Data Machine is an AI-first WordPress plugin that uses a Pipeline+Flow architecture for automated content processing and publication. It provides multi-provider AI integration with tool-first design patterns, centered around a reliability-first Single Item Execution Model, with multi-agent support and a layered memory system.

• Pipelines: Reusable templates containing step configurations
• Flows: Configured instances of pipelines with scheduling
• Jobs: Individual executions of flows with status tracking, each processing exactly one item. Support parent-child relationships for batch execution via parent_job_id.

Services layer architecture with direct method calls for optimal performance. The engine implements a four-action execution cycle that processes exactly one item per job to ensure maximum reliability and isolation.

Eight core tables:

See Database Schema for full table definitions and relationships.

Data Machine supports multiple agents on a single WordPress installation (@since v0.36.1):

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                WordPress Site                    │
│                                                  │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐      │
│  │ Agent A  │  │ Agent B  │  │ Agent C  │      │
│  │          │  │          │  │          │      │
│  │ SOUL.md  │  │ SOUL.md  │  │ SOUL.md  │      │
│  │ MEMORY.md│  │ MEMORY.md│  │ MEMORY.md│      │
│  │ daily/   │  │ daily/   │  │ daily/   │      │
│  │          │  │          │  │          │      │
│  │ pipelines│  │ pipelines│  │ pipelines│      │
│  │ flows    │  │ flows    │  │ flows    │      │
│  │ jobs     │  │ jobs     │  │ jobs     │      │
│  │ chat     │  │ chat     │  │ chat     │      │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘      │
│                                                  │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │ Shared Layer: SITE.md, RULES.md          │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│                                                  │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐                     │
│  │ User 1   │  │ User 2   │                     │
│  │ USER.md  │  │ USER.md  │                     │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key components:

• Agent Registry (datamachine_agents): Each agent has a unique slug, owner, and configuration
• Access Control (datamachine_agent_access): Role-based sharing (viewer < operator < admin)
• Resource Scoping: All pipelines, flows, jobs, and chat sessions carry agent_id
• Filesystem Isolation: Each agent gets agents/{slug}/ for identity files and daily memory
• Permission Helper: PermissionHelper resolves agent context and enforces access checks

Agent memory is organized in a three-layer directory system under wp-content/uploads/datamachine-files/:

datamachine-files/
├── shared/              # Site-wide (all agents)
│   ├── SITE.md
│   └── RULES.md
├── agents/              # Per-agent identity
│   ├── agent-a/
│   │   ├── SOUL.md
│   │   ├── MEMORY.md
│   │   └── daily/
│   │       └── 2026/
│   │           └── 03/
│   │               ├── 15.md
│   │               └── 16.md
│   └── agent-b/
│       ├── SOUL.md
│       └── MEMORY.md
├── users/               # Per-user preferences
│   ├── 1/
│   │   ├── USER.md
│   │   └── MEMORY.md
│   └── 2/
│       └── USER.md
└── pipeline-{id}/       # Pipeline-scoped files
    ├── context/
    └── flow-{id}/

CoreMemoryFilesDirective (Priority 20) loads files from layers in order:

1. shared/SITE.md → shared/RULES.md
2. agents/{slug}/SOUL.md → agents/{slug}/MEMORY.md
3. users/{id}/USER.md → users/{id}/MEMORY.md
4. Custom files from MemoryFileRegistry (extensions)

See WordPress as Agent Memory for full memory documentation.

Temporal knowledge management via date-organized files:

• DailyMemory: File operations at agents/{slug}/daily/YYYY/MM/DD.md
• DailyMemoryTask: System task with two phases:
  • Phase 1: Synthesizes daily activity (jobs, chat) into daily file
  • Phase 2: Prunes MEMORY.md when > 8KB, archiving session content to daily file
• DailyMemorySelectorDirective (Priority 46): Injects daily memory into pipeline AI requests with configurable selection modes (recent days, specific dates, date range, months). Capped at 100KB total.
• DailyMemoryAbilities: CRUD + search via Abilities API with multi-agent scoping

Background AI operations that run outside the normal pipeline model:

