REST API Troubleshooting Guide

If the PersonalizeWP REST API is not behaving as expected, check these areas in order.

1. Check the auth header

The current public API expects:

X-PWP-Auth-Token

If you are using an external origin, the token must match the exact origin you configured in Settings > Security > Authentication.

2. Check the origin

The allowed origin must match exactly, including:

• https vs http
• www vs non-www
• subdomains
• port numbers in development

3. Check the request shape

Common request-shape mistakes:

• Sending filters as an array instead of an object on visitor-activities
• Reading the response body directly instead of reading result.data
• Omitting the visitor uid

Correct visitor-activities filter shape:

{
  uid: "VISITOR_UID",
  filters: {
    activity_type: "post",
    object_type: "product"
  }
}

4. Check whether the visitor exists yet

Many API calls depend on a known visitor UID. On the standard front end, PersonalizeWP stores this in local storage as pwp_tracked_user.

If you are building outside the standard runtime, make sure you are persisting and reusing a stable visitor ID.

5. Check that the underlying data exists

Examples:

• visitor-segments returns nothing if the visitor is not in any active segments
• visitor-activities returns nothing if no matching activity has been recorded
• visitor-data returns empty values for custom fields that are no longer registered

6. Check caching and optimization

If personalized behavior works inconsistently, confirm that PersonalizeWP runtime scripts are excluded from aggressive JS optimization.

See Caching Exclusions.

7. Check the current endpoints

The current public endpoints are:

• /personalizewp/v1/activity
• /personalizewp/v1/visitor-data
• /personalizewp/v1/visitor-segments
• /personalizewp/v1/visitor-activities
• /personalizewp/v2/blocks
• /personalizewp/v1/variation-blocks
• /personalizewp/v2/blocks-pwd

If you are using older examples, make sure they still match the routes and headers used by the current plugin code.