AI agents are now writing code, organizing documentation, and even automatically drafting entire blog posts. That’s the era we live in.
While it is sometimes whispered that "WordPress is a thing of the past," in times like these, I deliberately developed a new WordPress plugin and published it on the official directory.
The plugin I created is "Marklane," a tool that allows you to publish articles directly to WordPress from Markdown files.
- Official Directory: Marklane – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org
- Official Site: Marklane | Happas
Today, I’d like to share the motivation behind going out of my way to build a custom plugin at this specific time, along with a look at its features.
Existing Plugins Just Didn't "Click"
The origin of this project was incredibly simple: "I want to take articles I wrote in Markdown alongside AI agents and post them straight to WordPress."
Initially, I tried numerous existing Markdown importer plugins. However, they all felt somewhat clunky for the following reasons:
- No one-click publishing
While they could import Markdown, the posts would usually end up in "Draft" status, forcing me to manually click the Publish button anyway. - Unable to set metadata at once
There was no way to bulk-configure settings like the featured image, categories, and tags at the time of import. - Cumbersome multilingual support
After writing a Japanese article, I have an AI agent generate the English version. With existing plugins, linking the Japanese and English articles (using Polylang, for instance) had to be done manually. - I didn't want to open the WordPress editor at all
Once you get used to the comfort of writing in Markdown, even the task of opening the post editor and clicking through settings becomes a pain.
Objectively, these might seem like minor inconveniences. However, the accumulation of this "slight hassle" is exactly what chips away at the motivation to write and publish articles daily.
"At this point, wouldn't it be faster to build my own and realize my ideal workflow?"
That motivation kickstarted the development, which eventually led to publishing it on the official WordPress directory.
Why Not Use WordPress's Built-in AI Features?
Recently, there has been talk of enhanced AI capabilities coming in WordPress 7, and numerous "AI auto-generation plugins" already exist.
Yet, there is a clear reason why I opted for the "write locally in Markdown and import via a plugin" approach.
- I want complete control via Git.
I strongly desired to manage article revision history, past versions, and image resources entirely within a repository. Locking all this away inside a WordPress database makes that workflow difficult. - I want the AI to write according to repository rules.
This might be the biggest reason. When having an AI draft articles, my current style is to define rules—such as a "unique writing voice" and "project-specific tone & manners"—within the repository, and let the agent write based on them. Having a local AI agent read the full context produces overwhelmingly higher-quality output compared to the AI features available within WordPress itself.
"Rule-based AI writing managed by Git" × "Seamless deployment to WordPress". I desperately needed the missing piece to connect these two.
Shouldn't Astro or a Flat-File CMS Be Enough?
At this point, you might wonder, "If you're managing content in Markdown, shouldn't you just use a modern Static Site Generator (SSG) like Astro or a flat-file CMS?"
That's a very valid point. If you were building a tech blog from scratch, adopting such modern tech stacks would likely be the natural choice.
However, many existing sites are already running on WordPress. Furthermore, WordPress has an overwhelming ecosystem—including powerful plugins—covering themes, SEO, security, and e-commerce functionalities.
In satisfying the demand to "leverage WordPress's powerful ecosystem and existing operational foundation, while carving out only the writing environment into a modern Git + AI + Markdown setup," I believe the approach of directly connecting WordPress and Markdown holds immense value.
Introducing "Marklane" Features
So, to achieve my ideal workflow, I built Marklane.
Rather than a standard, formulaic plugin introduction, here are a few of my favorite highlights for this little creation.
Complete Article Settings via YAML Frontmatter
By defining metadata in YAML format at the top of your article, you can control all WordPress-side settings.
Frontmatter Example:
---
title: "Why I Built the 'Marklane' WordPress Plugin in the Age of AI"
slug: "marklane-plugin-release-en"
status: "publish"
date: "2026-04-30T12:00:00+09:00"
category: ["Tech", "WordPress"]
tags: ["プラグイン", "AI"]
featuredImage: "./marklane-release-eyecatch.png"
lang: "en"
translations:
ja: "marklane-plugin-release-ja"
---
Just by uploading this, categories, tags (auto-generated if they don't exist), and post statuses are applied instantly. No more tedious tweaking in the WordPress sidebar.
Safe Overwrites Based on Slugs
Because existing articles are identified using the slug as a key, it prevents the accident of "importing the same article resulting in duplicates."
You can safely update existing posts simply by modifying the Markdown locally and re-uploading it.
Automatic Resolution for Featured and Local Images
If you specify an image located in the same directory as the Markdown file using a relative path like featuredImage: "./hero.jpg", it will automatically be registered in the WordPress Media Library upon import and set as the featured image. The same applies to images within the body text.
Also, if you are in an environment with the "FIFU (Featured Image from URL)" plugin installed, you can directly set external URLs in the format featuredImage: "https://..." to act as the featured image.
Automatic Multilingual Linking (Polylang)
If you use Polylang, simply specifying lang and translations will automatically link the languages together.
By just instructing an AI agent to "translate this Markdown to English and set the translations," the hassle of operating a multilingual site becomes nearly fully automated.
Note: Currently, we only support Polylang, but we plan to consider supporting other multilingual plugins if there is demand.
Pre-check (Dry Run) Feature
To answer the need of "wanting to see what categories will be created and which images will be linked before importing," we included a Dry Run feature. You can preview the results or errors before saving, giving you peace of mind.
A Side Note: The Origin of the Name "Marklane" and the Review Process
Actually, I originally submitted this plugin to the official directory under the name "Markdown Upload & Importer". However, it was rejected during the review process because the name was considered "too generic."
So, I decided to rename it "Marklane"—combining "Markdown" with "Lane" to convey the idea of a fast lane or a smooth path for quickly publishing Markdown articles.
As a side note, at the time of submission, the official plugin review queue had a backlog of about 1,000 plugins waiting to be reviewed. It took roughly one to two months for the plugin to be approved and published. I have nothing but immense gratitude for the contributors who volunteer their time to check such a massive number of plugins every single day.
Conclusion
In an era where AI writes code and generates articles, I believe there is value in pursuing "a writing and publishing workflow that truly feels comfortable to you."
While I built this plugin for myself, if there is anyone out there who similarly thinks, "I want to publish directly from Markdown without opening the WordPress editor," or "I want to build a writing workflow leveraging Git and AI agents," please give Marklane a try. (And if you like it, I'd be thrilled if you left a review...!)
I intend to continue developing it and adding features that I personally want!
I hope it makes your Markdown & WordPress life even a little bit more comfortable.