┌─────────────────────┐
│     SystemTask      │  (abstract base)
│                     │
│ execute()           │  ← Task-specific logic
│ completeJob()       │  ← Mark done + store engine_data
│ failJob()           │  ← Record failure
│ reschedule()        │  ← Retry with backoff (max 24)
│ supportsUndo()      │  ← Opt-in undo support
│ undo()              │  ← Reverse recorded effects
│ getPromptDefs()     │  ← Editable AI prompts
│ resolveSystemModel()│  ← Agent-aware model selection
└─────────────────────┘
         ▲
         │ extends
    ┌────┴────────────────────────────────────┐
    │                                          │
ImageGenerationTask  AltTextTask  DailyMemoryTask
ImageOptimizationTask  InternalLinkingTask
GitHubIssueTask  MetaDescriptionTask

Undo System: Tasks that record effects in engine_data can be reversed:

• post_content_modified → restore WordPress revision
• post_meta_set → restore previous value
• attachment_created → delete attachment
• featured_image_set → restore/remove thumbnail

Secure file management outside the web root for agent operations. Moved to data-machine-code extension.

• Location: /var/lib/datamachine/workspace/ (or DATAMACHINE_WORKSPACE_PATH)
• Git-aware: Clone, status, pull, add, commit, push, log, diff
• File ops: Read (with pagination), write, edit (find-replace), list directory
• Security: Outside web root; mutating ops are CLI-only (not REST-exposed)
• CLI: wp datamachine-code workspace {path,list,clone,remove,show,read,ls,write,edit,git}

Clean Data Separation: AI agents receive clean data packets without URLs while handlers access engine parameters via centralized filter pattern.

Enhanced Database Storage + Filter Access: Fetch handlers store engine parameters (source_url, image_url) in database; steps retrieve via centralized datamachine_engine_data filter with storage/retrieval mode detection for unified access.

Core Pattern:

// Fetch handlers store via centralized filter (array storage)
if ($job_id) {
    apply_filters('datamachine_engine_data', null, $job_id, [
        'source_url' => $source_url,
        'image_url' => $image_url
    ]);
}

// Steps retrieve via centralized filter (EngineData.php)
$engine_data = apply_filters('datamachine_engine_data', [], $job_id);
$source_url = $engine_data['source_url'] ?? null;
$image_url = $engine_data['image_url'] ?? null;

Benefits:

• Clean AI Data: AI processes content without URLs for better model performance
• Centralized Access: Single filter interface for all engine data retrieval
• Filter Consistency: Maintains architectural pattern of filter-based service discovery
• Flexible Storage: Steps access only what they need via filter call

Performance Revolution: Complete replacement of filter-based action system with OOP service managers for 3x performance improvement through direct method calls. Most services have been migrated to the WordPress 6.9 Abilities API.

Remaining Services (utilities for cross-cutting concerns):

• JobManager - Job execution monitoring and management
• LogsManager - Centralized log access and filtering
• Cache Invalidation - Ability-level clearCache() methods for handlers, step types, tools, and settings

Abilities API (business logic):

• FlowAbilities - Flow CRUD operations, duplication
• PipelineAbilities - Pipeline CRUD operations with complete/simple creation modes
• FlowStepAbilities - Individual flow step configuration and handler management
• PipelineStepAbilities - Pipeline step template management
• ProcessedItemsAbilities - Deduplication tracking across workflows
• AgentAbilities - Agent CRUD, rename (with filesystem migration), deletion
• AgentMemoryAbilities - Section-based memory read, write, append, search
• DailyMemoryAbilities - Daily memory file CRUD and search
• WorkspaceAbilities - Git-aware workspace file operations

Benefits:

• 3x Performance Improvement: Direct method calls eliminate filter indirection
• Centralized Business Logic: Consistent validation and error handling
• Reduced Database Queries: Optimized data access patterns
• Clean Architecture: Single responsibility per ability class
• Backward Compatibility: Maintains WordPress hook integration

