Skip to content

WordPress development

Every spawned site is a ready-to-use environment for building WordPress plugins and themes — especially ones headed for the WordPress.org directory.

Where your code lives

Plugin and theme source is a host bind mount, so you edit it with your own tools and it shows up in the container instantly:

/srv/<site>/projects/primary/wp-content/plugins/<your-plugin>/
/srv/<site>/projects/primary/wp-content/themes/<your-theme>/

Clone your repos straight into those folders. WP_DEBUG and the debug log are enabled, so notices and errors surface while you work.

In-WordPress QA (the .org checks, in the browser)

The default Development blueprint preinstalls the official review tools, surfaced from the 🛠 Dev toolkit dashboard widget:

  • Plugin Check — runs the same automated checks as the WordPress.org plugin review (WordPress Coding Standards via PHPCS, security, internationalization, forbidden functions…). Go to Tools → Plugin Check, pick your plugin, run.
  • Theme Check — the equivalent for themes (Appearance → Theme Check).
  • Query Monitor — runtime debugging: database queries, hooks, HTTP API calls, PHP errors, template loading. Visible to logged-in admins.
  • User Switching and WP Crontrol — switch roles to test capabilities; inspect and run WP-Cron events.

CLI QA toolchain (headless / CI)

The PHP container ships command-line tools for scripting and CI. Run them from the site directory:

cd /srv/<site>
docker compose exec -u www-data php phpcs path/to/plugin
docker compose exec -u www-data php phpcbf path/to/plugin   # auto-fix
phpcs defaults to the WordPress standard. The same checks are also available in-browser via Plugin Check.

docker compose exec -u www-data php \
  phpcs --standard=PHPCompatibilityWP --runtime-set testVersion 8.0- path/to/plugin

docker compose exec -u www-data php \
  phpstan analyse -c /usr/local/etc/phpstan-wp.neon --memory-limit=512M path/to/plugin

Email testing

WordPress is wired to Mailpit: every email the site sends (password resets, order notifications, your plugin's mails) is captured instead of delivered. Open it from the cockpit's ✉️ Mailpit ▸ button to inspect content, headers and HTML rendering.

PHP versions & Xdebug

  • Switch a site's PHP version from the cockpit (PHP ▾) or the CLI (make php-switch VER=8.4). Cached versions switch instantly.
  • PHP 7.4 is an explicitly legacy, end-of-life option for compatibility work only. Keep PHP 8.3 or newer for new projects and public production sites.
  • Toggle Xdebug with make xdebug-on / make xdebug-off (listens on port 9003; point your IDE at it over an SSH tunnel).

See the CLI reference for all make targets.