Assign Custom Capability

Property	Value
description	Add custom post type capabilities to the Administrator role.
tags	lib, php, wp, oop
rating

Human: 3 - Mixed authorship

Roughly half AI, half human. Core content reviewed, but minor risk remains.

Overview

Assign a full custom post type capability set to the Administrator role.

Replace <cap_singular> and <cap_plural> with the capability bases for the CPT before using the snippet. For example, a book CPT that uses a plural capability base of books would use capabilities such as edit_book, read_book, edit_books, and publish_books.

Run this only after the role and capability names are final. The snippet grants capabilities on init; it does not remove capabilities if the placeholders are changed later.

Variants

Procedural

Add Macro

Add wp-assign-custom-capability macro.

<?php
/**
 * Add custom post type capabilities to Administrator role
 *
 * Replace:
 * <cap_singular> → singular capability base
 * <cap_plural>   → plural capability base
 *
 * Example:
 * book / books
 * product / products
 * client_doc / client_docs
 * dev_doc / dev_docs
 * internal_post / internal_posts
 */
add_action( 'init', function (): void {

    $role = get_role( 'administrator' );

    if ( ! $role ) {
        return;
    }

    /** @var string[] $caps */
    $caps = [

        // Meta caps (singular)
        'edit_<cap_singular>',
        'read_<cap_singular>',
        'delete_<cap_singular>',

        // Primitive caps (plural)
        'edit_<cap_plural>',
        'edit_others_<cap_plural>',
        'publish_<cap_plural>',
        'read_private_<cap_plural>',

        'delete_<cap_plural>',
        'delete_private_<cap_plural>',
        'delete_published_<cap_plural>',
        'delete_others_<cap_plural>',

        'edit_private_<cap_plural>',
        'edit_published_<cap_plural>',

        'create_<cap_plural>',
    ];

    foreach ( $caps as $cap ) {
        $role->add_cap( $cap );
    }

} );

OOP

Add Macro

Add wp-assign-custom-capability--oop macro.

<?php
/**
 * Add custom post type capabilities to Administrator role.
 *
 * @package mac-core
 */

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace MacCore\Services\Core;

use MacCore\Contracts\Service;

final class AssignCustomCapability implements Service
{
    private const ROLE = 'administrator';

    /**
     * Custom post type capabilities.
     *
     * @var string[]
     */
    private const CAPABILITIES = [
        // Meta caps (singular)
        'edit_<cap_singular>',
        'read_<cap_singular>',
        'delete_<cap_singular>',

        // Primitive caps (plural)
        'edit_<cap_plural>',
        'edit_others_<cap_plural>',
        'publish_<cap_plural>',
        'read_private_<cap_plural>',

        'delete_<cap_plural>',
        'delete_private_<cap_plural>',
        'delete_published_<cap_plural>',
        'delete_others_<cap_plural>',

        'edit_private_<cap_plural>',
        'edit_published_<cap_plural>',

        'create_<cap_plural>',
    ];

    public function register(): void
    {
        \add_action(
            'init',
            [$this, 'assign_capabilities']
        );
    }

    public function assign_capabilities(): void
    {
        $role = \get_role( self::ROLE );

        if ( ! $role ) {
            return;
        }

        foreach ( self::CAPABILITIES as $cap ) {
            $role->add_cap( $cap );
        }
    }
}