Architecture

Included in Free

KnowX is a classic PHP theme with block features. It is based on WP Rig: small namespaced classes (“components”), each owning one concern, plus plain knowx_* functions that templates call. It has no custom post type, no custom table, no jQuery and makes no external request.

Read this page first, then Folder structure for where things live, and Content model for how documentation maps onto WordPress.

How the theme starts

1. WordPress loads functions.php.
2. functions.php loads inc/helpers.php (the knowx_mod() family), registers an autoloader for the KnowX\KnowX namespace (Composer’s if vendor/autoload.php exists, a small built-in one otherwise) and calls knowx().
3. knowx() in inc/functions.php builds one Theme object the first time it is called. Theme creates the list of components in get_default_components() and calls initialize() on each. A component adds its own hooks there; nothing else happens at load time.
4. functions.php then loads the procedural helpers: inc/extra.php, inc/knowledge-base.php, inc/docs.php and inc/breadcrumbs.php.

// A component, reduced to its shape.
namespace KnowX\KnowX\Excerpts;

class Component implements Component_Interface {
  public function get_slug(): string {
    return 'excerpts';
  }

  public function initialize() {
    add_filter( 'excerpt_more', array( $this, 'filter_excerpt_more' ) );
  }
}

Components

Every folder in inc/ that holds a Component.php is one component. They are initialised in this order:

Component	What it owns
Base_Support	Core theme support, body classes, the embed width
Editor	Editor styles and the block editor setup
Accessibility	The navigation script (menu toggle and keyboard handling) and accessibility improvements to core features; the skip link itself is in header.php
Image_Sizes	The sizes attribute so browsers pick the right image width
Comments	The comments template tag and its styles
Nav_Menus	The Primary and Footer menu locations, the menu fallback and dropdown buttons
Sidebars	The two sidebar areas and the sidebar template tags
Custom_Background, Custom_Header, Custom_Logo	The matching add_theme_support() calls and their filters
Post_Thumbnails	Featured image support and sizes
Customizer	WordPress Customizer integration for site identity and live preview
Styles	Stylesheet registration, enqueueing and preloading
Scripts	Script registration and the data passed to them
Excerpts	The excerpt suffix
Customizer_Settings	All the theme’s Customizer panels, sections and fields
Tokens	The colour variables the Customizer can change, written as one <style> tag
Color_Mode	Light, dark and automatic mode, applied before first paint, plus the visitor toggle
Docs	Product and article meta, the category screen fields, cache invalidation, structured data, the editor Order field
Starter_Content	The one-time setup notice, the sample docs (sample-content.php) and the empty docs home; nothing runs on activation

Customizer_Framework is the in-house Customizer API (Panel::add(), Section::add(), Field::add()), which Customizer_Settings uses. The theme has no Kirki dependency.

Template tags

A few components expose methods to templates through knowx():

Call	From	Purpose
knowx()->display_primary_nav_menu( $args )	Nav_Menus	Prints the Primary menu; accepts wp_nav_menu() arguments such as menu_id
knowx()->display_left_sidebar(), display_right_sidebar()	Sidebars	Print a sidebar
knowx()->is_left_sidebar_active(), is_right_sidebar_active()	Sidebars	Whether a sidebar has widgets
knowx()->the_comments()	Comments	Prints the comments list and form
knowx()->color_mode_toggle()	Color_Mode	Prints the light and dark toggle button
knowx()->print_styles( ...$handles )	Styles	Prints registered stylesheets in the page body, where they are needed

Settings

knowx_mod( $id ) returns the saved value or the field’s default. Switches are 0 or 1; use knowx_is_truthy() to test them. See the Settings reference.

Colours

The Customizer colour settings (theme, link, text, heading, page and content background, header and footer colours) and the five palettes write a few CSS variables in one <style id="knowx-tokens"> tag. Every other colour is derived in CSS with color-mix() from the variables in assets/css/src/_custom-properties.css. theme.json points its palette at the same variables, so the editor and the front end match. See Styling, tokens and assets.

Caching

knowx_kb_cached( $key, $callback ) stores a result in one transient per key; the value carries the docs version it was built for. The version changes (knowx_kb_invalidate()) when a published article, a category or a knowx_ category field changes, at most twice per request, so no manual clearing is needed and no old rows pile up. The version option is not autoloaded.

Rules the code follows

• Bounded lists. Every product list, section tree and archive has a limit or is paginated, and is cached. Checked at 1,000 or more articles and 500 or more categories.
• Three entry points. Anything stored is reachable from the front end, an admin screen and the REST API. See Content model.
• No hex colours in stylesheets. Use the variables.
• Escape late, translate everything. Text domain knowx.
• Gates before a commit. composer: PHPStan, PHPCS (phpcs.xml.dist), PHPUnit. npm: lint and build. See Building and testing.