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.
WordPress is a PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript based project, and 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 Node and npm installed on your computer. Node is a JavaScript runtime used for developer tooling, and npm is the package manager included with Node. If you have a package manager installed for your operating system, setup can be as straightforward as:
- macOS:
brew install node
- Windows:
choco install node
- Ubuntu:
apt install nodejs npm
If you are not using a package manager, see the Node.js download page for installers and binaries.
You will also need Docker installed and running on your computer. Docker is the virtualization software that powers the local development environment. Docker can be installed just like any other regular application.
Ensure Docker is running before using these commands.
npm install
npm run build:dev
npm run env:start
npm run env:install
Your WordPress site will accessible at https://localhost:8889. You can see or change configurations in the .env
file located at the root of the project directory.
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
These commands run the PHP and end-to-end test suites, respectively:
npm run test:php
npm run test:e2e
You may want to restart the environment if you've made changes to the configuration in the docker-compose.yml
or .env
files. Restart the environment with:
npm run env:restart
You can stop the environment when you're not using it to preserve your computer's power and resources:
npm run env:stop
Starting the environment again is a single command:
npm run env:start
These are the default environment credentials:
- Database Name:
wordpress_develop
- Username:
root
- Password:
password
To login to the site, navigate to https://localhost:8889/wp-admin.
- Username:
admin
- Password:
password
To generate a new password (recommended):
- Go to the Dashboard
- Click the Users menu on the left
- Click the Edit link below the admin user
- Scroll down and click 'Generate password'. Either use this password (recommended) or change it, then click 'Update User'. If you use the generated password be sure to save it somewhere (password manager, etc).