Block Finder

Description

Ever needed to track down where a specific block is being used? Block Finder adds a dashboard widget that searches your entire site for any core or custom block. Pick a block, click Search, and instantly see every place it appears — along with a count of how many times it’s used, whether it’s nested inside another block, and a direct link to edit that content.

No more manually opening posts one by one hoping to find the right block. Block Finder does the searching so you don’t have to.

Who is this for?

Content editors and site managers — need to update every post that uses a specific call-to-action block? Wondering which pages are still using a block you’re about to change? Block Finder gives you the answer in seconds, with one-click access to edit each result.

Developers and theme builders — auditing block usage across templates and template parts in the Site Editor, checking registered patterns, or running automated checks from the command line. Block Finder has you covered.

Features

Search your way:

• Type-ahead block picker powered by WordPress’s native Combobox — no hunting through a long list
• Search Posts, Patterns, Templates, and Template parts all from one form
• Filter by post type to narrow results, or search across everything at once
• Filter by post status — include drafts, pending, scheduled, and private content alongside published

Understand what you find:

• See the total number of times a block appears in each piece of content
• InnerBlock detection shows how many of those instances are nested inside another block
• Source badges make it clear at a glance whether a result came from a post, a pattern, a template, or a template part
• Status badges surface non-published content so nothing gets missed

Act on results quickly:

• Direct edit links open any result straight in the block editor or Site Editor
• Paginated results keep large result sets easy to browse
• Filter between all instances and nested-only with a single click

For Developers and Theme Builders

WP-CLI — run wp block-finder search <block> from the command line. Supports --post-type, --post-status, --sources, and --format=table|json|csv|count|ids. Use --format=count in CI pipelines or --format=csv for export and audit reports.

Template and template part search — find blocks inside Site Editor templates on any block theme. Both file-based and database-stored templates are included.

Pattern search — covers user-saved synced patterns and every pattern registered by your theme or plugins via WP_Block_Patterns_Registry, not just the ones saved to the database.

Developer hooks — extend or modify search behaviour without touching plugin code:

• block_finder_sources — add or remove sources before the search runs
• block_finder_results — modify the assembled result set before it is returned

REST API — GET /wp-json/block-finder/v1/search is available for custom integrations. Requires edit_posts capability.