handbook/guides/common-tasks.md

Common Tasks with WP-CLI

Not sure what you can do with WP-CLI? This page showcases practical, everyday WordPress management tasks you can accomplish from the command line — with examples you can use right away.

New to the command line? Start with the Beginner's Guide first.

Plugins

Install a plugin

wp plugin install contact-form-7

Install and activate a plugin in one step

wp plugin install contact-form-7 --activate

Activate an already-installed plugin

wp plugin activate contact-form-7

Deactivate a plugin

wp plugin deactivate contact-form-7

Update a specific plugin

wp plugin update akismet

Update all plugins at once

wp plugin update --all

List all installed plugins and their status

wp plugin list

Delete a plugin

wp plugin delete hello

Themes

Install a theme

wp theme install twentytwentyfour

Activate a theme

wp theme activate twentytwentyfour

Update all themes

wp theme update --all

List all installed themes

wp theme list

WordPress Core

Check which version of WordPress is installed

wp core version

Check if a WordPress update is available

wp core check-update

Update WordPress to the latest version

wp core update

Update the WordPress database after an update

wp core update-db

Users

List all users

wp user list

Create a new user

wp user create jane jane@example.com --role=editor

Change a user's password

wp user update jane --user_pass=newpassword

Delete a user

wp user delete jane --reassign=1

Tip: The --reassign=1 option moves the deleted user's posts to the user with ID 1 (usually the site admin). Replace 1 with the ID of the user you want to reassign posts to.

Add an administrator role to an existing user

wp user set-role jane administrator

Posts and Pages

Create a new post

wp post create --post_title="My First Post" --post_status=publish --post_type=post

Create a new page

wp post create --post_title="About Us" --post_status=publish --post_type=page

List all published posts

wp post list --post_status=publish

Delete a post (sends it to trash)

wp post delete 42

Permanently delete a post

wp post delete 42 --force

Comments

List all comments awaiting moderation

wp comment list --status=hold

Approve a comment

wp comment approve 5

Delete spam comments

wp comment delete $(wp comment list --status=spam --format=ids)

Note: The $(...) syntax works in bash (macOS, Linux, Git Bash, or WSL on Windows). It does not work in Windows Command Prompt. Windows users should use Git Bash, WSL, or PowerShell to run this command.

Options and Settings

Get the site URL

wp option get siteurl

Get the site title

wp option get blogname

Change the site title

wp option update blogname "My New Site Title"

Discourage search engines from indexing the site

wp option update blog_public 0

Re-enable search engine indexing

wp option update blog_public 1

Search and Replace

Preview what would change when moving a site to a new domain

wp search-replace 'http://oldsite.com' 'http://newsite.com' --dry-run

Replace URLs when moving to a new domain

wp search-replace 'http://oldsite.com' 'http://newsite.com'

Media

Regenerate all thumbnail sizes

Useful after changing your theme or adding a new image size:

wp media regenerate --yes

Caching

Flush the object cache

wp cache flush

Flush rewrite rules (useful after adding a new plugin or changing permalink settings)

wp rewrite flush

Database

Export the database to a file

wp db export backup.sql

Import a database from a file

wp db import backup.sql

Open an interactive database console

wp db cli

WP-CLI Itself

Check the installed version of WP-CLI

wp cli version

Update WP-CLI to the latest version

wp cli update

Get system information useful for troubleshooting

wp --info

Going Further

These examples only scratch the surface. WP-CLI has commands for nearly every part of WordPress. To explore more:

• Browse the full list of built-in commands.
• Read the Quick Start Guide for a more detailed walkthrough.
• Check out External Resources for tutorials, blog posts, and videos.