Common Commands

There are a number of commands that you may find helpful when working with your site. These commands and their common parameters are included below. There are also many other useful commands available, and these sections do not include them all. Please refer to the WordPress.org Developer CLI Commands Guide for more information.

Manage Users

Use the following commands to manage your site’s local users. Please keep in mind that changing user aspects in CLI will not change the settings for WordPress.com user accounts that may be associated with local accounts.

wp user list

List all users on the site. If you have many users you may wish to restrict the list to specific roles by using the --role flag:

wp user list –role=adminstrator

wp user get {USER ID/NAME/EMAIL}

Return a specific user, either by user id, username, or email address.

wp user create {NAME} {USER EMAIL} –role={ROLE}

Create a new user with the name, user email, and role defined.

This command does not create a matching WordPress.com user. If you are using WordPress.com Secure Sign-On (SSO) you should instead create the local user by inviting a user via Users > Add New. This will ensure a WordPress.com account and local user are both created.

wp user update {USER ID/NAME/EMAIL} –{KEY}={VALUE}

Update a user based on the user ID, name, or email. Updates the set of key/value pairs specified. 

Keys include display_name, user_email, role, and user_pass

Note: You will not be able to update a user’s user_login with the wp user update command. Instead, updating the user_login requires using wp search-replace. This change, however, is not recommended as it performs partial replacements. For example: If there are two users with the usernames “techie” and “nontechie”, replacing “techie” with “sense” will result in “sense” and “nonsense”.

If you would still like to replace a user_login the command to use is:

wp --skip-plugins --skip-themes search-replace "old username" "new username" *users --include-columns=user_login,user_nicename --dry-run

Manage Plugins and Themes

Use the following commands to manage your plugins and themes. When working with plugins and themes, please note that the related slug will not always match the plugin/theme name.

If you are having issues with a plugin or theme you can start your command with wp --skip-themes --skip-plugins to run the commands despite conflicts.

You can find more information about skip commands below.

wp plugin/theme list

List all the plugins/themes installed on the site and their status. From these lists you will find the slugs of your installed plugins and themes, which you can use for the purpose of running the commands below.

wp plugin/theme activate {SLUG}

Activate the specified plugin/theme.

To deactivate a theme, you need to activate another in its place.

wp plugin deactivate {SLUG}

Deactivate the specified plugin.

wp plugin/theme delete {SLUG}

Delete the specified plugin/theme.

You cannot delete an active theme or managed themes with this command. To remove an active theme, switch to a different theme first, then delete the theme that you want. To remove managed themes, you may do so via SFTP.

wp plugin/theme install {SLUG or URL TO INSTALLATION_FILE}

Install a plugin/theme from the WordPress.org repo based on the slug or via a URL path to an installation .zip file.

You can not overwrite an existing plugin/theme unless you run the command with the --force flag. You can use this to update plugins and fix corrupt plugin folders.

To automatically activate a plugin after installation, include the --activate flag.

wp plugin/theme update {SLUG}

Update the specified plugin/theme if available. You cannot use this command to update managed plugins/themes.

You can also use the --all flag if you want to update all plugins/themes.

wp plugin auto-updates {COMMAND} {PLUGIN SLUG}

Display the status of plugin updates or enable/disable updates for a specific plugin.

Available COMMANDS are status, enable, disable.

You cannot disable updates for managed plugins or themes.

Manage Jetpack

Use the following commands to adjust Jetpack modules, check your Jetpack connection, or troubleshoot Jetpack issues.

wp jetpack module list

List the Jetpack modules and their statuses.

wp jetpack module activate {MODULE NAME}

Activate the specified Jetpack module.

You can also use all in place of {MODULE NAME}

wp jetpack module deactivate {MODULE NAME}

Deactivate the specified Jetpack module.

You can also use all in place of {MODULE NAME}

wp jetpack status

Report the status of Jetpack, including which user account is the primary connection (this should always be the site owner).

An additional parameter, full, can be added to report full details, including Jetpack version, WordPress version, and module status.

Manage Site Settings

Use the following commands to manage various aspects of your site and users.

wp site empty –yes

Empty a site of content (posts and pages).

wp site empty –uploads –yes

Empty the site, including media files.

wp site commands will not delete themes or plugins, nor will they reset a theme or erase plugin settings. If you need to reset your site completely, please reach out to WordPress.com support.

wp option get {OPTION}

Return the value of an option.

wp option update {OPTION} {VALUE}

Update the value of an option.

wp option add {OPTION} {VALUE}

Add a new option.

wp option delete {OPTION}

Delete an option.

When working with wp option commands, if you get the following error in the terminal it may mean the options table has been corrupted:

One or more database tables are unavailable. The database may need to be repaired

You can restore the table by rewinding the site’s SQL table to a last good copy. Please note, this will reverse all mutable changes to the database that occur after the restore point and can result in lost data.

