Pro module18 abilities

WPBakery ability reference

Reference for the GoBuildWP Pro 1.12.4 source. Installed schemas and policy remain authoritative.

This WPBakery ability reference lists every call GoBuildWP Pro registers for WPBakery elements, templates and page content, with the exact slug an agent sends and what the plugin's own contract says it does. Of the 18, 8 read, 6 write and 4 are marked destructive in the source.

By GoBuildWPContent updated 13 October 2026How we check claims

Read-only, write and destructive groups describe the source annotations. They do not establish a minimum safety profile, human approval or undo support. Those controls are separate: check the installed ability, the connected user and the active site policy before calling it. A read can still return sensitive data. These pages are not evidence that every operation passed an end-to-end runtime test.

What WPBakery needs before these load

These 18 abilities come with GoBuildWP Pro 1.12.4. Pro registration requires the Freemius SDK to permit premium code and any companion dependency the module checks to be available. The floors below apply to the named dependencies or features; an optional add-on or newer feature floor does not necessarily disable the base module. wppilot/integration-health and the module's setup call describe the installed availability.

Minimum (base): 6.5.0 WPPILOT_PRO_WPBAKERY_MIN_VERSION
WPBakery editions: free, pro
Agent skills shipped: wpbakery-build-page, wpbakery-register-element

Before accepting the result

Inspect the full current tree, make one targeted edit and re-inspect before using another index. Indexes may shift after a write; replacement requires preserving the complete existing tree and reviewing mixed foreign shortcodes in the native editor.

Safety profiles and human confirmation

Example WPBakery input: `wppilot/wpbakery-get-content`

This one operation declares the 1 top-level input parameters below in wppilot-pro/includes/wppilot-abilities/wppilot-wpbakery/wppilot-get-content.php; post_id is required. Other calls in this module take different arguments. Nested schemas and constraints are not expanded here; the complete live schema a connected client discovers is authoritative.

Parameter	Type and meaning
`post_id`required	`integer`. ID of the post to read.

WPBakery reads

Ability	What it does
`wppilot/wpbakery-check-setup`Check WPBakery Setup	Reports the WPBakery Page Builder environment: version and minimum-version status, registered element count and categories, Grid Builder availability, post types where WPBakery is enabled, and the current user's management permission. Call BEFORE any other WPBakery ability so the agent can plan around what is and is not available on this site.
`wppilot/wpbakery-get-content`Get WPBakery Content	Returns the WPBakery element tree for a post as a nested JSON structure under the `tree` field. Each node has tag, atts (decoded), children, and _idx (depth-first index used by add/edit/delete operations). vc_link values are decoded to {url, title, target, rel} objects; param_group values are decoded to arrays. Container elements that hold raw HTML (e.g. vc_column_text) expose a _content field with the inner HTML. The returned `tree` can be passed verbatim to wpbakery-set-content for a round-trip.
`wppilot/wpbakery-get-element-schema`Get WPBakery Element Schema	Returns the compact control schema for a single WPBakery element (tag, label, is_container, categories, controls, common_controls). `controls` is the element-specific param map; `common_controls` is the four universal atts (el_id, el_class, css, css_animation) that every WPBakery element accepts on top of its own schema - these never appear in the WPBakery param registry so they would otherwise be invisible to discovery. Call this right before authoring via add-element / edit-element / set-content. Use wpbakery-list-elements first to find the tag.
`wppilot/wpbakery-get-settings`Get WPBakery Settings	Reads the WPBakery-owned meta on a post: wpbakery_edited flag (mirrors _wpb_vc_js_status), page-level custom_css (free-form CSS the user authors, postmeta _wpb_post_custom_css - this is what most agents care about), and shortcodes_custom_css (auto-generated by WPBakery from every element's `css` Design Options att, rebuilt on save - read-mostly, rarely written). Use this to verify a post was correctly marked as WPBakery-edited before opening the editor, or to read the current page-level CSS before patching it.
`wppilot/wpbakery-inspect-page`Inspect WPBakery Page	Read-only aggregate snapshot of a WPBakery-edited post: setup snapshot (version, min_satisfied, grid_builder_active, supported_post_types), per-post settings (wpbakery_edited flag, custom_css, shortcodes_custom_css), the WPBakery element tree, and a list of foreign shortcodes ([gallery], [wpforms], [contact-form-7], …) that are in the raw post_content but outside the WPBakery tree. Use this BEFORE planning a mutation so you know what is on the page (including content that get-content alone does not surface).
`wppilot/wpbakery-list-elements`List WPBakery Elements	Lists registered WPBakery elements as a compact overview: tag, label, is_container, categories. Call this to browse the element catalogue, then call wpbakery-get-element-schema with a specific tag to inspect that element's control schema before authoring. Use `tag_contains` ("heading", "btn", "grid", …) to filter by substring when you already know roughly what element you want.
`wppilot/wpbakery-list-grid-item-elements`List WPBakery Grid Item Elements	Lists the vc_gitem_* shortcodes used inside vc_grid_item template posts (the per-item layout consumed by vc_basic_grid / vc_masonry_grid via the `item` att). Each entry includes the tag, a short purpose, the is_container flag, and the most-used atts with a one-line description. The response also includes a `dynamic_links` block listing the magic string values (`post_link`, `image`, `image_lightbox`, `custom`, `none`) that `link` atts on vc_btn / vc_gitem_image / vc_gitem_zone_* accept inside a grid_item context - these bypass the normal vc_link object encoding and are resolved against the current loop post at render time. These shortcodes are not in the global WPBakery registry, so they are not returned by wpbakery-list-elements; call this ability whenever you are building or editing a vc_grid_item template.
`wppilot/wpbakery-list-templates`List WPBakery Templates	Lists saved WPBakery user templates. Optionally filter by category. Returns template_id, name, category, and a short shortcode preview for each template.

