RelayCard — Inline Related Post Cards

RelayCard automatically injects image-dominant related post cards inside your content — heading-aware, config-driven, and designed to look like premium editorial ad units.

RelayCard places cards inside your content at heading boundaries — after enough context has been built, before the next section begins. Cards only fire when a post has a featured image, keeping quality consistent.

Features:

• Image-dominant by design — the image stops the scroll, the title closes the click
• Heading-aware injection — counts H2/H3/H4s and scales card placement automatically. Short posts get 1 card, long posts get 2. Nothing gets forced.
• 5 card styles — Split, Overlay, Cinematic, Minimal, Story
• 3 font categories — Sans-serif, Monospace, Script
• 3 image ratio presets — 50/50, 60/40, 70/30
• AI hook title generation — optional BYOK (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude). Rewrites post titles into punchy hook titles automatically.
• Card title custom field — override the title per post with your own hook
• SEO plugin aware — detects RankMath, Yoast, AIOSEO titles automatically
• Live admin preview — see your card render in real time before saving
• Zero setup friction — CSS auto-enqueues on activation, no shortcodes needed
• Featured images required — cards only fire when a post has a featured image, keeping quality high

Card Title Priority Stack:
1. card_title custom field (manual override)
2. SEO plugin title (RankMath → Yoast → AIOSEO)
3. AI generated hook title (optional, BYOK)
4. Post title (always available fallback)

Card Styles:
* Split — image left, text right. Classic editorial card.
* Overlay — full bleed image with gradient overlay and title on top. High visual impact.
* Cinematic — wide image, centered title overlay. Maximum eye candy.
* Minimal — no image, styled text card with accent border. Clean and fast.
* Story — image top, text below. Mobile-first vertical layout.

AI Hook Title Generation (optional):
Bring your own API key from any of these providers:
* Gemini (Google AI Studio — free tier available)
* ChatGPT (OpenAI)
* Claude (Anthropic)

No key required. Cards work without AI. AI just makes the titles punchier.

External Services

This plugin optionally connects to third-party AI providers to generate suggested card titles. This feature is only activated when you enter an API key in the plugin settings and manually trigger title generation. No data is sent automatically.

Anthropic (Claude)

Used for AI title generation when an Anthropic API key is provided.
Data sent: post title, post excerpt.
* Service: https://www.anthropic.com
* Terms of Service: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms
* Privacy Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy

OpenAI (ChatGPT)

Used for AI title generation when an OpenAI API key is provided.
Data sent: post title, post excerpt.
* Service: https://openai.com
* Terms of Service: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use
* Privacy Policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy

Google Gemini

Used for AI title generation when a Google Gemini API key is provided.
Data sent: post title, post excerpt.
* Service: https://ai.google.dev
* Terms of Service: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms
* Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

1. Upload the relaycard folder to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress
3. Go to Settings → RelayCard to configure your card style, colors, and optional AI title generation
4. Cards will automatically appear in single posts with 4 or more headings and featured images

Does RelayCard work without AI?

Yes. AI hook title generation is completely optional. Cards fire on all qualifying posts using the post title (or SEO title if a plugin is detected) as the card title.

What counts as a qualifying post?

A post must have at least 4 headings (H2, H3, or H4) and a featured image for cards to fire. Posts with fewer headings or no featured image are skipped.

How many cards appear per post?

Posts with 4-5 headings get 1 card. Posts with 6 or more headings get 2 cards. The plugin scales automatically — nothing is hardcoded.

Where exactly do the cards inject?

Cards inject before trigger headings — not after them. This means the card acts as a visual break between sections, not a disruption right after a heading. Mid-content, between sections, exactly where a reader pauses.

Can I set a custom title per card?

Yes. Add a custom field named card_title to any post. That value takes priority over everything else including AI generation.

Which SEO plugins does RelayCard detect?

RankMath, Yoast SEO, and All in One SEO (AIOSEO) — checked in that order.

Will RelayCard slow down my site?

No. The related posts query uses no_found_rows and ignore_sticky_posts for performance. CSS is only enqueued on single post pages. AI title generation uses a short 8-second timeout and fails gracefully with no impact on page load.

Does RelayCard add nofollow to links?

Cards link to your own posts — these are internal links and do not need nofollow. The attribution link to engineeredai.net is a standard dofollow link.

Can I remove the attribution?

The attribution (// built with RelayCard — engineeredai.net) is present on the free version and cannot be removed. It is minimal, monospace, and low-opacity — most readers won’t notice it. A premium version with attribution removal may be available in the future.

1.0.0

• Initial release
• 5 card styles: Split, Overlay, Cinematic, Minimal, Story
• Heading-aware automatic injection (H2/H3/H4)
• Dynamic card count: 1 card for 4-5 headings, 2 cards for 6+
• Card title priority stack: custom field → SEO plugin → AI → post title
• AI hook title generation: Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude (BYOK)
• 3 font categories: Sans-serif, Monospace, Script
• 3 image ratio presets: 50/50, 60/40, 70/30
• Accent color picker
• Live admin preview panel
• CSS auto-enqueued on single posts only
• SEO plugin detection: RankMath, Yoast, AIOSEO
• Attribution: // built with RelayCard — engineeredai.net

1.0.1

• Updated enqueue styles