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WordPress development

For a workflow overview before the command-level reference, see the WordPress plugin development and testing environment.

When a project is finished, use any backup, export, migration or publishing workflow you prefer. The optional SpawnWP Deploy WordPress plugin is one way to copy a site once to a separate, fresh WordPress installation; it is not required by SpawnWP and is not a continuous staging synchronization tool.

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:

WP-CLI without SSH

For wp commands specifically you don't need a host shell: every site card in the cockpit has a WP-CLI console that runs them inside the container and streams the output in the browser.

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

For a repeatable compatibility matrix, follow How to test a WordPress plugin across multiple PHP versions.

  • 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). It is off by default, so it costs you nothing until you ask for it.

PHP extensions

Every site gets the same set on every PHP version (7.4, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4), so switching version never changes what your code can call.

Area Extensions
Database mysqli, pdo_mysql, pdo_sqlite, sqlite3, mysqlnd
Images gd (JPEG + WebP), imagick, exif
Web & data curl, openssl, sodium, json, dom, simplexml, xml, xmlreader, xmlwriter, libxml, soap
Text & i18n mbstring, iconv, intl, ctype, pcre
Files & archives zip, zlib, fileinfo, phar
Maths bcmath, gmp
Networking ftp (with FTPS), sockets
Process & time pcntl, posix, calendar
Caching & perf opcache, redis
Debugging xdebug (installed, disabled by default — see above)

To see the exact list for a running site, open its ⌨ WP-CLI console in the cockpit and run:

eval "print_r(get_loaded_extensions());"

FTP is outbound only

ftp gives your site's PHP code the client functions — ftp_connect() and ftp_ssl_connect() — so plugins can reach out to a remote FTP/FTPS server (backup plugins pushing archives off-site, migration plugins pulling files in). FTPS is enabled on every PHP version.

It does not make your site reachable over FTP. There is no FTP or SFTP daemon in the stack, and every container port binds to loopback. To work on a site's files, use the cockpit's 📂 Files browser or the ⌨ WP-CLI console.

Not available

imap — removed from PHP core in 8.4, so it is not installable across the versions we build.

See the CLI reference for all make targets.

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