=== BlogPal AI ===
Contributors: epictwelvestudios
Tags: seo, content, blog, automation, woocommerce
Requires at least: 5.8
Tested up to: 6.7
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 2.3.15
License: GPL-2.0+
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Automatically generates and publishes SEO-optimized blog articles tailored to your business. Set it once and let it run.

== Description ==

BlogPal AI writes and publishes SEO blog articles for your WordPress site on a schedule you choose. It learns your business, studies the competitors you name, and produces articles through a four-stage expert pipeline (strategist, writer, editor, optimizer) with internal links and structured data added automatically.

The plugin never holds any API keys. All AI calls run on the BlogPal backend; the plugin only sends your business profile and queues jobs.

**Key features**

* Four-stage article pipeline with on-page SEO and JSON-LD schema
* Competitor-aware topic planning
* Local service-area targeting that rotates across your areas over time
* Automatic featured image (and an optional second in-article image)
* WooCommerce product-aware articles when a store is detected
* Multi-language publishing (defaults to your site language)
* Drafts by default; autopilot publishing is opt-in

== Installation ==

1. In WordPress go to Plugins, Add New, Upload Plugin, and upload the BlogPal AI zip.
2. Activate the plugin. The onboarding wizard opens automatically.
3. Connect the plugin to your BlogPal account in one click, or start on the free tier.
4. Add your business details and competitors, then let BlogPal write your first article.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Do I need an API key? =
No. The plugin talks to the BlogPal backend, which holds all keys. You never paste an API key into WordPress.

= Will it publish without my approval? =
No. Drafts are the default. Automatic publishing (autopilot) is opt-in.

= Does it work with WooCommerce? =
Yes. When a store is detected, BlogPal can write product-aware articles that reference your real products.

= What languages are supported? =
Publishing defaults to your site language and supports many languages.

== Changelog ==

= 2.3.15 =
* Security hardening: the auto-updater now pins downloads to the official host and requires a verified checksum before installing; in-article and featured image downloads are restricted to trusted hosts and no longer follow redirects; the site-connect handshake validates its one-time code before consuming it.

= 2.3.0 =
* New: a dashboard notice now flags any article published without a featured image, so a busy image service never goes unnoticed.
* Reliability: catalog sync now retries transient failures and reschedules itself instead of waiting a day.
* Translation ready: the plugin now loads a text domain and is prepared for localization.
* Update integrity: the updater verifies a package checksum before installing.

= 2.2.13 =
* Security hardening: JSON-LD output is now fully escaped, plus a coding-standards sweep of output escaping and input unslashing.

= 2.2.12 =
* Security, abuse, and reliability hardening across the API and plugin.

== Upgrade Notice ==

= 2.3.15 =
Security hardening for the auto-updater, image downloads, and the site-connect handshake. Recommended for all sites.

= 2.3.0 =
Reliability and translation-readiness improvements, plus a notice for articles missing a featured image.
