Create WordPress CLI Script

Overview#

create-wp is an interactive Node.js command-line tool designed to automate local WordPress development setup.

Instead of manually downloading WordPress, configuring the database, running through the 5-minute install, and installing themes/plugins, this tool does it automatically. When Laravel Herd is enabled, it also provisions local HTTPS certificates with herd secure.

Roadmap#

• Backup website
• Restore website

Key Features#

• 🚀 Interactive Setup: Simple wizard for choosing site names, themes, and plugins.
• ⚡ Smart Caching: WordPress core, themes, and plugins are cached locally in ~/.config/create-wordpress/cache/ to prevent redundant downloads on future runs.
• 🗄️ Database Automation: Automatically creates MySQL databases via mysql2.
• 🔒 Optional Herd SSL: Laravel Herd is the default local environment integration. When enabled, the CLI runs herd secure for local HTTPS (https://site-name.test).
• 📦 Private Package Server: Connects to a private update server to download premium themes and plugins.
• 🛠️ Settings Editor: Use --settings to update the saved CLI defaults in config.json.
• ⚙️ Site Configuration: Use --config to change admin credentials, install configured themes/plugins, find packages by slug, or apply saved WordPress tweaks to existing sites.
• 🗄️ Backup & Restore: Create full-source .zip backups or AI1WM .wpress backups, then restore from .zip, .wpress, or a wp-content/ folder plus SQL dump.
• 🧹 Easy Cleanup: Use --delete to instantly wipe a site directory and drop its database.

Prerequisites#

Before using this tool, make sure your system has the following installed:

1. Node.js (v18.0.0 or higher)
2. WP-CLI (Must be available in your system PATH)
3. MySQL-compatible database (Must be reachable with the credentials saved in config.json)

Optional:

• Laravel Herd — enabled by default during first-time setup. If disabled, the CLI skips all Herd-specific steps.

Important

WP-CLI must be available in your PATH. If you enable Herd integration, herd must also be available in your PATH; otherwise only the Herd SSL step will fail or be skipped.

Installation#

From GitHub#

npm install -g https://github.com/HungNth/create-wordpress.git

From npm#

npm install -g @thienhungdev/create-wp

Note

On first run, the tool will launch a one-time setup wizard to configure Herd integration, your paths, database credentials, and default admin details. Settings are saved to ~/.config/create-wordpress/config.json.

USEFUL COMMANDS#

create-wp
create-wp --config
create-wp --backup (-b)
create-wp --restore (-r)
create-wp --delete <my-site-name>
create-wp --settings
create-wp --version (-v)
create-wp --help (-h)

Usage#

Create a new WordPress site#

create-wp

Edit saved CLI settings#

create-wp --settings

Opens an interactive editor for ~/.config/create-wordpress/config.json so you can update the saved defaults after first run.

This is useful when you want to change:

• websites path
• Laravel Herd integration
• database username, password, port, or socket
• default WordPress admin username, password, or email
• package server URL or API key
• theme list, default theme, or plugin list
• wp_tweaks — config_set, rewrite_structure, option_update, language_core, site

Changes are only written when you choose Save & Exit.

Show installed version#

create-wp --version

create-wp -v

Prints the installed package version and exits.

Show full help#

create-wp --help

create-wp -h

Prints the full usage guide and exits.

Configure an existing site#

create-wp --config

Launches the site configuration wizard with 5 options:

Apply WordPress configuration reads the wp_tweaks array from config.json and runs each tweak in order:

Find and install package(s) by slug lets you install packages that are available on your private package server but are not necessarily saved in the local themes or plugins lists.

Example input:

flatsome, advanced-custom-fields-pro, wp-rocket

For each slug, the CLI fetches metadata from the package server, downloads or reuses the cached ZIP, then tries to install it as a plugin first. If plugin installation fails, it falls back to installing it as a theme. A result summary is printed after all slugs are processed.

Important

Find and install package(s) by slug requires both server_url and package_api_key in config.json.

Backup a website#

create-wp --backup

create-wp -b

Launches an interactive backup wizard:

All backups are saved to:

<websites_path>/backups/

The backup picker excludes the backups directory itself, so only actual sites are listed.

