ACF REST API Exposer

A lightweight WordPress plugin that exposes Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) data for all public custom post types and standard posts via the WordPress REST API.

ACF fields are returned under the ACF object in every REST API response.

✨ Features

• Automatically exposes ACF fields for all custom post types
• Also includes the standard post post type
• Excludes internal ACF post types (acf-field-group, acf-field)
• Zero configuration required — install and activate
• Easily customisable via two simple arrays

📦 Installation

1. Download or clone this repository
2. Upload the acf-rest-api-exposer folder to /wp-content/plugins/
3. Activate the plugin from WordPress Admin → Plugins
4. That's it — ACF fields will now appear in REST API responses

🔌 Usage

After activation, make a REST API request to any supported post type:

GET /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123
GET /wp-json/wp/v2/your-custom-post-type/456

The response will include an ACF object:

{
  "id": 123,
  "title": { "rendered": "My Post" },
  "ACF": {
    "my_custom_field": "Hello World",
    "another_field": "Some Value"
  }
}

⚙️ Customisation

Open acf-rest-api-exposer.php and edit these two arrays:

// Post types to EXCLUDE
$postypes_to_exclude = [ 'acf-field-group', 'acf-field' ];

// Extra built-in post types to INCLUDE
$extra_postypes_to_include = [ 'post' ];

For example, to also include the page post type:

$extra_postypes_to_include = [ 'post', 'page' ];

📋 Requirements

🗂️ File Structure

acf-rest-api-exposer/
├── acf-rest-api-exposer.php   # Main plugin file
├── README.md                  # Documentation
├── LICENSE                    # MIT License
└── .gitignore                 # Git ignore rules

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

👤 Author

Gulshan Chauhan

• GitHub: @gulshanbasouli