Features
A Feature is persistent WordPress functionality that reacts to events on your site. Examples: a custom metabox, a completeness score that updates on save, a publish gate that blocks incomplete posts.
Feature lifecycle
Every feature goes through these statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not running. Edit freely. |
| Active | Running on your site. WordPress hooks are registered. |
| Paused | Temporarily disabled. Structural elements (metaboxes, columns) are still visible but the trigger logic does not run. |
| Archived | Inactive and hidden from the main list. Not deleted. |
How a feature works
A feature has two phases:
Compile phase — "what to register"
Structural elements WordPress needs to know about on every page load: custom post types, taxonomies, metaboxes, admin columns, admin filters, REST routes, head injection, and more.
These run once when you Activate a feature and again on every WordPress load while the feature is active.
Runtime phase — "what to do when triggered"
Logic that runs in response to an event:
| Trigger | When it fires |
|---|---|
save_post | When a post is saved or updated |
hook | On any WordPress action or filter you specify |
schedule | On a time-based schedule (uses WP-Cron) |
rest_api | When a specific REST endpoint is called |
none | No runtime trigger — compile phase only |
Managing features
Go to Clautron → Features to see all features with their status, source (AI-generated or manually imported), and creation date.
Actions available on each feature:
- Activate / Deactivate — toggle the feature on or off
- Edit — open the blueprint editor to modify the JSON configuration
- Delete — permanently remove (only available on Draft and Archived features)
Example — content completeness checker
This feature:
- Adds a metabox to the post editor showing a checklist (title, content, excerpt, featured image)
- On
save_post, calculates a completeness score (0–100) and saves it to_clautron_completeness_score - Shows a percentage bar column in the posts list
- Adds a dropdown filter to filter posts by completeness
All of this is configured as a single blueprint with no code. The AI Assistant generates it from a one-line prompt: "Add a content completeness checker to posts."