WordPress

Welcome to the WordPress development repository! Please check out the contributor handbook for information about how to open bug reports, contribute patches, test changes, write documentation, or get involved in any way you can.

Getting Started

WordPress is a PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript based project, and uses uses Node for its JavaScript dependencies. A local development environment is available to quickly get up and running.

You will need a basic understanding of how to use the command line on your computer. This will allow you to set up the local development environment, to start it and stop it when necessary, and to run the tests.

You will need Docker installed and running on your computer. Docker is the virtualization software that powers the local development environment.

Development Environment Commands

Ensure Docker is running before using these commands.

To start the development environment for the first time

npm install
npm run build:dev
npm run env:start
npm run env:install

The environment will be accessible at http://localhost:8889.

To watch for changes

If you're making changes to WordPress core files, you should start the file watcher in order to build or copy the files as necessary:

npm run watch

To stop the watcher, press ctrl+c.

To run a WP-CLI command

npm run env:cli <command>

WP-CLI has a lot of useful commands you can use to work on your WordPress site. Where the documentation mentions running wp, run npm run env:cli instead. For example:

npm run env:cli help

To run the tests

These commands run the PHP and end-to-end test suites, respectively:

npm run test:php
npm run test:e2e

To stop the development environment

You can stop the environment when you're not using it to preserve your computer's power and resources:

npm run env:stop

To start the development environment again

Restarting the environment again is a single command:

npm run env:start