terms in this guide: Acceptance criteria · Verification
How AboutCodex moved from a content idea to a validated WordPress skill library with inspectable packages and honest review labels.
The problem to solve
AboutCodex needed more than links to skill files. A visitor should understand the task, requirements, example request, expected output, limitations, license, files, version, and review evidence before downloading. An editor should be able to create or replace a package without editing PHP.
The implementation also had to fit the existing Kadence publication, shared search, topical hubs, native sitemap, and independent editorial standards.
The content model
A public skill post type owns the explanation page. Category, level, and collection taxonomies support discovery without publishing thin taxonomy archives. Metadata stores the package mode, version, folder name, trigger description, instructions, reference notes, license, requirements, examples, limitations, source, review date, evidence, and retirement state.
The archive uses task search and filters. Each detail page offers a readable overview, copyable example, installation steps, file inventory, SKILL.md preview, review record, and download panel.
Two package paths
The composer builds a deterministic ZIP from editor fields. It creates one top-level skill folder containing SKILL.md, optional notes, and a license. The import path selects an existing ZIP from the Media Library and validates it before the plugin makes the endpoint available.
The validator rejects traversal paths, absolute or ambiguous filenames, symbolic links, encryption, collisions, oversized archives, corrupt files, missing manifests, multiple roots, and mismatched folder names. It never extracts or executes uploaded files.
Publishing and permissions
Draft, private, password-protected, invalid, and retired skills do not receive a public plugin download. The package editor checks WordPress capabilities and nonces, and detects a stale editor before saving. Media Library files are still public WordPress attachments, so editors receive a clear warning not to upload confidential packages.
Download counts represent requests. The plugin stores no IP address, identity, or tracking cookie, and a HEAD request does not increment the count.
SEO and discovery
Skill pages participate in WordPress’s sitemap and receive descriptive metadata, canonical handling, CreativeWork and BreadcrumbList data when another SEO plugin is absent. Filtered catalog views are excluded from indexing to avoid creating a large set of thin URL combinations.
The shared AboutCodex search includes skill posts and can match the exact skill folder name. Hubs link to the library, and the primary navigation gives it a stable entry point.
What the checks established
The first release ran 53 integration assertions across public ZIPs, contents, SHA-256 headers, validation failures, permissions, protected downloads, filters, search, schema, and sitemap inclusion. A 104-route regression check and responsive checks protected the rest of the publication.
These tests established package and site behavior in the local environment. They did not evaluate whether every instruction produces a good result, so the starter skills were labeled Package structure checked rather than Workflow tested.
What comes next
The next useful work is editorial: run the starter skills on real tasks, retain results, improve weak triggers, and publish failures and limitations. Historical package releases and checksums should be added before promising rollback or automatic updates.
WORKED EXAMPLE / CONTENT DISCOVERY
Fix a skill that disappears when you filter
Reproduce the problem
Search for “Verify a bug fix.” The original search returned a debugging guide and the downloadable skill. Applying the Skills topic filter removed the skill, leaving only the guide.
Trace the cause and change
Articles used the public topic and level classifications. Downloads used separate skill categories and levels. The library now registers public search classifications for skills and synchronizes them when a skill’s category or level changes. The download-specific filters remain available in the skill library.
Files produced
The discovery.php module in AboutCodex Library owns classification synchronization and content-type filtering. The scoped test-product-v11.php integration check exercises the real rendered search routes, including a combined Skills topic and Intermediate level query.
Observed result
The downloadable skill remained discoverable with the Skills topic filter, with topic and level combined, and with the Skills content-type filter. The Articles content-type filter excluded it as intended. All 62 checks in the local feature integration run passed.
Try the result
Search for the skill with its topic selected · Compare requirements and evidence
Limits
This verifies the site’s discovery behavior. It is not an evaluation of the downloaded skill’s performance, and it does not demonstrate search-engine visibility.
Progress stays in this browser. No account needed.
Updates and upgrade guidance
- Learning context added
Added prerequisites, a suggested practice estimate, expected output, and connected definitions. The article procedure was not independently re-evaluated in this change.
What to do: Use the opening checklist to prepare. No software update is required for this editorial change.
This log starts with the first recorded review; it is not a reconstruction of earlier revisions.