WP-CLI: The Complete Guide to Managing WordPress from the Command Line

I use WP-CLI every day. Installing plugins, running database backups, updating multiple sites – all from a single terminal window. At first glance, it might seem like the admin dashboard is fast enough. But once you start using the command line for WordPress tasks, there is no going back.

WordPress provides a graphical interface for every administrative task, which is actually why it is the most popular content management system on the web. But in terms of efficiency, working with the command line allows you to perform many actions more quickly and conveniently than from the WordPress management system.

WP-CLI is the official command-line tool for managing WordPress. This guide covers everything from installation to advanced operations like database management, user administration, and remote server aliases.

Installing WP-CLI

Note: The following steps require working in a UNIX-like environment (macOS, Linux, or FreeBSD). If you are using Windows, the recommended approach is to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Installing WP-CLI is simple. The basic idea is to download a PHP file and place it in a directory where it is accessible from anywhere. You can download the WP-CLI script from GitHub.

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar

Then you need to allow this file to be executable:

chmod +x wp-cli.phar

The last step is to move this file to a directory so you can run it from anywhere. Changing the file name to a shorter name is also a good idea, which is why WP is the name usually used:

sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

That’s it. Verify the installation by running:

wp --info

If your installation was successful you should see something like this:

PHP binary: /usr/bin/php
PHP version: 8.2.15
php.ini used: /etc/php/8.2/cli/php.ini
WP-CLI root dir: /home/user/.wp-cli
WP-CLI global config:
WP-CLI project config:
WP-CLI version: 2.12.0

You can also install WP-CLI using alternative methods:

• Via Homebrew (macOS/Linux): brew install wp-cli
• Via Composer: composer global require wp-cli/wp-cli-bundle
• Via Docker: Use the official wordpress:cli Docker image

To update an existing WP-CLI installation, simply run:

wp cli update

Common Operations with WP-CLI

Let’s start with the basics and work our way up.

Installing a WordPress Site

Tip: WP-CLI’s core command group provides tools to manage the WordPress installation itself, including downloading, configuring, and installing WordPress.

The first step in creating a new WordPress site is to download the WordPress files. Go to the directory where you want to install WordPress and run the command:

wp core download

This command downloads the latest version of WordPress in English (en_US). If you want to download a different version or language, use the --version or --locale parameters.

For example, to download version 6.7 in Hebrew, run:

wp core download --version=6.7 --locale=he_IL

Once the download is complete, create the wp-config.php file using the core config command:

wp core config --dbname=databasename --dbuser=databaseuser --dbpass=databasepassword --dbhost=localhost --dbprefix=prfx_

This command generates a configuration file using the database connection details you provide.

The final step is to install WordPress using the core install command:

wp core install --url="example.com" --title="WordPress Website Title" --admin_user="admin_user" --admin_password="admin_password" --admin_email="admin@example.com"

Updating WordPress Version

If your version of WordPress needs updating, use the wp core update and wp core update-db commands to update the source files and database (if necessary).

Note: Keeping your WordPress installation up-to-date is critical, especially when it comes to WordPress security fixes and patches.

To perform updates, use:

wp core update
wp core update-db

You can always check your current WordPress version with:

wp core version

While these actions may seem no faster than the admin UI, WP-CLI becomes incredibly efficient when managing multiple sites. If you prefer to disable automatic WordPress updates and handle them manually, WP-CLI is the cleanest way to do it. You can create a script to update them all at once:

#!/bin/bash
declare -a sites=('/var/www/wp1' '/var/www/wp2' '/var/www/wp3')
for site in "${sites[@]}";
do
    wp --path="$site" core update
done

In any case, it is highly recommended to backup the database before any update:

wp db export backup.sql

Managing Plugins

Managing plugins is equally straightforward. For example, the command wp plugin status shows a table with information about installed plugins and their status:

+---------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+
| name                      | status   | update    | version |
+---------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+
| smooth-scroll-up          | inactive | available | 0.8.9   |
| wordpress-beta-tester     | inactive | none      | 1.0     |
| wordpress-importer        | active   | none      | 0.6.1   |
| wpcli-commands            | active   | none      | 1.0     |
+---------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+

Here:
– active = plugin is enabled
– inactive = plugin is installed but not active
– available = an update is available for the plugin

You can also install, activate, deactivate, delete, update, and search for plugins using commands like:

wp plugin install wordpress-importer --activate
wp plugin deactivate wordpress-importer
wp plugin delete wordpress-importer
wp plugin update --all
wp plugin search import

Managing Themes with WP-CLI

Generally, the same commands used for managing plugins can be applied to themes by replacing the word ‘plugin’ with ‘theme’, so there’s no need to elaborate further. However, one command worth mentioning is scaffold, which creates an empty child theme and shortens the process:

wp scaffold child-theme my-child-theme --parent_theme=twentytwentyfive --theme_name='My Child Theme' --activate

User Management with WP-CLI

Managing users from the command line is one of the most practical WP-CLI features, especially when you’re locked out of the admin panel or need to bulk-manage accounts.

