WP-CLI is the command-line interface for WordPress. Every admin UI operation can be done faster via WP-CLI.
Install
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
chmod +x wp-cli.phar
sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp
wp --info
Core
wp core download --locale=en_US
wp config create --dbname=mydb --dbuser=myuser --dbpass=mypass --dbhost=localhost
wp core install --url=https://example.com --title="Site" --admin_user=admin --admin_password=pass --admin_email=admin@example.com
wp core version
wp core update && wp core update-db
Plugins
wp plugin list
wp plugin install woocommerce --activate
wp plugin update --all
wp plugin deactivate bad-plugin && wp plugin delete bad-plugin
Users
wp user list
wp user create newadmin admin@example.com --role=administrator --user_pass=securepass
wp user update 1 --user_pass=newpassword
wp user delete 5 --reassign=1
Database
# Export
wp db export backup-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).sql
# Import
wp db import backup-2026-05-12.sql
# Search-replace (handles serialized data)
wp search-replace 'http://oldsite.com' 'https://newsite.com' --all-tables
# Optimize
wp db optimize
# Raw SQL
wp db query "DELETE FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key LIKE '_transient_%'"
Cache and Rewrites
wp rewrite flush
wp transient delete --all
wp cache flush
wp media regenerate --yes
Config
wp config get WP_DEBUG
wp config set WP_DEBUG true --raw --type=constant
wp config set DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT true --raw --type=constant
wp config list
Cron
wp cron event list
wp cron event run --due-now
wp cron event schedule my_hook now hourly
wp cron event delete my_hook