newwp.sh

A zero-friction WordPress site bootstrapper for local development with Laravel Herd.

Spin up a fully-configured, secured, plugin-loaded WordPress site at https://<sitename>.test with a single command.

newwp mycoolsite

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Table of Contents

• What It Does
• Requirements
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• What Happens Under the Hood
• Customizing the Defaults
• Optional Additions
• Troubleshooting
• Uninstalling a Site

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What It Does

In a single command, newwp will:

1. ✅ Create a new site directory under ~/Herd/
2. ✅ Download the latest WordPress core
3. ✅ Create a fresh MySQL database
4. ✅ Generate wp-config.php with fresh salts, debug enabled, and revision limits
5. ✅ Install WordPress with your admin account
6. ✅ Wipe default content (Hello World post, sample page, etc.)
7. ✅ Remove bundled plugins (Hello Dolly, Akismet) and inactive themes
8. ✅ Set timezone, disable comments/pingbacks, enable pretty permalinks
9. ✅ Secure the site with HTTPS via Herd
10. ✅ Install + activate every plugin you keep in ~/Scripts/zips/
11. ✅ Open the login page in your browser

Total time: ~10 seconds.

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Requirements

Tool	Purpose	Install
Bash 4+	Script runtime	Pre-installed on macOS
Herd	Local PHP/MySQL/Nginx	herd.laravel.com
WP-CLI	WordPress command-line interface	brew install wp-cli
MySQL	Database server	Bundled with Herd Pro, or brew install mysql
unzip	Plugin zip extraction	Pre-installed on macOS

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Installation

1. Clone or place the script

Drop newwp.sh into ~/Scripts/ (or wherever you keep your shell scripts).

chmod +x ~/Scripts/newwp.sh

2. Create the credentials file

The script reads database and admin credentials from ~/.config/newwp.env — never commit this file to git.

mkdir -p ~/.config
touch ~/.config/newwp.env
chmod 600 ~/.config/newwp.env

Open it in your editor and add:

# Database credentials (your local MySQL user)
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=your_mysql_password

# WordPress admin account (used for every new site)
WP_ADMIN_USER=yourname
WP_ADMIN_EMAIL=you@example.com
WP_ADMIN_PASS=a_strong_password_here

💡 The chmod 600 step locks the file to read/write for you only — important since it contains plaintext passwords.

3. Create the plugin zips folder

mkdir -p ~/Scripts/zips

Drop any premium or pre-configured plugin .zip files in here. Every new site will get them auto-installed and activated. Leave the folder empty if you don't need this.

4. Add a shell alias (optional but recommended)

Add this to your ~/.zshrc:

alias newwp="~/Scripts/newwp.sh"

Then reload:

source ~/.zshrc

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Configuration

All tunable values live in ~/.config/newwp.env:

Variable	Description	Example
DB_USER	MySQL username	root
DB_PASS	MySQL password	secret123
WP_ADMIN_USER	WordPress admin login	username
WP_ADMIN_EMAIL	WordPress admin email	you@example.com
WP_ADMIN_PASS	WordPress admin password	super_secure_pw

Other settings (timezone, permalink structure, debug flags) are hardcoded in the script — see Customizing the Defaults.

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Usage

Create a new site

newwp mysite

This creates:

• A folder at ~/Herd/mysite/
• A database named wp_mysite
• A site reachable at https://mysite.test

Common patterns

# Client project
newwp acme-redesign

# Quick test
newwp test-$(date +%Y%m%d)

# Plugin development sandbox
newwp gravityforms-test

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What Happens Under the Hood

The script runs through these phases — each one prints a colored status header:

==> Setting up site directory
  ✓ Created ~/Herd/mysite

==> Downloading WordPress
  ✓ WordPress core downloaded

==> Configuring database
  ✓ Database wp_mysite created

==> Tuning wp-config.php
  ✓ Fresh salts + debug + revision limit set

==> Installing WordPress
  ✓ WordPress installed

==> Cleaning default content
  ✓ Removed default plugins
  ✓ Removed inactive themes

==> Setting site preferences
  ✓ Timezone, comments, and permalinks configured

==> Securing site with HTTPS
  ✓ HTTPS enabled via Herd

==> Installing custom plugins
  ✓ Custom plugins extracted
  ✓ All plugins updated and activated

✓ Site ready: https://mysite.test

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Customizing the Defaults

Open ~/Scripts/newwp.sh and look for the "Tuning wp-config.php" and "Setting site preferences" sections.

Current defaults

Setting	Value
Timezone	America/Boise
Comments	Closed by default
Pingbacks	Closed by default
Permalink structure	/%postname%/
WP_DEBUG	true
WP_DEBUG_LOG	true
WP_POST_REVISIONS	5
Salts	Freshly randomized

To change

Just edit the relevant wp option update or wp config set line. For example, to change the timezone:

wp option update timezone_string "America/New_York"

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Optional Additions

Here are useful WP-CLI commands you could fold in to extend the script:

Default Pages

Scaffold the standard pages every site needs:

wp post create --post_type=page --post_title='About'   --post_status=publish
wp post create --post_type=page --post_title='Contact' --post_status=publish
wp post create --post_type=page --post_title='Privacy' --post_status=publish

Auto-Install Plugins from WP.org

Skip the zip dance entirely for any plugin on the WordPress.org repository:

wp plugin install advanced-custom-fields wordpress-seo wp-mail-smtp --activate

Set a Default Theme

wp theme install astra --activate

Generate Test Content

For development sites where you want some posts to play with:

wp post generate --count=20
wp comment generate --count=50

Build a Navigation Menu

wp menu create "Main Menu"
wp menu item add-post main-menu $(wp post list --post_type=page --field=ID | head -1)
wp menu location assign main-menu primary

Disable File Editing in Admin (hardening)

wp config set DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT true --raw
wp config set DISALLOW_FILE_MODS true --raw

Disable Auto-Updates

wp config set AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED true --raw

Run Site Health Checks

Requires the doctor command package:

wp package install wp-cli/doctor-command:@stable
wp doctor check --all

Generate REST API Application Password

For external services that need to push to your site:

wp user application-password create "$WP_ADMIN_USER" "Local Dev"

Set Site Description

wp option update blogdescription "A site built with newwp.sh"

Install a Language

wp language core install en_GB --activate

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Troubleshooting

Missing credentials file at /Users/.../newwp.env

You haven't created the credentials file yet — see Installation step 2.

Site 'mysite' already exists at ~/Herd/mysite

The script refuses to overwrite existing sites. Either pick a new name or uninstall the old site first.

Error establishing a database connection

• Verify MySQL is running: brew services list or check Herd's UI
• Verify DB_USER and DB_PASS in ~/.config/newwp.env match your actual MySQL credentials
• Test manually: mysql -u root -p

wp: command not found

Install WP-CLI:

brew install wp-cli

herd: command not found

Install Herd from herd.laravel.com and make sure it's running.

The browser opens but shows a security warning

Herd's HTTPS certs need to be trusted. Run:

herd trust

Plugins aren't getting installed

• Verify ~/Scripts/zips/ exists and contains .zip files
• Plugins downloaded from WordPress.org sometimes come wrapped in a parent folder — the script handles __MACOSX/ cleanup automatically

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Uninstalling a Site

There's no built-in uninstaller, but it's a three-step manual process:

# 1. Drop the database
wp db drop --yes --path=~/Herd/mysite

# 2. Remove the site directory
rm -rf ~/Herd/mysite

# 3. Remove the Herd HTTPS cert (optional)
herd unsecure mysite

⚠️ This is destructive and irreversible. Double-check the site name before running.

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Author: Adam Lea License: Personal use