Themes

This page will be most useful for users who are familiar with GraphQL Concepts and understand the basics of writing GraphQL Queries.

Querying Themes​

WPGraphQL provides support for querying Themes in various ways.

List of Themes​

Below is an example of querying a list of Themes.

{
  themes {
    nodes {
      id
      name
      version
    }
  }
}

Query from Authenticated User​

Authenticated users with the “edit_themes” capability can query a list of Themes and see all available themes for the site.

Query from Public User​

A public user or a user without “edit_themes” capability can make the same query and only the active theme will be returned.

The active theme is considered a public entity in WordPress and can be publicly accessed and WPGraphQL respects this access control right.

Content Templates​

WPGraphQL exposes page templates assigned to content through the template field on content types that implement the NodeWithTemplate interface.

Querying Templates​

{
  pages {
    nodes {
      title
      template {
        templateName
      }
    }
  }
}

For a page using the default template, this returns:

{
  "data": {
    "pages": {
      "nodes": [
        {
          "title": "Sample Page",
          "template": {
            "templateName": "Default"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Classic Themes vs Block Themes​

WordPress supports two types of themes, and template behavior differs between them:

Classic Themes (e.g., Twenty Twenty-One)​

Classic themes use PHP template files placed in the theme directory. These templates:

• Are PHP files with a Template Name header comment
• Are recognized by WordPress via get_page_templates()
• Appear in WPGraphQL as distinct ContentTemplate types

Example PHP template file (my-template.php):

<?php
/**
 * Template Name: My Custom Template
 */

When this template is assigned to a page, WPGraphQL exposes it:

{
  page(id: "example-page", idType: URI) {
    template {
      __typename      # Returns "MyCustomTemplate"
      templateName    # Returns "My Custom Template"
    }
  }
}

Block Themes (e.g., Twenty Twenty-Five)​

Block themes (also called Full Site Editing or FSE themes) use a different template system:

• Templates are HTML files with block markup in the templates/ directory
• Template registration is handled via theme.json
• PHP template files in the theme root are not recognized as page templates

Important: If you’re using a block theme and place a PHP template file in your theme directory, WordPress will not recognize it as a page template. This is WordPress core behavior, not a WPGraphQL limitation.

Template Type Names​

WPGraphQL generates GraphQL type names from template names by:

1. Removing special characters
2. Converting to PascalCase
3. Prefixing with Template_ if the name starts with a number or contains only non-ASCII characters

Template Name	GraphQL Type
Default	DefaultTemplate
My Custom Template	MyCustomTemplate
Full Width	FullWidthTemplate
2 Column Layout	Template_2ColumnLayout

Introspecting Available Templates​

You can query the schema to see all registered template types:

{
  __type(name: "ContentTemplate") {
    possibleTypes {
      name
    }
  }
}

Mutations​

WPGraphQL does not currently support mutations for themes.