WPBakery writes

Ability	What it does
`wppilot/wpbakery-add-element`Add WPBakery Element	Inserts a new WPBakery element (or a whole subtree) into a post. The `element` input is a node `{tag, atts, children?, _content?}` - the exact same shape wpbakery-set-content / wpbakery-get-content / wpbakery-inspect-page use for tree nodes, so a subtree captured from one can be passed verbatim here. `parent_idx` is the _idx of the target container (null for root) and `position` is the 0-based offset (-1 to append). On invalid top-level atts the response returns `invalid_values[]` with each bad key's value and the full inline `opts` list. Atts inside nested `element.children` get a soft post-write `invalid_atts` array (write still succeeds). Non-WPBakery shortcodes elsewhere in post_content are preserved and listed in `preserved_foreign_shortcodes`. Remaining nodes get re-indexed depth-first after the insert; call wpbakery-get-content again before targeting another _idx.
`wppilot/wpbakery-create-template`Create WPBakery Template	Creates a reusable WPBakery template from a layout. Provide either (post_id + element_idx) to capture an element from a page, or a raw shortcode string. The template appears in the WPBakery editor under "My Templates" and can be re-applied with wpbakery-apply-template.
`wppilot/wpbakery-edit-element`Edit WPBakery Element	Updates an existing WPBakery element identified by its _idx (from wpbakery-get-content). By default merges new atts (omitted keys keep their current value); pass replace=true to discard every existing att and use only the provided ones. To update the inner HTML of elements like vc_column_text, pass `_content` at the top level (sibling of `atts`, mirroring the node shape that set-content / get-content / add-element use). On invalid atts the response returns `invalid_values[]` with each bad key's value and the full inline `opts` list - pick a valid choice and retry, no separate get-element-schema call needed.
`wppilot/wpbakery-edit-elements`Edit Multiple WPBakery Elements	Applies one or more atts updates across multiple WPBakery elements in a single atomic write. Input shape: `{post_id, edits: [{match, atts, replace?}, …]}` - edits is ALWAYS an array, even for a single rule. Each rule's `match` selects nodes by `tag` and/or `element_idxs` (AND when both present), and the rule's `atts` are merged (or replaced wholesale when `replace=true`). Example: `edits: [{"match":{"tag":"vc_btn"},"atts":{"color":"blue","size":"lg"}}]`. Atts are NOT schema-validated per match (use wpbakery-edit-element on a single node when validation matters). Returns the deduplicated list of element_idxs touched, plus the standard preserved_foreign_shortcodes field when applicable.
`wppilot/wpbakery-move-element`Move WPBakery Element	Detaches the element identified by element_idx and reinserts it under parent_idx at position. WITHIN a single move call source and target are resolved in one tree snapshot, so the intermediate _idx renumbering that would happen with a manual delete-then-add does not bite. BETWEEN separate move calls _idx still renumbers - call wpbakery-get-content again before issuing the next move. Use null parent_idx to move to the root level; use position=-1 to append at the end of the target container. Input names mirror wpbakery-add-element - parent_idx and position refer to the TARGET (where the element ends up), element_idx refers to the SOURCE. Non-WPBakery shortcodes elsewhere in post_content are preserved and listed in `preserved_foreign_shortcodes`.
`wppilot/wpbakery-set-settings`Set WPBakery Settings	Writes WPBakery-owned meta on a post. Pass `wpbakery_edited: true` to mark the post as a WPBakery page (sets _wpb_vc_js_status to the literal string "true" so the "Edit with WPBakery" admin link appears and the frontend assets load). Pass `custom_css` to set the page-level custom CSS textarea. Pass `shortcodes_custom_css` to overwrite the CSS WPBakery generates from element Design Options - usually you should leave this alone and let WPBakery regenerate it. Only the keys explicitly provided in the input are updated.

