wp-env
lets you easily set up a local WordPress environment for building and testing plugins and themes. It's simple to install and requires no configuration.
Ensure that Docker is running, then:
$ cd /path/to/a/wordpress/plugin
$ npm -g i @wordpress/env
$ wp-env start
The local environment will be available at http://localhost:8888 (Username: admin
, Password: password
).
wp-env
requires Docker to be installed. There are instructions available for installing Docker on Windows 10 Pro, all other versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Node.js and NPM are required. The latest LTS version of Node.js is used to develop wp-env
and is recommended.
After confirming that the prerequisites are installed, you can install wp-env
globally like so:
$ npm -g i @wordpress/env
You're now ready to use wp-env
!
If your project already has a package.json, it's also possible to use wp-env
as a local package. First install wp-env
locally as a dev dependency:
$ npm i @wordpress/env --save-dev
Then modify your package.json and add an extra command to npm scripts
(https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/scripts):
"scripts": {
"wp-env": "wp-env"
}
When installing wp-env
in this way, all wp-env
commands detailed in these docs must be prefixed with npm run
, for example:
# You must add another dash to pass the "update" flag to wp-env
$ npm run wp-env start -- --update
instead of:
$ wp-env start --update
First, ensure that Docker is running. You can do this by clicking on the Docker icon in the system tray or menu bar.
Then, change to a directory that contains a WordPress plugin or theme:
$ cd ~/gutenberg
Then, start the local environment:
$ wp-env start
Finally, navigate to http://localhost:8888 in your web browser to see WordPress running with the local WordPress plugin or theme running and activated. Default login credentials are username: admin
password: password
.
To stop the local environment:
$ wp-env stop
Many common problems can be fixed by running through the following troubleshooting steps in order:
First, check that wp-env
is running. One way to do this is to have Docker print a table with the currently running containers:
$ docker ps
In this table, by default, you should see three entries: wordpress
with port 8888, tests-wordpress
with port 8889 and mariadb
with port 3306.
By default wp-env
uses port 8888, meaning that the local environment will be available at http://localhost:8888.
You can configure the port that wp-env
uses so that it doesn't clash with another server by specifying the WP_ENV_PORT
environment variable when starting wp-env
:
$ WP_ENV_PORT=3333 wp-env start
Running docker ps
and inspecting the PORTS
column allows you to determine which port wp-env
is currently using.
You may also specify the port numbers in your .wp-env.json
file, but the environment variables take precedent.
Restarting wp-env
will restart the underlying Docker containers which can fix many issues.
To restart wp-env
:
$ wp-env stop
$ wp-env start
Restarting Docker will restart the underlying Docker containers and volumes which can fix many issues.
To restart Docker:
- Click on the Docker icon in the system tray or menu bar.
- Select Restart.
Once restarted, start wp-env
again:
$ wp-env start
Resetting the database which the local environment uses can fix many issues, especially when they are related to the WordPress installation.
To reset the database:
$ wp-env clean all
$ wp-env start
When all else fails, you can use wp-env destroy
to forcibly remove all of the underlying Docker containers and volumes. This will allow you to start from scratch.
To nuke everything:
$ wp-env destroy
$ wp-env start
wp-env
uses docker behind the scenes. Inspecting the generated docker-compose file can help to understand what's going on.
Start wp-env
in debug mode
wp-env start --debug
wp-env
will output its config which includes dockerComposeConfigPath
.
ℹ Config:
...
"dockerComposeConfigPath": "/Users/$USERNAME/.wp-env/5a619d332a92377cd89feb339c67b833/docker-compose.yml",
...
wp-env
creates generated files in the wp-env
home directory. By default, this is ~/.wp-env
. The exception is Linux, where files are placed at ~/wp-env
for compatibility with Snap Packages. The wp-env
home directory contains a subdirectory for each project named /$md5_of_project_path
. To change the wp-env
home directory, set the WP_ENV_HOME
environment variable. For example, running WP_ENV_HOME="something" wp-env start
will download the project files to the directory ./something/$md5_of_project_path
(relative to the current directory).