List all users on the site:

wp user list

Create a new administrator:

wp user create john john@example.com --role=administrator --user_pass=securepass123

Update an existing user’s role or email:

wp user update 2 --role=editor
wp user update 2 --user_email=new@example.com

Delete a user and reassign their content to another user:

wp user delete 4 --reassign=1

Resetting an Admin Password

One of the most common scenarios – you forgot the admin password and can’t access wp-admin. With SSH access and WP-CLI, it takes one command:

wp user update 1 --user_pass=newpassword123

You can also generate a random password:

wp user reset-password 1

This sends a password reset email to the user’s registered address.

Manipulating Information with WP-CLI

Apart from simple commands like post create, post edit, and post delete, WP-CLI provides powerful tools for managing posts. If you need finer control over queries in your theme, check out how to modify the WordPress loop with pre_get_posts.

If you need 400 posts to test your plugin’s code or the theme you created, you can use the command:

wp post generate --count=400

It’s also possible to export information and import it from another WordPress site. To do this, you need to install the wordpress-importer plugin:

wp plugin install wordpress-importer --activate

Now you can use the export and import commands to complete the task:

wp export
wp import test.xml --authors=create

Managing Post Revisions

By default, WordPress stores all post revisions in the database, which inevitably leads to a lot of data in the posts table of the database.

To address this issue, you can use a WP-CLI extension called wp-revisions-cli which enables functionality to manage post revisions. You can install this extension like any WordPress plugin, and then you’ll have the option to use commands such as clean, list, and status.

Managing Media with WP-CLI

The WordPress media library is fine for uploading a few images, but falls apart when you need to bulk import or regenerate thumbnails across hundreds of posts. WP-CLI handles both.

Importing Images

I once encountered a situation where a client provided me with a large number of images and asked me to import them into his WordPress site. Performing this through the management interface is a tedious task.

You can use the media tool of WP-CLI to perform this in one command:

wp media import images_folder/*

Regenerating Images

You’ll need to regenerate the thumbnails of the images once you set a new image size in the development process. Of course, you can use a plugin to perform this such as regenerate-thumbnails, but with WP-CLI you can do it quickly and simply in one command:

wp media regenerate

There are countless options for this command since you can chain several commands and choose which images to perform the action on.

For example, to perform the action on the featured images of posts in a specific category, you can use the following command:

wp media regenerate $(wp eval 'foreach( get_posts(array("category" => 2,"fields" => "ids")) as $id ) { echo get_post_thumbnail_id($id). " "; }')

Database Operations

WP-CLI gives you direct access to the WordPress database without opening phpMyAdmin.

For example, a simple query can be performed by:

wp db query "SELECT id FROM wp_users;"

In addition, operations such as import, export, and optimization of the database can be performed using the commands:

wp db export
wp db import backup.sql
wp db optimize

In the export operation, you can also use a script or through a cron job to ensure that the database is backed up automatically and on a schedule of your choice.

Search & Replace

Building a WordPress site in a local or development environment and transferring it to an online server upon completion is an action many of us have performed frequently. Copying files and importing the database are the easy parts.

Replacing old URLs with new ones in the database, however, is a tricky operation because these URLs also exist in serialized data, which a regular search and replace will not recognize.

WP-CLI helps you perform this operation. The search-replace command replaces the old URLs with new ones in all database fields including those containing serialized data.

wp search-replace 'dev.example.com' 'www.example.com'

If you want to know the number of URLs you are looking for in the database, you can use the previous command and add the --dry-run parameter:

wp search-replace --dry-run 'dev.example.com' 'www.example.com'

The result will be something like this:

+---------------------+-----------------------+--------------+------+
| Table               | Column                | Replacements | Type |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------------+------+
| wpcli_options       | option_value          | 2            | PHP  |
| wpcli_posts         | post_content          | 1            | SQL  |
| wpcli_posts         | guid                  | 28           | SQL  |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------------+------+

Configuration and Maintenance

WP-CLI can also modify wp-config.php safely and manage WordPress cron jobs – two tasks that are cumbersome through the admin UI.

Managing wp-config.php

Read a config value:

wp config get DB_HOST

Set or update a config constant:

wp config set WP_DEBUG true --raw
wp config set WP_MEMORY_LIMIT '256M'

The --raw flag tells WP-CLI to write the value without quotes, which is required for boolean values like true and false.

Cron Job Management

WordPress uses its own cron system (WP-Cron) to schedule tasks like publishing scheduled posts and checking for updates. WP-CLI lets you inspect and trigger these events:

wp cron event list

Manually trigger a specific scheduled event:

wp cron event run wp_version_check

Run all due cron events at once:

wp cron event run --due-now

WP-CLI Configuration with wp-cli.yml

If you find yourself typing the same flags repeatedly, create a wp-cli.yml file in your project root to set defaults:

path: /var/www/html
url: https://example.com
user: admin

@staging:
    ssh: user@staging.example.com
    path: /var/www/staging

With aliases like @staging, you can run commands on remote servers directly:

wp @staging plugin update --all

FAQs

Common questions about WP-CLI:

In Conclusion

This guide covers the commands I use most often, but WP-CLI has dozens more. The full list is available on the official site.

Once you get comfortable with the basics, try combining commands in bash scripts. That’s where WP-CLI really pays off – managing ten sites takes the same effort as managing one.