Pencilino by Rino #3 in Content & Publishing

Frontend content editing for AI-built WordPress themes. The theme owns the design; clients edit the words and images directly on the website.

Pencilino is designed for custom themes built by coding agents such as Codex, Claude, Cursor, or another connected agent. It provides a controlled content layer rather than a page builder.

What Pencilino does

• Edits text, rich text, buttons, and Media Library images on the frontend.
• Keeps layout, styling, and behaviour in the theme.
• Preserves content through stable field IDs when the theme design changes.
• Marks content owned by WordPress, ACF, JetEngine, WooCommerce, or another provider as managed elsewhere.
• Records content changes with the editor, page, time, and before-and-after values.
• Supports private comments with pinpoints, a separate inbox, and resolving feedback.
• Offers an optional Clients role with simplified editing screens and frontend-only static page editing.
• Includes two agent workflows: build a theme from an idea or convert an HTML template.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.4 or newer
• PHP 7.4 or newer
• A custom theme built to use Pencilino's helper functions

Pencilino does not automatically make an existing page-builder or block theme editable.

Installation

1. Download the versioned pencilino-by-rino-*.zip from the latest GitHub release.
2. In WordPress, open Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin.
3. Upload the ZIP and activate Pencilino by Rino.
4. Open Pencilino → Get started.
5. Copy the starter prompt for your workflow and give it to your coding agent.

Building a compatible theme

The complete contract for coding agents is available in docs/agent-instructions.md and inside WordPress under Pencilino → Get started → For AI Agents.

The theme remains responsible for its design and safe fallback output. Pencilino owns only content registered through its helpers:

• pencil_text()
• pencil_richtext()
• pencil_button()
• pencil_image()
• pencil_managed_region_open() and pencil_managed_region_close()

Version 2.0.3

Client logout appears separately at the bottom right only while Pencilino is open. Logging out opens a screen with a prominent Back to website button. Editing and comment popups follow the clicked point.

Version 2 uses the pencilino-by-rino plugin folder and entry file. When upgrading an older pencil-by-rino installation, deactivate the old plugin before activating Pencilino. Saved fields and change history remain compatible.

The WordPress.org-compatible plugin source does not include the former GitHub updater. Pushing commits does not update installed plugins.

Share an idea or report a problem

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

GitHub updates

Published stable releases appear in WordPress plugin updates. No GitHub token or wp-config.php change is needed. Use Pencilino → Settings → Check for updates to refresh immediately. Automatic updates follow your WordPress choice. Updates preserve content, comments, and settings.

For a release, bump the plugin version and readme stable tag, commit the changes, and publish a matching stable GitHub release such as v2.0.4. Attach an installable ZIP containing the pencilino-by-rino/ folder for first installations. Existing installations without an updater need a one-time ZIP update to get this version.