Plugin

Kizlo has two halves: the framework in your app (TypeScript) and WordPress itself. For them to work as one system, WordPress needs a piece that speaks the framework's language — a plugin.

WordPress already exposes an API, and so do plugins like WooCommerce. So why install anything on the WordPress side at all? There are two kinds of plugin:

• The Kizlo plugin — required, installed once. Makes WordPress itself a partner to the framework.
• Companion plugins — optional. Bring a third-party plugin into that same system, and exist only when an extension needs one.

The Kizlo plugin

WordPress on its own is a content system with an API you can call. You can read from it, but it isn't a complete or safe backend for a frontend:

• It leaves gaps. A web project needs more than WordPress ships, and what it ships is shaped around WordPress, not around the app consuming it.
• It's one-directional. Your app can ask WordPress for things, but WordPress can't tell your app when something changes.
• It's too open. Left as-is, it exposes more of itself than a headless frontend needs or should reach.

The Kizlo plugin turns WordPress into a backend built for a frontend. It fills those gaps, sets the guardrails, and makes the relationship two-way — so WordPress can send events the framework reacts to, not just answer calls.

That's why it's required: it's what makes a WordPress install a Kizlo backend at all. Install it once (see Installation) and leave it; everything else builds on top.

Companion plugins

Most extensions don't need one. An extension that builds only on what the Kizlo plugin already reaches — WordPress itself — is self-contained: add the package to your app and it works.

A companion plugin comes in only when an extension bridges a third-party plugin like WooCommerce or Contact Form 7. That plugin sits outside the relationship the Kizlo plugin set up, so the framework can only reach what it chose to expose. A companion plugin brings it inside that relationship instead, doing one or both of:

• Glue — connect the plugin into Kizlo so it shows up through the framework like everything else.
• Extra features — add what the third-party plugin doesn't offer, so the extension can expose it too.

A bridging extension therefore ships as two halves: the extension for your app, and the companion plugin for WordPress. Install the companion alongside the third-party plugin, and the extension in your app.

This works the same on fresh WordPress or an existing install: add the Kizlo plugin, add a companion only when an extension calls for one, and nothing about your existing content has to change.