Headless WordPress Platform
A CMS-only WordPress architecture paired with a modern front-end delivery layer. Designed for performance budgets, secure preview, controlled exposure, and reliable publishing workflows.
Record Summary
NDA-safe description preserving constraints and engineering decisions.
Enterprise-grade publishing with fast delivery, secure editor preview, and minimal WordPress exposure.
Preview security, API abuse, cache correctness, and content integrity under publishing spikes.
Stable editorial flows + predictable performance budgets + hardened attack surface.
Challenge Context
What made this non-trivial.
- WordPress needed to remain CMS-only, not a public web server.
- Editors required preview that matches production rendering (not WP theme preview).
- High-traffic pages demanded caching without breaking content freshness rules.
- Security posture required strict isolation and minimized exposed endpoints.
Approach Strategy
How it was engineered.
- Headless delivery with explicit performance budgets (TTFB/LCP/CLS targets).
- Signed preview sessions with short TTL and IP-aware constraints.
- Cache layers with strict invalidation rules and safe “stale-while-revalidate”.
- Hardening: least-privilege access, endpoint minimization, and WAF policies.
Architecture Overview
NDA-safe high-level structure.
CMS Isolation
WordPress • PrivateWordPress runs as a private CMS layer, protected behind strict network boundaries and admin controls.
Content Delivery
API • CacheContent served via controlled API routes with caching rules aligned to publishing workflow and TTL strategy.
Preview Pipeline
Signed PreviewEditors preview production rendering using signed sessions, preventing public access and token leakage.
Observability
Tracing • LogsMonitoring for cache hit ratios, API latency, and preview failures to keep performance predictable.
Need a Headless WordPress build done right?
Secure preview, performance budgets, and CMS isolation — without breaking editorial workflows.