wp media import

Creates attachments from local files or URLs.

In this article

Options

<file>…
Path to file or files to be imported. Supports the glob(3) capabilities of the current shell. If file is recognized as a URL (for example, with a scheme of http or ftp), the file will be downloaded to a temp file before being sideloaded.
[--post_id=<post_id>]
ID of the post to attach the imported files to.
[--post_name=<post_name>]
Name of the post to attach the imported files to.
[--file_name=<name>]
Attachment name (post_name field).
[--title=<title>]
Attachment title (post title field).
[--caption=<caption>]
Caption for attachment (post excerpt field).
[--alt=<alt_text>]
Alt text for image (saved as post meta).
[--desc=<description>]
“Description” field (post content) of attachment post.
[--skip-copy]
If set, media files (local only) are imported to the library but not moved on disk. File names will not be run through wp_unique_filename() with this set.
[--preserve-filetime]
Use the file modified time as the post published & modified dates. Remote files will always use the current time.
[--featured_image]
If set, set the imported image as the Featured Image of the post it is attached to.
[--porcelain[=<field>]]
Output a single field for each imported image. Defaults to attachment ID when used as flag.

options:
– url

Examples

# Import all jpgs in the current user's "Pictures" directory, not attached to any post.
$ wp media import ~/Pictures/**\/*.jpg
Imported file '/home/person/Pictures/landscape-photo.jpg' as attachment ID 1751.
Imported file '/home/person/Pictures/fashion-icon.jpg' as attachment ID 1752.
Success: Imported 2 of 2 items.

# Import a local image and set it to be the post thumbnail for a post.
$ wp media import ~/Downloads/image.png --post_id=123 --title="A downloaded picture" --featured_image
Imported file '/home/person/Downloads/image.png' as attachment ID 1753 and attached to post 123 as featured image.
Success: Imported 1 of 1 images.

# Import a local image, but set it as the featured image for all posts.
# 1. Import the image and get its attachment ID.
# 2. Assign the attachment ID as the featured image for all posts.
$ ATTACHMENT_ID="$(wp media import ~/Downloads/image.png --porcelain)"
$ wp post list --post_type=post --format=ids | xargs -d ' ' -I % wp post meta add % _thumbnail_id $ATTACHMENT_ID
Success: Added custom field.
Success: Added custom field.

# Import an image from the web.
$ wp media import https://s.w.org/style/images/wp-header-logo.png --title='The WordPress logo' --alt="Semantic personal publishing"
Imported file 'https://s.w.org/style/images/wp-header-logo.png' as attachment ID 1755.
Success: Imported 1 of 1 images.

# Get the URL for an attachment after import.
$ wp media import https://s.w.org/style/images/wp-header-logo.png --porcelain | xargs -I {} wp post list --post__in={} --field=url --post_type=attachment
http://wordpress-develop.dev/wp-header-logo/

Global Parameters

These global parameters have the same behavior across all commands and affect how WP-CLI interacts with WordPress.
Argument Description
--path=<path> Path to the WordPress files.
--url=<url> Pretend request came from given URL. In multisite, this argument is how the target site is specified.
--ssh=[<scheme>:][<user>@]<host\|container>[:<port>][<path>] Perform operation against a remote server over SSH (or a container using scheme of “docker”, “docker-compose”, “docker-compose-run”, “vagrant”).
--http=<http> Perform operation against a remote WordPress installation over HTTP.
--user=<id\|login\|email> Set the WordPress user.
--skip-plugins[=<plugins>] Skip loading all plugins, or a comma-separated list of plugins. Note: mu-plugins are still loaded.
--skip-themes[=<themes>] Skip loading all themes, or a comma-separated list of themes.
--skip-packages Skip loading all installed packages.
--require=<path> Load PHP file before running the command (may be used more than once).
--exec=<php-code> Execute PHP code before running the command (may be used more than once).
--context=<context> Load WordPress in a given context.
--[no-]color Whether to colorize the output.
--debug[=<group>] Show all PHP errors and add verbosity to WP-CLI output. Built-in groups include: bootstrap, commandfactory, and help.
--prompt[=<assoc>] Prompt the user to enter values for all command arguments, or a subset specified as comma-separated values.
--quiet Suppress informational messages.

Command documentation is regenerated at every release. To add or update an example, please submit a pull request against the corresponding part of the codebase.