The start command installs and initalizes the WordPress environment, which includes downloading any specified remote sources. By default, wp-env
will not update or re-configure the environment except when the configuration file changes. Tell wp-env
to update sources and apply the configuration options again with wp-env start --update
. This will not overrwrite any existing content.
wp-env start
Starts WordPress for development on port 8888 (override with WP_ENV_PORT) and
tests on port 8889 (override with WP_ENV_TESTS_PORT). The current working
directory must be a WordPress installation, a plugin, a theme, or contain a
.wp-env.json file. After first insall, use the '--update' flag to download updates
to mapped sources and to re-apply WordPress configuration options.
Options:
--update Download source updates and apply WordPress configuration.
[boolean] [default: false]
wp-env stop
Stops running WordPress for development and tests and frees the ports.
wp-env clean [environment]
Cleans the WordPress databases.
Positionals:
environment Which environments' databases to clean.
[string] [choices: "all", "development", "tests"] [default: "tests"]
wp-env run <container> [command..]
Runs an arbitrary command in one of the underlying Docker containers. For
example, it can be useful for running wp cli commands. You can also use it to
open shell sessions like bash and the WordPress shell in the WordPress instance.
For example, `wp-env run cli bash` will open bash in the development WordPress
instance.
Positionals:
container The container to run the command on. [string] [required]
command The command to run. [array] [default: []]
Options:
--help Show help [boolean]
--version Show version number [boolean]
--debug Enable debug output. [boolean] [default: false]
For example:
wp-env run cli wp user list
⠏ Running `wp user list` in 'cli'.
ID user_login display_name user_email user_registered roles
1 admin admin [email protected] 2020-03-05 10:45:14 administrator
✔ Ran `wp user list` in 'cli'. (in 2s 374ms)
wp-env run tests-cli wp shell
ℹ Starting 'wp shell' on the tests-cli container. Exit the WordPress shell with ctrl-c.
Starting 31911d623e75f345e9ed328b9f48cff6_mysql_1 ... done
Starting 31911d623e75f345e9ed328b9f48cff6_tests-wordpress_1 ... done
wp> echo( 'hello world!' );
hello world!
wp> ^C
✔ Ran `wp shell` in 'tests-cli'. (in 16s 400ms)
wp-env destroy
Destroy the WordPress environment. Deletes docker containers, volumes, and
networks associated with the WordPress environment and removes local files.
wp-env logs
displays PHP and Docker logs for given WordPress environment.
Positionals:
environment Which environment to display the logs from.
[string] [choices: "development", "tests", "all"] [default: "development"]
Options:
--help Show help [boolean]
--version Show version number [boolean]
--debug Enable debug output. [boolean] [default: false]
--watch Watch for logs as they happen. [boolean] [default: true]
You can customize the WordPress installation, plugins and themes that the development environment will use by specifying a .wp-env.json
file in the directory that you run wp-env
from.
.wp-env.json
supports six fields for options applicable to both the tests and development instances.
Field | Type | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|
"core" |
string|null |
null |
The WordPress installation to use. If null is specified, wp-env will use the latest production release of WordPress. |
"plugins" |
string[] |
[] |
A list of plugins to install and activate in the environment. |
"themes" |
string[] |
[] |
A list of themes to install in the environment. The first theme in the list will be activated. |
"port" |
integer |
8888 (8889 for the tests instance) |
The primary port number to use for the installation. You'll access the instance through the port: 'http://localhost:8888'. |
"config" |
Object |
See below. | Mapping of wp-config.php constants to their desired values. |
"mappings" |
Object |
"{}" |
Mapping of WordPress directories to local directories to be mounted in the WordPress instance. |
Note: the port number environment variables (WP_ENV_PORT
and WP_ENV_TESTS_PORT
) take precedent over the .wp-env.json values.
Several types of strings can be passed into the core
, plugins
, themes
, and mappings
fields.
Type | Format | Example(s) |
---|---|---|
Relative path | .<path>|~<path> |
"./a/directory" , "../a/directory" , "~/a/directory" |
Absolute path | /<path>|<letter>:\<path> |
"/a/directory" , "C:\\a\\directory" |
GitHub repository | <owner>/<repo>[#<ref>] |
"WordPress/WordPress" , "WordPress/gutenberg#master" |
ZIP File | http[s]://<host>/<path>.zip |
"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.4-beta2.zip" |
Remote sources will be downloaded into a temporary directory located in ~/.wp-env
.