• Fetch: Data retrieval with clean content processing (Files, RSS, Reddit, Google Sheets, WordPress Local, WordPress Media, WordPress API, Workspace)
• AI: Content processing with multi-provider support (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Grok)
• Publish: Content distribution with modular handler architecture (Twitter, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, WordPress, Workspace)
• Update: Content modification (WordPress posts/pages)
• System Task: Execute system tasks within pipeline flows
• Agent Ping: Outbound webhook notifications to external agents
• Webhook Gate: Wait for inbound webhook before proceeding

Priority-ordered context injection into every AI request:

Directives implement DirectiveInterface and return arrays of typed outputs:

• system_text — plain text content
• system_json — labeled structured data
• system_file — file path with MIME type

Base Authentication Provider Architecture (@since v0.2.6): Complete inheritance system with centralized option storage and validation across all authentication providers.

Base Classes:

• BaseAuthProvider (/inc/Core/OAuth/BaseAuthProvider.php): Abstract base for all authentication providers with unified option storage, callback URL generation, and authentication state checking
• BaseOAuth1Provider (/inc/Core/OAuth/BaseOAuth1Provider.php): OAuth 1.0a providers (TwitterAuth) extending BaseAuthProvider
• BaseOAuth2Provider (/inc/Core/OAuth/BaseOAuth2Provider.php): OAuth 2.0 providers (RedditAuth, FacebookAuth, ThreadsAuth, GoogleSheetsAuth) extending BaseAuthProvider

OAuth Handlers:

• OAuth1Handler (/inc/Core/OAuth/OAuth1Handler.php): Three-legged OAuth 1.0a flow implementation
• OAuth2Handler (/inc/Core/OAuth/OAuth2Handler.php): Authorization code flow implementation

Authentication Providers:

• OAuth 1.0a: TwitterAuth extends BaseOAuth1Provider
• OAuth 2.0: RedditAuth, FacebookAuth, ThreadsAuth, GoogleSheetsAuth extend BaseOAuth2Provider
• Direct: BlueskyAuth extends BaseAuthProvider (app password authentication)

OAuth2 Flow:

1. Create state nonce for CSRF protection
2. Build authorization URL with parameters
3. Handle callback: verify state, exchange code for token, retrieve account details, store credentials

OAuth1 Flow:

1. Get request token
2. Build authorization URL
3. Handle callback: validate parameters, exchange for access token, store credentials

Benefits:

• Eliminates duplicated storage logic across all providers (~60% code reduction per provider)
• Standardized error handling and logging
• Unified security implementation
• Easy integration of new providers via base class extension

Data Machine v0.2.0 introduced a universal Engine layer (/inc/Engine/AI/) that serves both Pipeline and Chat agents with shared AI infrastructure:

Core Engine Components:

• AIConversationLoop: Multi-turn conversation execution with tool calling, completion detection, and state management
• ToolExecutor: Universal tool discovery, enablement validation, and execution across agent types
• ToolParameters: Centralized parameter building for AI tools with data packet integration
• ConversationManager: Message formatting and conversation state management
• RequestBuilder: AI request construction with directive application and tool restructuring
• ToolResultFinder: Utility for finding tool execution results in data packets

Tool Categories:

• Handler-specific tools for publish/update operations
• Global tools for search and analysis (GoogleSearch, LocalSearch, WebFetch, WordPressPostReader)
• Workspace-scoped tools (WorkspaceTools, WorkspaceScopedTools) for agent file operations (moved to data-machine-code extension)
• Agent memory tools (AgentMemory, AgentDailyMemory) for runtime memory access
• Chat-only tools for workflow building (@since v0.4.3):
  • AddPipelineStep, ApiQuery, AuthenticateHandler, ConfigureFlowSteps, ConfigurePipelineStep, CopyFlow, CreateFlow, CreatePipeline, CreateTaxonomyTerm, ExecuteWorkflowTool, GetHandlerDefaults, ManageLogs, ReadLogs, RunFlow, SearchTaxonomyTerms, SetHandlerDefaults, UpdateFlow
• Automatic tool discovery and three-layer enablement system

All components self-register via WordPress filters:

• datamachine_handlers - Register fetch/publish/update handlers
• chubes_ai_tools - Register AI tools and capabilities
• datamachine_auth_providers - Register authentication providers
• datamachine_step_types - Register custom step types
• datamachine_directives - Register AI context directives
• datamachine_get_oauth1_handler - OAuth 1.0a handler service discovery
• datamachine_get_oauth2_handler - OAuth 2.0 handler service discovery

