wordpress-plugin-scaffold

WordPress Plugin Scaffold

This skill provides guidance for scaffolding WordPress plugins using WP-CLI’s scaffold commands. It supports both creating new plugins from scratch and adding test infrastructure to existing plugins.

Note: This skill works seamlessly with the wp-env skill (if available). When wp-env setup or management is needed, activate the wp-env skill for comprehensive environment handling.

About WP-CLI Scaffold Commands

WP-CLI provides two primary scaffolding commands for plugin development:

wp scaffold plugin

Generates starter code for a new plugin, including:

• Main plugin PHP file
• readme.txt for WordPress.org
• package.json with Grunt tasks for i18n and readme conversion
• Editor configuration files (.editorconfig, .gitignore, .distignore)
• Optional: PHPUnit test suite, CI configuration, and PHP_CodeSniffer rules

wp scaffold plugin-tests

Adds PHPUnit test infrastructure to an existing plugin, including:

• phpunit.xml.dist configuration
• CI configuration (CircleCI, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Bitbucket)
• bin/install-wp-tests.sh for WordPress test suite setup
• tests/bootstrap.php to activate the plugin during tests
• tests/test-sample.php with example test cases
• .phpcs.xml.dist for PHP_CodeSniffer rules

Prerequisites

Verify WP-CLI is installed and accessible:

wp --version

If WP-CLI is not installed, see references/wp-cli-installation.md for comprehensi