Restore a website#

create-wp --restore

create-wp -r

Launches an interactive restore wizard with 3 modes:

For all restore modes:

• you choose a new site name, and it is normalized to kebab-case
• if the target directory already exists, the CLI asks before overwriting it
• when use_herd is enabled, the restored site is secured with Herd and ends up at https://<site-name>.test

For Restore from wp-content folder, the folder path must point to a directory named exactly wp-content. The copy process skips Windows shortcut files, symlinks, and directories listed in wp_content_copy_excludes.

Important

Restoring from .wpress requires the plugin all-in-one-wp-migration-unlimited-extension to exist in config.plugins. If it is hosted on your private package server, server_url and package_api_key must also be configured.

Delete a WordPress site#

Interactive mode — shows a multi-select list of all existing sites:

create-wp --delete

Direct mode — delete a specific site immediately:

create-wp --delete my-site-name

Both modes show a summary of what will be deleted (directory + database) and ask for a single confirmation before any destructive action.

Configuration#

Config file location:

• macOS: ~/.config/create-wordpress/config.json
• Windows: ~/.config/create-wordpress/config.json

You can edit this file manually, or run:

create-wp --settings

Cache directory:

• WordPress core ZIPs: ~/.config/create-wordpress/cache/wordpress-core/
• Theme and plugin ZIPs: ~/.config/create-wordpress/cache/packages/
• Version metadata: ~/.config/create-wordpress/data.json

Example config.json#

{
  "use_herd": true,
  "websites_path": "F:\\laravel-herd\\wordpress",
  "server_url": "https://your-private-repo.com/api/v1/package", // https:://package.example.com/api/v1/package/package_slug?license_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY
  "package_api_key": "YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
  "default_admin_username": "admin",
  "default_admin_password": "password123",
  "default_admin_email": "admin@example.com",
  "database_port": 3306,
  "db_username": "root",
  "db_password": "",
  "default_theme_slug": "flatsome",
  "backup_excludes": [".idea", ".vscode", "node_modules", "__MACOSX"],
  "wp_content_copy_excludes": [
    ".idea",
    ".vscode",
    "__MACOSX",
    "node_modules",
    "cache"
  ],
  "themes": [
    { "name": "Flatsome", "slug": "flatsome" },
    { "name": "Bricks", "slug": "bricks" }
  ],
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "Advanced Custom Fields PRO",
      "slug": "advanced-custom-fields-pro"
    },
    { "name": "WP Rocket", "slug": "wp-rocket" }
  ],
  "wp_tweaks": [
    { "type": "config_set", "key": "WP_DEBUG", "value": "true", "raw": true },
    { "type": "rewrite_structure", "value": "/%category%/%postname%/" },
    {
      "type": "option_update",
      "key": "timezone_string",
      "value": "Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh"
    },
    { "type": "language_core", "key": "install", "value": "vi" },
    { "type": "language_core", "key": "activate", "value": "vi" }
  ]
}

Note

If server_url and package_api_key are left empty, the CLI skips theme and plugin downloads - WordPress core setup still works perfectly.

Note

Set "use_herd": false if you do not use Laravel Herd. The CLI will still create, configure, backup, restore, and delete WordPress sites, but it will not run herd secure.

Note

backup_excludes controls directories skipped by full-source backups. wp_content_copy_excludes controls directories skipped when restoring from a wp-content/ folder.

Architecture#

• Unified config path: On both macOS and Windows, configuration is stored in ~/.config/create-wordpress/config.json.
• Smart caching: WordPress core ZIPs live in ~/.config/create-wordpress/cache/wordpress-core/, theme and plugin ZIPs live in ~/.config/create-wordpress/cache/packages/, and versions are tracked in ~/.config/create-wordpress/data.json.
• Optional Herd integration: use_herd controls whether the CLI runs Herd-specific SSL provisioning. Existing configs are migrated to use_herd: true to preserve the original default behavior.
• Restore from wp-content: The restore flow can rebuild a fresh WordPress core, copy a supplied wp-content/ folder, import a .sql dump with mysql2, detect the imported table prefix, and update local URLs.
• Cross-platform binary resolution: On Windows, WP-CLI may resolve as wp.bat. The tool detects .bat/.cmd extensions and routes via cmd.exe /c to avoid the Node.js DEP0190 shell warning.
• Admin ID resolution: When changing admin credentials, the tool runs wp user list --field=ID --number=1 to find the real admin user ID (which may not be 1), falling back to a direct MySQL query if WP-CLI is unavailable.
• DB name from config: DB_NAME and $table_prefix are parsed directly from the site’s wp-config.php, so the tool works correctly with existing sites that have a different directory name vs. database name.