Streamlining WordPress Development with Automated Deployment: SSH + WP-CLI Script

Enhancing efficiency and safety in remote WordPress development workflows

Overview

Deploying updates to WordPress sites—be it themes, plugins, or core files—can often become a tedious process, especially when done manually. Repeated FTP uploads, plugin reactivations, and backups consume valuable time and introduce potential risks. Recognizing these inefficiencies, I developed a streamlined deployment solution utilizing SSH and WP-CLI, tailored to reduce manual effort and improve workflow speed for WordPress?” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>WordPress developers.

The Challenge in WordPress?” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>WordPress Development

Many developers working remotely face repetitive deployment tasks:

• Manual FTP/SFTP file transfers
• Deactivating and reactivating plugins or themes
• Ensuring reliable backups
• Managing version control and rollbacks

These steps, when performed individually, can take several minutes per deployment cycle, hampering productivity—particularly in fast-paced client environments or local testing scenarios.

Introducing the Automated Deployment Script

To address this, I authored a free, open-source deployment script (available on GitHub) that automates key deployment operations with a single command. Built with accessibility and flexibility in mind, this solution is ideal for approximately 80% of WordPress?” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>WordPress developers who currently deploy manually.

Key Features

• One-Click Deployment: Push themes/plugins live instantly
• Automatic Backups: Local and remote backups with versioning
• Plugin/Theme Management: Deactivation, update, and reactivation via WP-CLI
• Effective Rollback: Quick restoration to previous versions
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Works smoothly on Windows WSL, Linux, and macOS
• Workflow Integration: Right-click context menu for faster updates
• Version Management: Increment version numbers effortlessly
• Sample Data Installer: Rapid initial setup for testing environments
• Central Config File: Simplified setup with adjustable parameters

Backup Strategy for Data Safety and Versioning

The script offers multiple backup options, all configurable:

• Local Tarball: Compressed archive stored on the local machine
• Remote Tarball: Backup stored on the server
• Folder Renaming: Each backup tagged with version numbers
• Compression Options: Use of pigz for faster compression, Gzip for stability
• File Handling: Compression performed before remote transfer to optimize speed

Sample backup directory structure:

“`
Local:
├