Title: Candidate
Published: May 20, 2026

---

# class Candidate {}

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#description)
 * [Methods](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#methods)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Represents a candidate response from an AI model.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

When generating content, AI models can produce multiple candidates.
Each candidate
contains a message and metadata about why generation stopped.

## 󠀁[Methods](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#methods)󠁿

| Name | Description | 
| [Candidate::__clone](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/__clone/) | Performs a deep clone of the candidate. | 
| [Candidate::__construct](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/__construct/) | Constructor. | 
| [Candidate::fromArray](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/fromarray/) | {@inheritDoc} | 
| [Candidate::getFinishReason](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/getfinishreason/) | Gets the finish reason. | 
| [Candidate::getJsonSchema](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/getjsonschema/) | {@inheritDoc} | 
| [Candidate::getMessage](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/getmessage/) | Gets the generated message. | 
| [Candidate::toArray](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/toarray/) | {@inheritDoc} |

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    class Candidate extends AbstractDataTransferObject
    {
        public const KEY_MESSAGE = 'message';
        public const KEY_FINISH_REASON = 'finishReason';
        /**
         * @var Message The generated message.
         */
        private Message $message;
        /**
         * @var FinishReasonEnum The reason generation stopped.
         */
        private FinishReasonEnum $finishReason;
        /**
         * Constructor.
         *
         * @since 0.1.0
         *
         * @param Message $message The generated message.
         * @param FinishReasonEnum $finishReason The reason generation stopped.
         */
        public function __construct(Message $message, FinishReasonEnum $finishReason)
        {
            if (!$message->getRole()->isModel()) {
                throw new InvalidArgumentException('Message must be a model message.');
            }
            $this->message = $message;
            $this->finishReason = $finishReason;
        }
        /**
         * Gets the generated message.
         *
         * @since 0.1.0
         *
         * @return Message The message.
         */
        public function getMessage(): Message
        {
            return $this->message;
        }
        /**
         * Gets the finish reason.
         *
         * @since 0.1.0
         *
         * @return FinishReasonEnum The finish reason.
         */
        public function getFinishReason(): FinishReasonEnum
        {
            return $this->finishReason;
        }
        /**
         * {@inheritDoc}
         *
         * @since 0.1.0
         */
        public static function getJsonSchema(): array
        {
            return ['type' => 'object', 'properties' => [self::KEY_MESSAGE => Message::getJsonSchema(), self::KEY_FINISH_REASON => ['type' => 'string', 'enum' => FinishReasonEnum::getValues(), 'description' => 'The reason generation stopped.']], 'required' => [self::KEY_MESSAGE, self::KEY_FINISH_REASON]];
        }
        /**
         * {@inheritDoc}
         *
         * @since 0.1.0
         *
         * @return CandidateArrayShape
         */
        public function toArray(): array
        {
            return [self::KEY_MESSAGE => $this->message->toArray(), self::KEY_FINISH_REASON => $this->finishReason->value];
        }
        /**
         * {@inheritDoc}
         *
         * @since 0.1.0
         */
        public static function fromArray(array $array): self
        {
            static::validateFromArrayData($array, [self::KEY_MESSAGE, self::KEY_FINISH_REASON]);
            $messageData = $array[self::KEY_MESSAGE];
            return new self(Message::fromArray($messageData), FinishReasonEnum::from($array[self::KEY_FINISH_REASON]));
        }
        /**
         * Performs a deep clone of the candidate.
         *
         * This method ensures that the message object is cloned to prevent
         * modifications to the cloned candidate from affecting the original.
         *
         * @since 0.4.2
         */
        public function __clone()
        {
            $this->message = clone $this->message;
        }
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/php-ai-client/src/results/dto/candidate.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/php-ai-client/src/Results/DTO/Candidate.php#L24)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/php-ai-client/src/Results/DTO/Candidate.php#L24-L117)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wordpress-aiclient-results-dto-candidate/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [0.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/0.1.0/) | Introduced. |

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