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Nav Menu Item Autosaves - TL;DR

The Problem

None of the fields work when creating nav menu item autosaves via the WordPress REST API.

The endpoint /wp/v2/menu-items/<id>/autosaves accepts requests and returns 201 Created, but all content fields are silently ignored. The autosaves are created completely empty.

Test Results

We tested all 14 fields documented in the API:

Status Fields
❌ All Failed title, type, status, attr_title, classes, description, menu_order, object, object_id, target, url, xfn, meta
❌ Rejected menus (returns error: "Invalid parameter(s)")

Result: 0 out of 14 fields work. All return null or empty values.

Root Cause

This is a WordPress core bug caused by a data format mismatch in the autosave flow:

Menu Items Controller → Autosaves Controller → Revision System
   (menu-item-* format)                        (expects post_title, post_content, post_excerpt)
         ↓                                                    ↓
   Returns object with:                              Looking for:
   • menu-item-title                                 • post_title
   • menu-item-url                                   • post_content
   • menu-item-description                           • post_excerpt

   Result: array_intersect() finds ZERO matches → All data is lost

The bug: WP_REST_Autosaves_Controller::create_post_autosave() calls _wp_post_revision_data() which only extracts standard post fields. It has no special handling for nav menu items' unique menu-item-* format.

The impact: Silent data loss. The API reports success but saves nothing.

Why This Matters

  • For API consumers: You can't trust this endpoint. It appears to work but loses all your data.
  • For WordPress: This endpoint was auto-exposed when menu items got REST API support (WordPress 5.9), but nobody adapted the autosave logic for menu items' special data format.
  • For our library: We can only verify the endpoint exists. We cannot verify content is saved because it isn't.

What to Do

  1. Report to WordPress core - This needs to be fixed upstream
  2. Document the limitation - Warn users that this endpoint is non-functional
  3. Test script available - Run ./test_nav_menu_item_autosave_fields.sh to reproduce

Full Analysis

See nav_menu_item_autosaves_investigation.md for:

  • Complete source code analysis with line numbers
  • Detailed explanation of the three-layer data transformation
  • Test methodology and curl commands
  • Potential fix options for WordPress core