Stop the_posts_pagination() from passing on any url parameters?

To address your concern about controlling the URL parameters in pagination links in WordPress, it’s true that both the_posts_pagination() and paginate_links() functions can inherit existing query parameters from the current URL. This behavior is designed to maintain the context of the current query, including any filters or search terms, across paginated pages.

However, if you want to exclude certain query parameters or limit the parameters to only those that you specify, you can achieve this by filtering the generated links. WordPress provides a way to modify the pagination links through filters.

Here’s a basic approach to filter out unwanted query parameters:

Use the paginate_links filter to modify the pagination links.
Parse the URL and remove or manipulate the query parameters as needed.
Here’s an example of how you might implement this:

function wpb_filter_pagination_links($link) {
    // Parse the URL
    $url_parts = parse_url($link);

    // Parse the query string
    if (isset($url_parts['query'])) {
        parse_str($url_parts['query'], $query_args);

        // Remove unwanted query args
        unset($query_args['xyz']); // Replace 'xyz' with the parameter you want to exclude

        // Rebuild the query string without the unwanted parameter
        $url_parts['query'] = http_build_query($query_args);

        // Rebuild the URL
        $link = http_build_url($url_parts);
    }

    return $link;
}
add_filter('paginate_links', 'wpb_filter_pagination_links');

This code will remove the query parameter xyz from your pagination links. You can modify the unset() line to remove other parameters as needed.

Note that this approach requires careful consideration of how it might affect the functionality of your site. For example, removing query parameters related to filtering or searching could impact the user’s navigation experience.

As always, test your changes in a development environment before applying them to your live site to ensure that they work as expected and do not introduce any issues.