The HttpClient class (/inc/Core/HttpClient.php) provides a consistent, centralized surface for all HTTP requests executed by fetch, publish, and auth handlers. It wraps WordPress HTTP functions (wp_remote_get, wp_remote_request) while adding:

• Unified success code validation per HTTP method
• Optional browser-mode headers for scraping scenarios (User-Agent, Accept, Accept-Language)
• Body and header normalization plus timeout defaults
• Structured error logging via datamachine_log for WP_Error and HTTP failures
• JSON error extraction to surface meaningful diagnostics without leaking sensitive data

Consumers call HttpClient::get, post, put, patch, or delete with a URL and options array; the client returns ['success' => bool, 'data' => string|null, 'status_code' => int|null, 'headers' => array, 'response' => array, 'error' => string|null] so handlers never handle raw WP responses directly.