About this plugin
The first WordPress relationship plugin that thinks for you.
Native Content Relationships connects your posts, users, and terms with a visual drag-and-drop interface. But here’s what makes it different from every other relationship plugin:
AI-powered suggestions analyze your content and recommend the best connections automatically.
No other relationship plugin does this. ACF makes you pick items manually. JetEngine makes you configure field groups.
MB Relationships makes you write code. Native Content Relationships reads your content and suggests what should be connected.
Features No Other Plugin Has
1. AI-Powered Suggestions
0 AI Client. It finds the most relevant posts based on meaning, not just keywords.
2. AI Auto-Link on Publish
When you publish a post, the plugin automatically creates relationships with the most relevant existing content. No manual work needed.
3. Visual Relationship Graph
See how your content is connected. An interactive force-directed graph shows all relationships with color-coded nodes. Drag nodes, zoom, filter by post type.
4. Analytics Dashboard
Know your content health at a glance. See total relationships, connected posts, orphaned content, most referenced posts, and activity over time.
5. Carousel Template
Display related content in a beautiful carousel with [naticore_related_carousel]. Includes prev/next buttons and optional autoplay.
How It Works
Step 1: Install and activate. Database tables create automatically. No configuration needed.
Step 2: Open any post. Find the “Relationships” box below the editor.
” The plugin analyzes your content and shows the most relevant posts, complete with thumbnails.
Step 4: Click to connect. One click adds the relationship. Drag to reorder.
Step 5: Display on frontend. Use the Gutenberg block, Elementor dynamic tags, shortcodes, or widget.
AI-Powered Suggestions (WordPress 7.0+)
0 AI Client. The AI analyzes semantic similarity and returns the most relevant posts from your site.
What the AI considers:
* Post title and content meaning (not just keywords)
* Topic and category overlap
* Content freshness and relevance
* Existing relationships (won’t suggest what’s already connected)
Requirements:
0 or later
* An AI provider configured in Settings > Connectors (OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google)
No AI provider? The plugin falls back to category and tag matching. It still works great — AI just makes it smarter.
AI Auto-Link on Publish
Enable this feature and the plugin works for you automatically. When you publish a post:
- AI analyzes the content
- Finds the top 5 most related existing posts
- Creates relationships automatically
- Shows a notice: “5 relationships created. View or edit.”
No other relationship plugin does this.
Visual Relationship Graph
Go to Relationships > Graph to see a visual map of how your content is connected.
- Force-directed layout — Nodes arrange themselves based on connections
- Color-coded by type — Posts (blue), Users (green), Terms (yellow), Pages (red)
- Draggable nodes — Rearrange the graph manually
- Zoom and pan — Scroll to zoom, drag to pan
- Filter by type — Show only posts, pages, or users
- Click to edit — Click any node to open it in the editor
Analytics Dashboard
Go to Relationships > Analytics to see:
- Summary cards — Total relationships, connected posts, orphaned posts, avg per post
- Relationships by type — Visual breakdown with percentage bars
- Most referenced posts — Which content gets linked to most
- Most connected posts — Which content links out most
- Activity over time — Relationship creation trend (last 30 days)
Bulk Relationship Manager
Go to Relationships > Bulk Manager to:
- View all relationships in a table
- Select multiple relationships with checkboxes
- Bulk delete relationships
- Bulk change relationship type
- Paginated for large datasets
Visual Relationship Builder
- Search with thumbnails — Type in the search box and see post thumbnails as you type
- Drag-and-drop sorting — Reorder relationships by dragging
- One-way or bidirectional — Choose which direction the relationship flows
- User profile relationships — Connect users to their favorite posts, bookmarks, or contributions
- Term relationships — Link categories, tags, or custom taxonomies to content
Page Builder Integration
Gutenberg:
* “Related Content” block with live preview in the editor
* Shows actual related content, not a placeholder
* Configurable: number of posts, layout, thumbnails, excerpts
Elementor:
* Dynamic tags for Related Posts, Related Users, Related Terms
* Works with any Elementor widget
* No configuration needed — auto-detected
Shortcodes:
[naticore_related_posts type=”related_to” limit=”5″]
[naticore_related_users type=”authored_by” limit=”10″]
[naticore_related_terms type=”categorized_as” limit=”5″]
[naticore_related_carousel type=”related_to” limit=”10″ autoplay=”1″]
Widget:
“Related Content (NCR)” — add to any sidebar or widget area.
WooCommerce
Link products to accessories, guides, or related items. Syncs with WooCommerce upsells and cross-sells if enabled.
Why Choose This Over ACF or JetEngine?
Feature
Native Content Relationships
ACF Pro
JetEngine
MB Relationships
AI-powered suggestions
Yes
No
No
No
AI auto-link on publish
Yes
No
No
No
Visual relationship graph
Yes
No
No
No
Analytics dashboard
Yes
No
No
No
Bulk relationship manager
Yes
Yes
No
No
Carousel template
Yes
No
No
No
Visual drag-and-drop
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Post-to-user relationships
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Post-to-term relationships
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Custom database table
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No plugin dependency
Yes
No
No
Yes
Gutenberg live preview
Yes
No
No
No
Free version
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Performance
- Custom database table with composite indexes — not slow post meta queries
- Sub-2ms P95 latency even with 1,000,000+ relationships
- Object cache compatible
- Lightweight — no bloat, no unnecessary features
View Performance Report
Key Features
0+)
• AI auto-link on publish
• Visual relationship graph with force-directed layout
• Analytics dashboard with statistics
• Bulk relationship manager
• Carousel template with autoplay
• Visual search with thumbnails in the post editor
• Drag-and-drop relationship sorting
• One-way or bidirectional relationships
• Gutenberg block with live preview
• Elementor dynamic tags for posts, users, and terms
• Shortcodes and widgets
• Many-to-many relationships between posts, users, and terms
• Custom database table with composite indexes
• WooCommerce product relationships
• REST API for headless setups
• Multilingual-ready (WPML / Polylang)
• Works with any theme — no template overrides
Supported Relationship Types
• Post ↔ Post
• Post ↔ User
• Post ↔ Term
• User ↔ Post
• Term ↔ Post
Common Use Cases
Posts
• Products → Accessories
• Courses → Lessons
• Articles → Related content
Users
• Favorite posts
• Bookmarked content
• Multiple authors or contributors
Terms
• Featured categories
• Curated collections
• Semantic grouping beyond default taxonomies
Developer Guide
Core API
Add a relationship:
wp_add_relation( $from_id, $to_id, $type );
Get related items:
wp_get_related( $id, $type );
Check relationship:
wp_is_related( $from_id, $to_id, $type );
Remove relationship:
wp_remove_relation( $from_id, $to_id, $type );
WP_Query Integration
`
new WP_Query( array(
‘post_type’ => ‘post’,
‘content_relation’ => array(
‘post_id’ => 123,
‘type’ => ‘related_to’,
),
) );
`
REST API
Endpoints under /wp-json/naticore/v1/
Hooks & Filters
Actions:
* naticore_relation_added
* naticore_relation_removed
WP-CLI
- List relationships
- Add / remove relationships
- Integrity checks
Stability & Backward Compatibility
x onward. Backward compatibility guaranteed.
- Database schema stable — no breaking changes in 1.x
- Public PHP APIs stable — functions, hooks, and endpoints won’t break
- Versioning policy — 1.x = stable core
ACF Migration
If you store relationships in Advanced Custom Fields or Post Meta, you can migrate to Native Content Relationships for better performance.
Migration guide