Data Machine v0.2.1 introduced modular component systems for enhanced code organization and maintainability:

FilesRepository Components (/inc/Core/FilesRepository/):

• DirectoryManager - Directory creation, path management, and three-layer resolution
• FileStorage - File operations and flow-isolated storage
• FileCleanup - Retention policy enforcement and cleanup
• ImageValidator - Image validation and metadata extraction
• VideoValidator - Video file validation
• RemoteFileDownloader - Remote file downloading with validation
• FileRetrieval - Data retrieval from file storage
• DailyMemory - Daily memory file operations (read, write, append, search, list)

WordPress Shared Components (/inc/Core/WordPress/):

• TaxonomyHandler - Taxonomy selection and term creation (skip, AI-decided, pre-selected modes)
• WordPressSettingsHandler - Shared WordPress settings fields
• WordPressFilters - Service discovery registration

EngineData (/inc/Core/EngineData.php):

• Consolidated Operations - Featured image attachment, source URL attribution, and engine data access (@since v0.2.1, enhanced v0.2.6)
• Unified Interface - Single class for all engine data operations (replaces FeaturedImageHandler and SourceUrlHandler in v0.2.6)

Engine Components (/inc/Engine/):

• StepNavigator - Centralized step navigation logic for execution flow

Benefits:

• Code Deduplication: Eliminates repetitive functionality across handlers
• Single Responsibility: Each component has focused purpose
• Maintainability: Centralized logic simplifies updates
• Extensibility: Easy to add new functionality via composition

For detailed documentation:

• FilesRepository Components
• WordPress Shared Components
• EngineData
• StepNavigator

Unified Cross-Cutting Functionality: The engine provides centralized filters for shared functionality across multiple handlers, eliminating code duplication and ensuring consistency.

Core Centralized Filters:

• datamachine_timeframe_limit: Shared timeframe parsing with discovery/conversion modes
  • Discovery mode: Returns available timeframe options for UI dropdowns
  • Conversion mode: Returns Unix timestamp for specified timeframe
  • Used by: RSS, Reddit, WordPress Local, WordPress Media, WordPress API
• datamachine_keyword_search_match: Universal keyword matching with OR logic
  • Case-insensitive Unicode-safe matching
  • Comma-separated keyword support
  • Used by: RSS, Reddit, WordPress Local, WordPress Media, WordPress API
• datamachine_data_packet: Standardized data packet creation and structure
  • Ensures type and timestamp fields are present
  • Maintains chronological ordering via array_unshift()
  • Used by: All step types for consistent data flow

Implementation:

// Timeframe parsing example
$cutoff_timestamp = apply_filters('datamachine_timeframe_limit', null, '24_hours');
$date_query = $cutoff_timestamp ? ['after' => gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $cutoff_timestamp)] : [];

// Keyword matching example
$matches = apply_filters('datamachine_keyword_search_match', true, $content, $search_keywords);
if (!$matches) continue; // Skip non-matching items

// Data packet creation example
$data = apply_filters('datamachine_data_packet', $data, $packet_data, $flow_step_id, $step_type);

Benefits:

• Code Consistency: Identical behavior across all handlers using shared filters
• Maintainability: Single implementation location for shared functionality
• Extensibility: New handlers automatically inherit shared capabilities
• Performance: Optimized implementations used across all handlers

Modular Component System: The WordPress publish handler uses specialized processing modules for enhanced maintainability and extensibility.

Core Components:

• EngineData: Consolidated featured image attachment and source URL attribution with configuration hierarchy (system defaults override handler config) (@since v0.2.1, enhanced v0.2.6)
• TaxonomyHandler: Configuration-based taxonomy processing with three selection modes (skip, AI-decided, pre-selected)
• Direct Integration: WordPress handlers use EngineData and TaxonomyHandler directly for single source of truth data access

Configuration Hierarchy: System-wide defaults ALWAYS override handler-specific configuration when set, providing consistent behavior across all WordPress publish operations.

