[issue #660] feat: Update generalised error message for all features by SohamPatel46 · Pull Request #759 · WordPress/ai

SohamPatel46 · 2026-06-22T17:52:48Z

What?

Closes #660

Implements a centralized, context-aware error message mapping in the WordPress REST API when AI requests (e.g. "Generate Title", "Generate Excerpt") are blocked by the Connector Approvals feature.

Why?

Previously, when the Connector Approvals feature blocked the caller (wp-ai), the user was shown a generic error notice: "Title generation failed. Please ensure you have a connected provider that supports text generation." This led users to believe that their API keys or connected providers were broken when the feature was actually just awaiting approval in the WordPress admin panel.

Using a centralized server-side approach via a REST dispatch filter ensures that all features display clean, translated, and context-aware instructions explaining how to authorize the connector under Tools > Connector Approvals, without duplicating approval-checking code across individual feature controllers or frontend JS files.

How?

REST Error Customizer:
- Registered the rest_post_dispatch filter inside the Connector_Approval experiment class.
- If a REST request fails with the wpai_connector_not_approved code, it intercepts the error, parses the Ability ID from the route path, and maps it to a context-aware prefix (e.g. "Title generation failed.", "Excerpt generation failed.").
- Appends: "The AI connector is currently pending authorization. Please approve the request under Tools > Connector Approvals."
Capability Check Fallback:
- Updated ensure_text_generation_supported() and ensure_image_generation_supported() in Abstract_Ability.
- If the remote model fetch requests get blocked by the approvals check during capability check, it now falls back to return wpai_connector_not_approved instead of the generic unsupported_model error.

Use of AI Tools

AI assistance: Yes
Tool(s) used: Antigravity IDE.
Model(s) used: Gemini 3.5 Flash
Used for: Suggestion for designing the centralized server-side solution, code refactoring, test case additions. Implementation was reviewed, modified and tested by me.

Testing Instructions

Install the AI plugin and configure an AI provider (e.g., Google Connector), but do not approve the caller under Tools > Connector Approvals yet.
Open a page/post and click Generate Title.
Verify that the notice displays: "Title generation failed. The AI connector is currently pending authorization. Please approve the request under Tools > Connector Approvals."
Click Generate Excerpt (if excerpt generation experiment is active) and verify it displays: "Excerpt generation failed. The AI connector is currently pending authorization. Please approve the request under Tools > Connector Approvals."
Go to Tools > Connector Approvals and approve the connector.
Return to the post editor and verify that title and excerpt generation now succeed without the error.

Screenshots or screencast

Before	After

Changelog Entry

Fixed - Display a clear, context-aware error notice during Ability execution when the configured AI connector is pending administrator approval.

Added - New feature.
Changed - Existing functionality.
Deprecated - Soon-to-be removed feature.
Removed - Feature.
Fixed - Bug fix.
Security - Vulnerability.
Developer - Development related updates.

github-actions · 2026-06-22T17:52:59Z

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs.

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Co-authored-by: SohamPatel46 <sohampate1@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: jeffpaul <jeffpaul@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: dkotter <dkotter@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: riccardodicurti <riccardodicurti@git.wordpress.org>

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codecov · 2026-06-22T17:59:08Z

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 84.28%. Comparing base (63799d4) to head (814f662).

Additional details and impacted files

@@              Coverage Diff              @@
##             develop     #759      +/-   ##
=============================================
+ Coverage      84.26%   84.28%   +0.02%     
- Complexity      3723     3728       +5     
=============================================
  Files            148      148              
  Lines          14099    14118      +19     
=============================================
+ Hits           11881    11900      +19     
  Misses          2218     2218

Flag	Coverage Δ
unit	`84.28% <100.00%> (+0.02%)`	⬆️

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dkotter · 2026-07-09T17:18:16Z

+	 * @param \WP_REST_Request  $request  The REST request.
+	 * @return mixed The modified REST response.
+	 */
+	public function customize_rest_error( $response, $server, $request ) {


So I don't necessarily have a better approach off the top of my head but not sure I love us hooking into rest_post_dispatch and then running all of this functionality. Seems this is likely to impact things we don't want to impact (slowing down other, non-AI requests as an example). Wondering if there's a better approach to handle this?

dkotter · 2026-07-09T17:19:22Z

In addition to these integration tests, we should add some E2E tests that verify the error messages show as expected

jeffpaul · 2026-08-10T17:51:24Z

@SohamPatel46 I'm seeing lots of test failures here, mind reviewing those to see if any are impacted by the changes in this PR?

jeffpaul · 2026-09-17T17:49:18Z

@SohamPatel46 are you able to make updates here or is it best if another contributor helps out with those failing tests?

… improve error handling

…se that message. Ensure the error message is different depending on the user that is being shown it

dkotter

Note I've simplified the approach here quite a bit, where we keep track of when a request is blocked on the HTTP Guard side and then output that error message later if needed. This avoids a lot of the over complexity here.

feat: Update generalised error message for all features

2412e4c

SohamPatel46 mentioned this pull request Jun 22, 2026

UX: Ambiguous error message in editor when a provider is blocked by Connector Approvals #660

Closed

SohamPatel46 added 2 commits June 22, 2026 23:37

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

6b974de

fix: Update php unit tests coverage

c15abad

dkotter assigned SohamPatel46 Jun 23, 2026

dkotter requested changes Jun 26, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread includes/Abstracts/Abstract_Ability.php Outdated

jeffpaul added this to the 1.2.0 milestone Jun 26, 2026

SohamPatel46 added 2 commits June 30, 2026 16:50

docs: update since statement to follow standard practices

b7f63b4

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

adb853e

SohamPatel46 requested a review from dkotter June 30, 2026 11:20

Merge branch 'WordPress:develop' into feature/issue-660

3cd5918

SohamPatel46 requested a review from a team July 2, 2026 13:21

dkotter requested changes Jul 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

SohamPatel46 added 3 commits July 10, 2026 22:10

Address PR feedbacks

a838775

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

7f8d75e

Fix: e2e tests and unit tests

0f9def1

jeffpaul modified the milestones: 1.2.0, 1.3.0 Jul 13, 2026

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

6b48734

dkotter mentioned this pull request Jul 15, 2026

[issue #660] Add context-aware error message in Block Editor #686

Closed

jeffpaul mentioned this pull request Aug 10, 2026

Release version 1.3.0 #924

Closed

48 tasks done

dkotter modified the milestones: 1.3.0, 1.4.0 Aug 12, 2026

dkotter modified the milestones: 1.4.0, Future Release Sep 3, 2026

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

bf1c30c

jeffpaul modified the milestones: Future Release, 1.6.0 Sep 17, 2026

jeffpaul and others added 7 commits October 13, 2026 20:23

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

d94e80a

Refactor: Improve ability checks and clean up code in various files

1f3311d

Enhance Connector_Approval tests: Add test connector registration and…

1f24791

… improve error handling

Merge branch 'develop' into feature/issue-660

f45ec3c

Revert current changes

a72cb1b

When a request is blocked, capture the error message and then later u…

25bb327

…se that message. Ensure the error message is different depending on the user that is being shown it

Update tests with new changes

7f618a1

dkotter modified the milestones: 1.6.0, 1.5.0 Oct 22, 2026

Fix E2E tests

814f662

dkotter approved these changes Oct 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

dkotter merged commit c19113b into WordPress:develop Oct 22, 2026
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[issue #660] feat: Update generalised error message for all features - #759

[issue #660] feat: Update generalised error message for all features#759
dkotter merged 19 commits into
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