Multi-Author Posts

A WordPress plugin that allows multiple authors to edit a single post via shared invite links. Compatible with WordPress collaborative editing.

Test in WordPress Playground

Features

• Co-author management -- Add or remove co-authors from any post via the block editor sidebar panel.
• Shared invite links -- Generate a shareable URL that lets any registered user join as a co-author. Links expire after 24 hours and are automatically revoked when the post is published; existing co-authors keep their access.
• Capability-aware -- Co-authors can edit and read their assigned posts without gaining broader site permissions.
• Post-publish edit gate -- Co-authors lose edit access once the post is published. Site editors and admins can opt in per-post to keep co-author access after publish.
• Multisite support -- Invited users are automatically added to the site with a subscriber role so they can access the editor.
• Author preservation -- When a post's author is reassigned, the previous author is automatically kept as a co-author.

Co-author permissions

Co-authors have the same management trust as the original post author. They can:

• Add and remove other co-authors
• Generate, copy, and revoke the shared invite link
• Edit and read the post itself

The only things they cannot do:

• Reassign post authorship (requires edit_others_posts, enforced by WordPress core)
• Delete the post (the map_meta_cap filter explicitly excludes delete_post)
• Change the per-post "Allow co-authors to edit after publish" setting (requires edit_others_posts)

Editing after publish

By default, publishing a post revokes co-authors' edit access — only the post author and site editors/admins can continue editing. Site editors and administrators can flip this per-post via the "Allow co-authors to edit after publish" toggle in the Co-Authors sidebar panel. Co-authors and Author-role post authors do not see this toggle.

Requirements

• WordPress 7.1+ (real-time collaborative editing was pulled from 7.0)
• PHP 7.4+
• Node.js 20+ (for development)

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start the development environment
npm run env:start

# Build the editor assets
npm run build

# Run JavaScript tests
npm run test:unit

# Run PHP tests (requires wp-env)
npm run test:php