Features:

• Specialized component isolation for maintainability
• Configuration validation and error handling per component
• WordPress native function integration for optimal performance
• Comprehensive logging throughout all components
• Unified engine data operations via EngineData class

Flow-isolated UUID storage with automatic cleanup:

• Files organized by flow instance
• Automatic purging on job completion
• Support for local and remote file processing

The centralized HttpClient class (/inc/Core/HttpClient.php) standardizes all outbound requests for fetch and publish handlers. It wraps the native WordPress HTTP helpers while:

• exposing explicit methods (get, post, put, patch, delete) that accept consistent option bags
• merging default headers (plugin DATAMACHINE_VERSION and optional browser-mode headers) with user-supplied headers
• honoring timeout, body, and browser_mode options so handlers can simulate browser traffic when needed
• validating success codes per method before returning parsed responses
• logging WP_Error and non-success HTTP responses via datamachine_log and returning structured error payloads for downstream handling
• extracting error metadata from JSON bodies to improve diagnostics

See HTTP Client for implementation details and usage guidance.

Modern React Architecture: The entire Data Machine admin interface (Pipelines, Logs, Settings, Jobs, and Agents) uses a complete React implementation with zero jQuery or AJAX dependencies.

React Implementation:

• A unified React-based admin UI built with @wordpress/components.
• Specialized apps for each page (PipelinesApp, LogsApp, SettingsApp, JobsApp).
• Modern state management using TanStack Query for server state (and a small Zustand store on the Pipelines page for UI state).
• Complete REST API integration for all data operations.
• Real-time updates via TanStack Query background refetching.
• Optimistic UI updates for instant user feedback.

Component Architecture:

• Core: Page-specific App containers; UI state is either local React state or (for Pipelines) a small Zustand store.
• Modals: Centralized ModalManager and ModalSwitch for routing (Pipelines/Settings).
• Queries/API: Standardized TanStack Query hooks and REST client modules.

Complete REST API Integration: All admin pages now use REST API architecture with zero jQuery/AJAX dependencies.

Security Model: All admin operations require manage_options capability with WordPress nonce validation.

Complete extension system for custom handlers and tools:

• Filter-based registration
• Template-driven development
• Automatic discovery and validation
• LLM-assisted development support

• Support for multiple AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others)
• Unified Directive System: Priority-based directive management via PromptBuilder:
  • datamachine_directives - Centralized filter with priority ordering and agent targeting
• Universal Engine Architecture: Shared AI infrastructure via /inc/Engine/AI/ components:
  • AIConversationLoop for multi-turn conversation execution with automatic tool calling
  • ToolExecutor for universal tool discovery and execution
  • ToolParameters for centralized parameter building (buildParameters() for standard tools, buildForHandlerTool() for handler tools with engine data)
  • ConversationManager for message formatting and conversation utilities
  • RequestBuilder for centralized AI request construction with directive application
  • ToolResultFinder for universal tool result search in data packets
• Site context injection with automatic cache invalidation (SiteContext::clear_cache())
• Tool result formatting with success/failure messages
• Clear tool result messaging enabling natural AI agent conversation termination

• Explicit Data Separation Architecture: Clean data packets for AI processing vs engine parameters for handlers
• Engine Data Filter Architecture: Fetch handlers store engine_data (source_url, image_url) in database; steps retrieve via centralized datamachine_engine_data filter
• DataPacket structure for consistent data flow with chronological ordering
• Clear data packet structure for AI agents with chronological ordering:
  • Root wrapper with data_packets array
  • Index 0 = newest packet (chronological ordering)
  • Type-specific fields (handler, attachments, tool_name)
  • Workflow dynamics and turn-based updates
• Deduplication tracking
• Comprehensive logging

• WordPress Action Scheduler integration
• Configurable intervals
• Manual execution support
• System task scheduling (cron-based)
• Job failure handling with retry support (max 24 attempts)

• Admin-only access (manage_options capability)
• Multi-agent access control (viewer, operator, admin roles)
• CSRF protection via WordPress nonces
• Input sanitization and validation
• Secure OAuth implementation
• Workspace outside web root