Andrew Wilkinson

<p>A lightweight plugin that <strong>forces login for backend access</strong> in a headless WordPress setup. Keeps your WordPress dashboard private while allowing your front end (e.g. Astro, Next.js) to pull content via GraphQL/REST.</p>
<h4>What it does</h4>
<ul>
<li>Requires authentication for <code>/wp-admin/</code> and other backend pages</li>
<li>Always allows the login page to avoid redirect loops</li>
<li>Leaves key endpoints open for headless use:
<ul>
<li><code>/wp-json/</code> (REST API)</li>
<li><code>/graphql</code> (WPGraphQL)</li>
<li><code>/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php</code> (AJAX)</li>
<li><code>/wp-cron.php</code> (cron)</li>
<li><code>/robots.txt</code></li>
<li><code>/sitemap*.xml</code> (sitemaps and indexes)</li>
<li><code>/wp-content/uploads/*</code> (media)</li>
<li><code>/favicon.ico</code></li>
<li><code>/newrelic</code> (New Relic monitoring)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Logged-in users visiting the backend root get redirected to the dashboard</li>
<li>Works with Bedrock layouts (handles root path vs <code>/wp/</code>)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Use case</h4>
<ul>
<li>WordPress is the content backend</li>
<li>Public site is built with Astro/Next.js/etc</li>
<li>Editors log in to WordPress. Visitors never see the backend</li>
<li>Front end builds and live pages can still query GraphQL/REST without authentication</li>
</ul>
<h4>Customization</h4>
<p>Developers can customize allowed endpoints using the <code>force_login_allowed_patterns</code> filter:</p>
<pre><code>add_filter('force_login_allowed_patterns', function($patterns) {
    $patterns[] = '#^/healthz$#';           // custom health check
    $patterns[] = '#^/status$#';            // uptime checks
    $patterns[] = '#^/wp-json/acf/v3/.*#';  // specific REST namespace
    return $patterns;
});
</code></pre>


Headless Login Guard

Forces login for backend access in headless WordPress setups while allowing GraphQL/REST API endpoints and essential paths.

Jabran Rafique

<p>Set Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) empty field value as <code>null</code> instead of <code>false</code> to avoid GraphQL error in GatsbyJS.</p>
<h3>Prerequisites</h3>
<ul>
<li>Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin</li>
</ul>


Nullify empty fields for ACF

Set Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) empty field value as null instead of false to avoid GraphQL error in GatsbyJS.

Headless Login Guard vs Nullify empty fields for ACF