WP Desktop Mode — Developer Documentation

This folder is the contract between WP Desktop Mode and the plugins that extend it.

If you are building a plugin that interacts with the desktop shell — opens windows, adds dock items, listens to window events, drops icons on the wallpaper — start here.

Index

1. Getting Started — your first hook, in five minutes.
2. Event-Driven Framework — Stable (since 0.5.5). The mental model: framework as transport, apps own UX policy. Read once before building anything non-trivial.
3. Architecture — what renders where, and why.
4. Hooks Reference — every PHP action and filter, with signatures, defaults, and minimal examples.
5. JavaScript Reference — CustomEvents on document, the window.wp.desktop API, and the iframe postMessage bridge.
6. API Index — single-page table of every wp.desktop.* method, CustomEvent, and postMessage type with its current status. Use this when you need to grep the surface, then jump to the per-API reference for details.
7. Examples — recipes you can copy into a plugin.
8. Bridge Protocol Overview — internals doc. End-to-end wiring of wp.desktop.connect() / wp.desktop.iframe.* / the synthesised iframe inside native windows. Read when debugging a stuck handshake or building unusual integrations.
9. Native Windows & Framework Interop — Stable (shipped 0.11.0). Public API for desktop_mode_register_window() / desktop_mode_register_window_tab(), Web Components as first-class, and how React / Vue / Svelte plug in without the shell taking a framework dependency. See also examples/native-windows.md and examples/native-window-with-tabs.md.
10. Dock Customization — Stable (since 0.18.0). Three orthogonal registries — decoration hooks, submenu renderer, dock rail renderer — that let a plugin author go from "tweak a className" to "replace the entire rail with a circular ring." Start here if you want to customize the dock visual.
11. Plugin Compatibility Layer — internals doc. How Desktop Mode adapts third-party plugins (WooCommerce, Yoast, etc.) whose CSS or menu-registration assumes classic admin chrome. The three-tier mental model — CSS variables → runtime offset scanner → targeted overrides — and the decision tree for adding a new fix. Read before touching chromeless.css or the dock builder for plugin-specific work.
12. Files on the Desktop — Experimental (since 0.9.0). Desktop_Mode_File base class, desktop_mode_register_file_type(), and wp.desktop.files.*. Phase-0 registry only today; folders, opener associations, sharing, and drag-from-Recycle-Bin land in subsequent phases.
13. Folder Sharing — Experimental (since 0.18.0). Per-principal read / write grants on desktop folders with first-sight opt-in, polymorphic target_type schema, If-Match conflict detection, and a <wpd-modal>-based Share Settings UI.
14. Progressive Web App (PWA) — Stable (since 0.8.0). Web app manifest, service worker (root-scope, narrow fetch handler), install affordance, and wp.desktop.notify() for local notifications. Phase-4 Web Push wiring lands later without breaking the v1 call surface.
15. Migration 0.7 → 0.8.1 — what landed in the architecture-0.8.1 refactor: the @core / @api / @protocol / @layout / @ui path aliases, the registry / server-sync / api-client primitives, the public-API facade home, and the PHP slicing of helpers.php / components.php / render.php. Read once before adopting any of the new modules in your plugin.
16. Migration — AI comment-only + native search (0.11.0) — the AI Copilot is scoped to comment spam scoring; post/term auto-analysis and its hooks are removed, the assistant now finds content with native keyword search, and the bulk /ai/reindex endpoint is gone. Read if you depended on any desktop_mode_ai_*post* / *term* hook or the reindex route.

Conventions used in this docs folder

• Status labels — every hook, event, or API surface carries one of:
  • Stable — shipping today, backwards-compatible inside the current major version.
  • Experimental — shipping but signature may change.
  • Planned — reserved name, not yet fired. Do not rely on it.
• Code examples are complete, drop-in, and use desktop_mode_ / desktop_mode_ prefixes as they would in a real plugin.
• PHP examples assume a plugin file with defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit; at the top.
• Versions — features are tagged @since with the desktop-mode plugin version that introduced them, not the WordPress version.

Reporting breakage

If a documented hook behaves differently than what's written here, that is a bug in either the code or the docs. Open an issue or PR. Do not work around it silently — the docs are source of truth for plugin authors.