Initialization

Block templates will only be executed when the block is rendered. This is enough for most blocks; however, sometimes you need to execute code during an earlier stage of execution. For example, you may want to register a new post type or do some other type of setup unrelated to the block.

To do this, add one or more PHP files whose names start with init, such as init.php, init-helpers.php, or init-post-types.php, to your block directory. Every matching file executes once during the init action. For more information on this specific stage, see the WordPress documentation.

Init files can live beside a block.json or in a standalone directory. Beside a block, each init file is execution-only: the block remains the owner of sibling assets and rpc.php, cron.php, and db.php definitions. In a standalone directory, the init entry owns the directory’s sibling assets, which supports file-based code snippets.

Example

<?php
// Register a custom post type
register_post_type('project', [
  'labels' => [
    'name' => 'Projects',
    'singular_name' => 'Project',
  ],
  'public' => true,
  'has_archive' => true,
  'supports' => ['title', 'editor', 'thumbnail'],
]);