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WP-CLI

WP-CLI (WordPress Command Line Interface) is a powerful tool for managing a WordPress installation directly from the command line or terminal. Instead of using the standard WordPress dashboard, you can execute commands to perform tasks like updating plugins, managing themes, and configuring settings, all from your terminal.

There are a number of benefits to using WP-CLI, including:

  • Speed: Performing tasks using the command line is often faster than navigating through the WordPress admin interface, especially for repetitive tasks.
  • Automation: WP-CLI can be integrated into scripts for automated workflows.
  • Remote Management: WP-CLI allows you to manage WordPress sites remotely.
  • Flexibility: The ability to execute commands and scripts provides a level of control and customization.

Access WP-CLI on Kinsta

WP-CLI v2 is installed by default on all of our servers. To access WP-CLI, you must connect to your server with SSH and navigate to your site’s document root. Kinsta provides SSH access with all of our Managed WordPress Hosting plans.

1. Connect to your server with SSH

The easiest method for connecting via SSH is to use a username and password. The steps to connect vary depending on your operating system.

Windows

Windows users require a terminal client to connect to SSH. We recommend downloading the free PuTTY client using the .msi installer.

  1. Launch PuTTY and enter your Host IP Address and the unique Port number (both found in MyKinsta > Sites > sitename > Info > SFTP/SSH). Then click Open.
  2. If this is your first time connecting, you will most likely see a rsa2 key prompt. Click Yes, and this will trust the host in the future.
  3. In the terminal screen, enter your Kinsta username (found in MyKinsta > Sites > sitename > Info > SFTP/SSH) and press Enter.
  4. Enter your Kinsta password (found in MyKinsta > Sites > sitename > Info > SFTP/SSH) and press Enter again.

You’re now connected via SSH to your WordPress site.

Mac/Linux

  1. Open a new terminal from Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
  2. In MyKinsta, navigate to Sites > sitename > Info > SFTP/SSH, and on the SSH terminal command click Copy to clipboard. 
  3. Paste the SSH terminal command into the terminal and press Enter.
  4. Enter your Kinsta password (found in MyKinsta > Sites > sitename > Info > SFTP/SSH) and press Enter again.

You’re now connected via SSH to your WordPress site.

2. Navigate to your site’s document root

To run WP-CLI commands, you must first navigate to your site’s document root; this is where your WordPress files (such as wp-config.php, wp-content, wp-admin, and wp-includes) are located. To navigate to your site’s document root on Kinsta, enter the following command:

cd public

You can now use WP-CLI commands on your WordPress installation hosted on Kinsta. For a full list of available WP-CLI commands, refer to the WordPress developer documentation.

Useful WP-CLI Commands

The following is a list of WP-CLI commands you may find helpful. For a full list of available WP-CLI commands, including global parameters and options, refer to the WordPress developer documentation.

Useful options

The following is a list of useful options you can add to the end of your commands:

  • --skip-themes: This prevents WordPress themes from loading when you execute a WP-CLI command. This is useful if there is an issue in one of the themes that causes conflicts with WP-CLI commands.
  • --skip-plugins: This prevents WordPress plugins from loading when you execute a WP-CLI command. This is useful if there is an issue in one of the plugins that causes conflicts with WP-CLI commands.
  • --all: This applies a command to all relevant items. For example, if you want to update all plugins or users.
  • --dry-run: This can be used to simulate the execution of a command without making any actual changes. It shows you what would happen if the command were executed, but it won’t perform any of the actions. For example, if you run a search and replace, update all plugins, or bulk delete posts.
  • --format=<format>: Specifies the output format when exporting data. For example, when you run wp plugin list or wp user list you may want this in table, json, or csv format.

Plugins

View a list of plugins

View a list of installed plugins with the following command:

wp plugin list

Activate a plugin

To activate a plugin, use the following command, replacing $plugin with the name of the plugin from the wp plugin list.

wp plugin activate $plugin

Deactivate a plugin

To deactivate a plugin, use the following command, replacing $plugin with the name of the plugin from the wp plugin list.

wp plugin deactivate $plugin

Update a specific plugin

To update a plugin, use the following command, replacing $plugin with the name of the plugin from the wp plugin list.

wp plugin update $plugin

Update all plugins

wp plugin update --all

Roll back a plugin

If you update a plugin that then breaks something on your site, you can roll it back by installing a specific version using the following command, replacing $plugin with the name of the plugin from the wp plugin list and $versionwith the required version number.

wp plugin update $plugin --version=$version

URLs

Set the home URL

To set the URL for your home page, use the following command, replacing $URL with the required URL.

wp option update home '$URL'

Set the site URL

To set the site URL, use the following command, replacing $URL with the required URL.

wp option update siteurl '$URL'

Users

List all WordPress users

View a list of all WordPress users with the following command:

wp user list

Create a new user

To create a new user, use the following command, replacing $username and $emailaddress with the user’s credentials, and $role with the role you want to assign the new user to, for example, administrator.

wp user create $username $emailaddress -–role=$role

Reset a user’s password

To reset a user’s password, use the following command, replacing $usernamewith the required username from the wp user list.

wp user reset-password $username

Update a user’s details

To update a user, use the following command, replacing $userwith the required username from the wp user list, $field with the field you want to update, and $value with the new data you want to enter.

wp user update $user -—$field=$value

Cache

To use the clear cache commands listed below, the Kinsta Must Use (MU) plugin must be installed on the site.

Clear all cache

To clear all cache, including site cache, edge cache, CDN cache, and Redis cache, use the following command:

wp kinsta cache purge --all

Clear the full-page cache and edge cache

To clear the full-page cache and the edge cache, use the following command:

wp kinsta cache purge

Clear site cache without clearing edge cache

To only clear the site cache, use the following command:

wp kinsta cache purge --site

Clear the CDN cache

To only clear the CDN cache, use the following command:

wp kinsta cache purge --cdn

Clear Redis cache

To only clear the Redis cache, use the following command:

wp kinsta cache purge --object

Flush object cache

Flush your site’s object cache with the following command:

wp cache flush

This may lead to a slight increase in load times temporarily as the cache rebuilds.

Search and replace

When running any search and replace on your WordPress site, we recommend backing up and using the --dry-run option to see what will be replaced before executing the command.

Replace old domain with new domain

To replace an old URL with a new URL, use the following command, replacing $old-domain with the URL you want to replace and $new-domain with the URL you want to replace it with:

wp search-replace '$old-domain' '$new-domain' --skip-columns=guid

--skip-columns=guid is recommended to avoid accidentally altering URLs stored as unique identifiers in the database’s guid column, which could break post URLs. This command can also be used to replace email address domains.

Replace HTTP with HTTPS

To update your URLs from HTTP to HTTPS, use the following command:

wp search-replace 'http://' 'https://' --skip-columns=guid

--skip-columns=guid is recommended to avoid accidentally altering URLs stored as unique identifiers in the database’s guid column, which could lead to issues with media attachments.

Troubleshooting

If you have issues running commands in WP-CLI, this may be due to a theme or plugin experiencing a fatal error. You can add the following to your WP-CLI command to skip loading themes and plugins:

--skip-themes --skip-plugins

For example, to get a list of users and skip the themes and plugins, you can run the following:

wp user list --skip-themes --skip-plugins

If you want to skip specific plugins, you can use the following, replacing $plugin with the plugin name and using a comma to separate each plugin:

--skip-plugins=$plugin,$plugin

For example:

wp user list --skip-plugins=wordpress-seo,wordfence
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