{"id":64194,"date":"2022-02-16T07:32:09","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/blog\/?p=64194"},"modified":"2025-12-09T03:10:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T09:10:51","slug":"what-is-wp-cli-a-beginners-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/blog\/what-is-wp-cli-a-beginners-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"What is WP-CLI? A Beginner’s Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although it enables people with no technical skills to build their own personal websites, WordPress was never targeted exclusively at complete novices. It’s a powerful content management system<\/strong> that gives you the freedom to build and manage functional websites <\/strong>with numerous useful features and a great user experience. It’s suitable for both big and small projects, and it gives site owners access to tools that can improve the workflow and make administration a lot easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WP-CLI<\/strong> is one such tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is WP-CLI?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

People associate WordPress with the famously user-friendly WP dashboard<\/strong><\/a>. This is where you can change the website’s settings, install, activate, and delete themes and plugins<\/em>, and manage your content. The dashboard is easy-to-navigate around, and all the utilities for managing the website are organized in a single point-and-click interface<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as convenient as it is, the dashboard may not be the best way<\/strong> of carrying out some day-to-day site administration tasks. For many people, WP-CLI is a faster, more efficient alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WP-CLI is the official command-line interface for WordPress<\/strong>. You can do pretty much everything you do with the dashboard, but instead of clicking the mouse on buttons and menus, you write commands and execute them.Many of you may be struggling to grasp how this could be a more efficient way of managing a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, you may not be surprised to learn that WP-CLI was built with experienced site administrators in mind. Because they’ve worked with a command-line interface in the past, they have an easier time understanding the logic behind the commands<\/strong>, which, in turn, helps them make the most of WP-CLI. And the truth is, WP-CLI is quite a powerful tool.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you’ve built dozens of WordPress websites<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>already, you likely have a selection of plugins<\/strong> that you want to install at the very beginning of starting a new project. If you use the dashboard, this would mean setting up and activating all the add-ons one by one. With WP-CLI, it can all happen with a single command<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be an enormous time-saver<\/strong>, and the truth is, although the command line interface may seem a bit daunting at first, once you grasp the commands’ syntax, you’ll realize that WP-CLI is not that difficult to use<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you don’t find it particularly convenient and prefer to stick with the dashboard, getting to know it will help you learn more about how your website works<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What Do You Need to Use the WordPress Command-Line Interface?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most likely, the server hosting your website runs on Linux, so to access its command-line interface, you’ll need to use the SSH protocol<\/strong>. Accessing the server via SSH<\/strong><\/a> no longer requires any additional tools. Old versions of Windows don’t support SSH out of the box, and establishing a connection from them is only possible via a dedicated client. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, due to user demand, Microsoft introduced native SSH support with a Windows 10 update from 2018<\/strong>. Unless you’re using a Windows version older than that, you should be able to log into your server via the PowerShell<\/strong> utility. Linux<\/strong> and macOS<\/strong> users can simply use the Terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do You Access The WordPress Command-Line Interface?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Establishing an SSH connection to the server is usually pretty easy, especially if your domain name is pointed correctly. After opening PowerShell or the Terminal<\/strong>, you’ll need to write a command using the following pattern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ssh [<\/strong>your username<\/em><\/strong>]@[<\/strong>your domain name<\/em><\/strong>]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system will ask you for your password, and after you enter it, you will be in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE<\/em><\/strong>: If your domain name is still not pointed to the hosting server, you can use <\/em>the server’s IP<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By default, SSH connections are established on port 22<\/strong>, but some hosting companies change it for additional security. If that’s the case, you’ll need to add -p[<\/strong>your host’s SSH port<\/em><\/strong>] <\/strong>to the login command. For example, at ScalaHosting, we’ve configured our managed VPS<\/strong><\/a> to use port 6543<\/strong> for SSH connections, so when you’re logging in, you’ll see something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you successfully log in, you’ll want to check whether WP-CLI is installed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it’s so popular, most hosting providers offer WP-CLI with their shared and managed plans, and information about it should be available on your host’s web pages. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re already logged in via SSH, you can check whether WP-CLI is installed with the following command:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

wp –info<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If WP-CLI is included in your hosting account, the output should look something like this:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If it isn’t available, you’ll need to set it up yourself, which sounds more daunting than it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, you have to download the PHP archive file with the following command:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

curl -O https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/wp-cli\/builds\/gh-pages\/phar\/wp-cli.phar<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, you’ll want to change the file’s permissions and make it executable:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

chmod +x wp-cli.phar<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, to make sure you can use the PHAR file with the wp command, you need to move it to your server’s <\/strong>bin<\/em><\/strong> folder. The command is:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

sudo mv wp-cli.phar \/usr\/local\/bin\/wp<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see from the command above, installing WP-CLI requires root access<\/strong>. If it’s not included in your hosting plan, you may need to ask your host’s support team for assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What Can You Do With WP-CLI?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The list of things to do with WP-CLI is too long to fit in a single article. Thankfully, the official documentation<\/a> is pretty detailed, and there’s no shortage of tutorials explaining how you can use WP-CLI to improve your workflow. The wp help<\/strong> command can also be helpful if you get stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, to give you an idea of how powerful WP-CLI is, we’ll now give you a short tour of some of the functions you’re most likely to explore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Installing WordPress and managing your installation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can use WP-CLI to set up a brand new WordPress installation<\/strong> on your account. Obviously, you first need to navigate to the directory where your site will be hosted (usually, the public_html<\/strong> folder).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you can do anything, you need to set up the website’s database and MySQL user<\/strong>. In some rare cases, you may need to do it via the console, though most hosts include GUI-based database management systems<\/strong> in their plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, for example, is the interface if you use one of ScalaHosting’s SPanel managed VPS:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Remember to take note of the login credentials you set for the MySQL user<\/strong>, as you’ll need them during the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the database set up, you need to download the WordPress core files<\/strong>. Use the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wp core download<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, it’s time to create the all-important wp-config.php<\/strong> file. The information contained in it guarantees that WordPress connects to the database and works correctly. You can theoretically set it up with a text editor, but doing it with WP-CLI is easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the command:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

wp core config –dbhost=[the database host] –dbname=[the database’s name] –dbuser=[the MySQL user] –dbpass=[the database’s password<\/em>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the wp-config.php file ready, you can install the core itself. The command is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wp core install –url=[the site’s URL] –title=[the site’s title] –admin_name=[the username you’ll use to access the WP dashboard] –admin_password=[the password for the admin account] –admin_email=[the admin email address]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: <\/strong>If your site’s title consists of more than one word, you’ll need to put it in quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That’s it! WordPress is installed, and you can start working on your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once it’s up and running, you can use WP-CLI to perform other tasks related to the WordPress core. Among other things, you can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n