Author: admin

Testing WordPress plugins with wp-env
Testing WordPress plugins on a live site can go very wrong! I have discovered a simple way to test WordPress plugins locally: wp-env. This CLI tool makes it really easy to create an instance of a docker container which runs the latest verson of WordPress.

To add wp-env as a local developer dependency:
```
npm i @wordpress/env --save-dev
```
Set-up

I recommend creating a config file for wp-env. If you have a repo where you are developing a plugin, then use something like the following in your .wp-env.json file. This example tells wp-env that you are working on two plugins, and lists the directories which contain the plugin files:
```
{
    "$schema": "https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/wp-env.json",
    "plugins": [
        "./tdp-plugin-1",
        "./tdp-plugin-2"
    ]
}
```
Running wp-env

The command to start up the WordPress containers is:
```
npx wp-env start
```
Once the containers are up and running, you should be able to access the WordPress site at localhost:8888. The default username and password are admin and password! The plugins should be pre-installed and ready for testing.

The command to stop the containers is:
```
npx wp-env stop
```
References
August 8, 2026