Destructive WPBakery calls

Ability	What it does
`wppilot/wpbakery-apply-template`Apply WPBakery Template	Applies a saved WPBakery template to a post. mode=append adds the template after the existing content (default, non-destructive); mode=prepend adds it before (non-destructive); mode=replace DISCARDS every existing WPBakery node on the target and uses only the template (destructive, warn the user first). Non-WPBakery shortcodes elsewhere in post_content (e.g. [contact-form-7]) survive any mode and are listed in `preserved_foreign_shortcodes` when present. _idx values are reassigned after the apply; call wpbakery-get-content again before targeting an _idx on the target.
`wppilot/wpbakery-delete-element`Delete WPBakery Element	Permanently removes a WPBakery element and all its children from a post, identified by _idx (from wpbakery-get-content). Deleting a container (vc_row, vc_column) removes all nested content inside it. Non-WPBakery shortcodes elsewhere in post_content (e.g. [contact-form-7], [gallery]) are preserved and re-appended after the saved WPBakery tree; the response lists them in `preserved_foreign_shortcodes` when present. Remaining nodes get re-indexed depth-first after the delete, so call wpbakery-get-content again before targeting another _idx.
`wppilot/wpbakery-delete-template`Delete WPBakery Template	Permanently deletes a saved WPBakery template by its id (from wpbakery-list-templates).
`wppilot/wpbakery-set-content`Set WPBakery Content	Replaces the entire WPBakery layout of a post with the provided element tree. Each node has shape {tag, atts, children, _content}: `children` is the recursive nesting key, `atts` uses {url,title,target,rel} for vc_link and arrays of objects for param_group, `_content` carries raw inner HTML for elements like vc_column_text. The top-level param is `tree` (the array of root nodes). Pass `tree: []` to wipe the WPBakery layout entirely. The post is marked as a WPBakery page automatically. Pass `custom_css` to set the page-level CSS in the same call (avoids a separate wpbakery-set-settings round-trip). Non-WPBakery shortcodes elsewhere in post_content (e.g. [contact-form-7], [gallery]) are preserved and re-appended after the saved WPBakery tree; the response lists them in `preserved_foreign_shortcodes` when present.

For the task-level view of WPBakery, with worked requests and what to check afterwards, see WPBakery integration page.