Additionally, the key env
is available to override any of the above options on an individual-environment basis. For example, take the following .wp-env.json
file:
{
"plugins": [ "." ],
"config": {
"KEY_1": true,
"KEY_2": false
},
"env": {
"development": {
"themes": [ "./one-theme" ]
},
"tests": {
"config": {
"KEY_1": false
},
"port": 3000
}
}
}
On the development instance, cwd
will be mapped as a plugin, one-theme
will be mapped as a theme, KEY_1 will be set to true, and KEY_2 will be set to false. Also note that the default port, 8888, will be used as well.
On the tests instance, cwd
is still mapped as a plugin, but no theme is mapped. Additionaly, while KEY_2 is still set to false, KEY_1 is overriden and set to false. 3000 overrides the default port as well.
This gives you a lot of power to change the options appliciable to each environment.
Any fields here will take precedence over .wp-env.json. This file is useful when ignored from version control, to persist local development overrides. Note that options like plugins
and themes
are not merged. As a result, if you set plugins
in your override file, this will override all of the plugins listed in the base-level config. The only keys which are merged are config
and mappings
. This means that you can set your own wp-config values without losing any of the default values.
On the development instance, these wp-config values are defined by default:
WP_DEBUG: true,
SCRIPT_DEBUG: true,
WP_PHP_BINARY: 'php',
WP_TESTS_EMAIL: '[email protected]',
WP_TESTS_TITLE: 'Test Blog',
WP_TESTS_DOMAIN: 'http://localhost',
WP_SITEURL: 'http://localhost',
WP_HOME: 'http://localhost',
On the test instance, all of the above are still defined, but WP_DEBUG
and SCRIPT_DEBUG
are set to false.
Additionally, the values referencing a URL include the specified port for the given environment. So if you set testsPort: 3000, port: 2000
, WP_HOME
(for example) will be http://localhost:3000
on the tests instance and http://localhost:2000
on the development instance.
This is useful for plugin development.
{
"core": null,
"plugins": [ "." ]
}
This is useful for plugin development when upstream Core changes need to be tested.
{
"core": "WordPress/WordPress#master",
"plugins": [ "." ]
}
This is useful for working on plugins and WordPress Core at the same time.
{
"core": "../wordpress-develop/build",
"plugins": [ "." ]
}
This is useful for integration testing: that is, testing how old versions of WordPress and different combinations of plugins and themes impact each other.
{
"core": "WordPress/WordPress#5.2.0",
"plugins": [ "WordPress/wp-lazy-loading", "WordPress/classic-editor" ],
"themes": [ "WordPress/theme-experiments" ]
}
You can add mu-plugins via the mapping config. The mapping config also allows you to mount a directory to any location in the wordpress install, so you could even mount a subdirectory. Note here that theme-1, will not be activated, despite being the "first" mapped theme.
{
"plugins": [ "." ],
"mappings": {
"wp-content/mu-plugins": "./path/to/local/mu-plugins",
"wp-content/themes": "./path/to/local/themes",
"wp-content/themes/specific-theme": "./path/to/local/theme-1"
}
}
Since all plugins in the plugins
key are activated by default, you should use the mappings
key to avoid this behavior. This might be helpful if you have a test plugin that should not be activated all the time. The same applies for a theme which should not be activated.
{
"plugins": [ "." ],
"mappings": {
"wp-content/plugins/my-test-plugin": "./path/to/test/plugin"
}
}
If you need a plugin active in one environment but not the other, you can use env.<envName>
to set options specific to one environment. Here, we activate cwd and a test plugin on the tests instance. This plugin is not activated on any other instances.
{
"plugins": [ "." ],
"env": {
"tests": {
"plugins": [ ".", "path/to/test/plugin" ]
}
}
}
You can tell wp-env
to use a custom port number so that your instance does not conflict with other wp-env
instances.
{
"plugins": [ "." ],
"port": 4013,
"env": {
"tests": {
"port": 4012
}
}
}