Blog
Actionable tips and updates to help you ship plugins, themes, and client sites faster
5 min readInstall WP-CLI: which method you pick decides what breaks later
The Phar download, Composer, apt and Homebrew all give you a working wp command. Only one of them can self-update, only one PHP extension makes plugin installs work, and the root check silently disappears on some hosts.
5 min readThe WP-CLI commands that matter once a script is running them
Every WP-CLI guide is a catalogue of commands for a human at a prompt. The ones that matter in a script are different: is-installed, has-command, --format=count, --skip-plugins, and the exit codes nobody documents.
6 min readInstall WordPress with WP-CLI, and the four things wp core install leaves for you
Four commands install WordPress from the shell. The command also indexes your site, prints the admin password to stdout, and can report a version it did not download.
7 min readWP-CLI search-replace: what it skips, and how to prove it got everything
wp search-replace handles serialized data, but it also skips tables, objects and mixed-case matches, and some of those skips print no warning. Here is what the source actually does, and a two-command check that the old string is really gone.
9 min readHow to configure WordPress multisite (and which choices you cannot undo)
Configuring multisite is four steps and one decision. The decision is subdomains or subdirectories, WordPress may have already taken it away from you, and the reason it does is a single SQL query most guides never mention.
8 min readHow to roll back a WordPress plugin, and what the rollback leaves behind
Rolling back a plugin puts the old files back. It does not put the old database back, and the guides that show you the Rollback button do not mention that. Here is what survives the downgrade, and how to test one before you run it on a live site.
6 min readWhat a WordPress staging site cannot do: push its database back
Every guide covers making the staging copy. The hard part is the return trip, because two WordPress databases cannot be merged. Here is why, and the rule that keeps you out of trouble.
7 min readHow to duplicate a WordPress site you intend to keep
Duplicating a finished site to start the next one is the fastest way to begin a project and the easiest way to inherit someone else's credentials. Here is what comes across, and what to strip before the new site goes anywhere.
7 min readWhat local WordPress development cannot show you
Local development is the right default for writing code. Six classes of bug are invisible on localhost by construction, and they all surface on the first deploy.