To restore an SQL table:

1. In the site’s dashboard, navigate to Jetpack > Activity Log.
2. Select a backup point to rewind to.
3. Uncheck all boxes except for Site Database (SQL).
4. Click Confirm Rewind.

wp role list

Return a list of roles

wp role reset {ROLE}

Reset the specified role. You can list multiple roles (without commas)

wp reset role administrator editor

You can also replace {ROLE} with --all to reset all at once

Manage Content

You can use the following commands to manage your site content, including posts/pages, menus, and media.

wp post list

Return a list of blog posts.

You can use a variety of flags with this command, including:

--format={FORMAT}

--posts_per_page={#}

--post_type={TYPE}

Possible post types include posts, pages, attachments, and products.

Multiple flags can be used at once.

wp post list --post_type=posts,pages --format=count

wp post update {POST_ID} –{KEY}={VALUE}

Update post information.

wp post update123 --post_status=draft

wp post delete {POST_ID}

Delete a post.

wp post exists {POST_ID}

Check if a post exists.

wp menu list

List menus on the site.

wp menu item list {TERM_ID}

List menu items of a specific menu.

wp menu item update {MENU_ITEM_PARENT_ID}

Update a specific menu item.

wp media regenerate

Regenerate media thumbnails when the Jetpack Photon module is deactivated.

You can use the --only-missing flag to skip existing image sizes.

Troubleshooting Site Issues

You can use the following commands when troubleshooting issues on your site. Checking for PHP errors can help you identify sources of errors on your site or use wp wpcomsh commands to quickly perform plugin conflict checks or to adjust whether or not you are using managed versions of plugins.

wp php-errors

Output error logs in WP-CLI.

This command only outputs PHP errors, not of any other language such as HTML, Javascript, or CSS. To see these other errors, use the Browser Inspector.

You can add the --limit flag to reduce the number of errors shown to improve readability.

wp php-errors –limit10

wp wpcomsh deactivate-user-plugins

Deactivate user plugins.

You can use the --interactive flag to force confirmation for each plugin.

This command will not deactivate Akismet, Jetpack, or managed ecommerce plugins.

wp wpcomsh reactivate-user-plugins

Reactivate user plugins.

You can use the --interactive flag to to force confirmation for each plugin.

wp wpcomsh persistent-data {DATA}

Return persistent data (which Jetpack uses to verify site capabilities).

Available DATA options include:

WPCOM_PLAN_EXPIRATION

JETPACK_BLOG_TOKEN

WPCOM_PURCHASES

WPCOM_PUBLIC_COMING_SOON

wp wpcomsh plugin use-managed {SLUG}

Use a managed (symlinked) version of a plugin.

This command will remove existing, unmanaged versions and replace them with managed versions. It is available for amp, classic-editor, coblocks, crowdsignal-forms, full-site-editing, gutenberg, layout-grid, page-optimize, wp-seo, woocommerce, WooCommerce Extensions from the WordPress.com Marketplace, and plugins included in the Commerce plan.

You can use the --remove-existing flag to skip the confirmation step.

wp wpcomsh theme use-managed {SLUG}

Use a managed (symlinked) version of a theme.

This command will remove existing, unmanaged versions and replace them with managed versions. It is available for all WordPress.com themes, Storefront, and any Twenty * themes (ex: Twenty Twenty Two).

You can use the --remove-existing flag to skip the confirmation step.

wp wpcomsh plugin use-unmanaged {SLUG}

Use an unmanaged (not symlinked) version of a plugin

This command will remove existing, managed versions and replace them with unmanaged versions from the WordPress.org plugin repository. It will not work for WooCommerce Extensions from the WordPress.com Marketplace and plugins included in the Commerce plan. You will need to install these plugins manually to get the unmanaged version.

You can use the --remove-existing flag to skip the confirmation step and the --version={X.Y.Z} flag to define the version to install.

wp wpcomsh theme use-unmanaged {SLUG}

Use an unmanaged (not symlinked) version of a theme.

This command will remove existing, managed versions and replace them with unmanaged versions from the WordPress.org theme repository if available.

You can use the --remove-existing flag to skip the confirmation step and the --version={X.Y.Z} flag to define the version to install.

The WordPress.com Site Helper or wpcomsh must-use plugin runs on sites with activated hosting features to make them work seamlessly in the WordPress.com ecosystem.

wp cache flush

Flush the cache.

This command is not meant to be a fix for issues and can obscure root causes. Please use with care. Clearing the cache may also make your site run slower while the cache is rebuilt on page load.

Skipping Plugins and Themes

You may want to skip plugins, and sometimes themes, when running CLI commands. This can be useful for troubleshooting conflicts or for overriding restrictions placed by plugins, such as control over roles.

• --skip-plugins can be added before any command and skips plugins
• --skip-themes can be added before any command and skips themes

You can use these commands together. You can also use these commands with slugs to skip specific plugins or themes. This can be useful for ruling out the effects of certain plugins or themes when deactivation is not possible.

For example:

wp --skip-plugins=woocommerce, code-snippets, elementor-pro plugin list