wc_get_product_attributes: list product attributes

Lists the shop's global attributes — the ones defined once under Products → Attributes and reusable across products.

Arguments

None.

Permissions

mcp:read and woocommerce:catalog:read, plus manage_woocommerce or edit_products.

What it returns

items, each with:

Both name and label are returned because they differ, and they are used in different places: label is what people recognise, name is what the data uses.

Global attributes only

WooCommerce has two kinds:

• Global — defined shop-wide, with their own term lists. These appear here.
• Custom — typed directly into a single product, with values that exist only on that product. These do not appear here.

So an empty list does not mean the shop has no variable products. It means none of them use global attributes. To see what a specific product actually declares, read the product itself with wc_get_product, whose full response includes its attributes.

Confusing the two is the usual cause of variations that never become selectable.

It is step one of any variation work

The IDs here unlock the term lists, and the terms are what variations are built from. The order is fixed:

1. This tool — which attributes exist.
2. wc_get_attribute_terms — which values each one offers.
3. wc_set_product_attributes — attach them to the product.
4. wc_create_variation — one per combination.

Skipping to step four is how you get variations nobody can buy.

No term counts, no products

The listing says which attributes exist, not how much they are used. It does not tell you how many terms an attribute has, or which products use it.

For the terms, call the next tool. For usage, there is no MCP tool — check the admin.

Using it well

List the shop's global attributes with their IDs and labels.

Before creating one:

List the attributes and tell me whether anything like "Material" already exists.

That check matters: duplicate attributes with near-identical labels are messy to unpick later, and wc_create_product_attribute will happily create the second one.

Common problems

Related

• wc_get_attribute_terms — next step
• wc_create_product_attribute
• wc_get_store_stats — includes an attribute count