WordPress tools

Manage a WordPress site from its service: versions, plugin, theme and core updates, maintenance and debug mode, search-replace for a new URL, an admin password reset and PHP limits, all through WP-CLI.

A service that runs the official WordPress image gets a WordPress tab. It shows what the site is running and lets you do the everyday WordPress chores without opening a terminal: update WordPress, its plugins and themes, switch maintenance or debug mode on, move the site to a new address, give an administrator a new password, and raise PHP's upload and memory limits.

What you need first

A service running the official wordpress image (any version: Apache, FPM or Alpine), deployed with Docker to one of your own servers. The WordPress app from the catalog is set up this way.
The WordPress install finished: open the site once and create the admin account.
To change anything: the Owner or Admin role in the organization. Everyone who can see the service can read the tab.

Where it is

Open the project, then Apps & Services, click the WordPress service and open its WordPress tab. The tab only appears for services whose image is wordpress:<tag>; the wordpress:cli image and other WordPress images (for example Bitnami's) don't get it.

How Synq talks to WordPress

Everything runs through WP-CLI, the official command-line tool for WordPress. The site container is never changed for this:

Synq starts a one-shot container from the official wordpress:cli image next to your site, with the same PHP version when the site's tag names one (wordpress:cli-php8.4 for wordpress:7.1.2-php8.4-apache).
That container shares the site's files (its volumes), its network (so the database host resolves the same way) and its environment (the WORDPRESS_DB_* settings), and runs as the user that owns the WordPress files, so updated files stay writable by the web server.
It runs one command and is removed. Reads take a few seconds; updates can take a few minutes.
If the server can't pull the wordpress:cli image and your image ships its own wp, Synq uses that inside the site container instead.

Commands are built as argument lists, never as shell text, and every value you type is checked against a strict pattern first: plugin and theme names, URLs and user names. The new admin password is passed to WP-CLI in an environment variable, never on a command line.

What the tab shows

WordPress and PHP versions, the site URL (and the home URL when it differs), and how WP-CLI runs.
A core update when WordPress offers one.
Plugins and Themes: active or inactive, version, and whether an update is available.
Maintenance mode and Debug mode switches.
PHP settings, with the values the site reads right now.

Press Refresh to read everything again.

Update WordPress, plugins and themes

Choose what to update

Press Update next to the WordPress version, next to a plugin or theme, or Update all above the plugin or theme list.

Back up first

The confirmation offers Back up first when the project has a backup policy for the WordPress service, its database service (the one WORDPRESS_DB_HOST names) or one of their volumes. It is on by default: Synq runs those backups, shows their progress, and starts the update only when all of them succeeded. If a backup fails, nothing is changed; you can cancel or choose Continue without a backup.

Without a policy the dialog says so. Set one up on the service's Backup tab first if you want a copy to go back to; see Backups & restore.

Update

WordPress shows its maintenance page while an update runs. A core update also runs the database upgrade (wp core update-db). When it finishes, the result shows each item's old and new version.

WordPress removes maintenance mode when an update finishes. If maintenance mode was on before, Synq switches it back on afterwards.

Plugins and themes

Activate or Deactivate a plugin, and Delete an inactive one (its files are removed; its settings in the database stay).
Activate a theme to switch the site to it.

A plugin that breaks WordPress can still be listed and deactivated here: Synq lists plugins again without loading any of them when the normal list fails.

Maintenance mode

Switch Maintenance mode on and visitors see WordPress's "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance" page until you switch it off. Unlike the file wp maintenance-mode activate writes, Synq's does not expire after ten minutes.

Debug mode

Switching Debug mode on sets WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php, logs PHP errors to /tmp/wp-debug.log inside the site container, and keeps them off the page (WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY false). The log is outside the web root, so visitors can't download it; read it from the service's Terminal tab:

tail -f /tmp/wp-debug.log

The log is cleared when the container is recreated. Switching debug mode off sets WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG back to false.

WORDPRESS_DEBUG

The official image reads WP_DEBUG from the WORDPRESS_DEBUG variable. Once you use the switch, wp-config.php holds the value itself and WORDPRESS_DEBUG no longer changes it.

Flush the cache and permalinks

Flush now empties the object cache (wp cache flush) and rebuilds the permalink rules (wp rewrite flush). Use it after changing permalinks or when a caching plugin shows stale pages.

Move the site to a new URL

WordPress stores its address in the database, so a new domain or a switch to HTTPS needs the old address replaced everywhere it is stored. Search and replace URL does that with wp search-replace:

Enter the old and new URL

Both must be full http:// or https:// addresses (no query string). The old one starts as the current site URL. A trailing slash is ignored.

Count the matches

Count matches runs a dry run and shows how many values would change. Nothing is written.

Replace

Replace N matches asks for confirmation (with Back up first, as for updates). Synq runs the dry run again and only replaces when it still finds the number you confirmed; if the site changed in between, it stops and shows the new count.

The replacement covers every table with the site's prefix, handles serialized data, and never touches the guid column (GUIDs identify posts in feeds and must not change). The cache is flushed afterwards.

Reset an administrator's password

Pick an administrator under Administrator password and press Reset password. Synq generates a strong password, sets it with WP-CLI and shows it once, in a hidden field with a copy button. It is not stored or logged anywhere. The user is signed out everywhere and must use the new password.

PHP settings

Setting	PHP directive	Range
Max upload size	`upload_max_filesize`	1 to 4096 MB
Max post size	`post_max_size`	1 to 4096 MB, at least the upload size
Memory limit	`memory_limit`	64 to 4096 MB
Max execution time	`max_execution_time`	10 to 3600 seconds
Max input vars	`max_input_vars`	1000 to 100000

Save and restart writes the values to /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/zz-synq-php.ini, a file mount on the service (it is listed on the Volumes tab), and redeploys the service so the new container reads it. The site is unavailable for a few seconds while its container is recreated. The file sorts after the image's own PHP files, so its values win.

Uploads through the proxy

The proxy in front of the site accepts 50 MB per request unless you raise it in the domain's proxy settings. Raise both for large uploads.

Audit log

Every change made from the tab is recorded in the audit log as WordPress changed, with the operation and its targets (plugin names, versions, URLs, the user whose password was reset). Passwords and WP-CLI output are never recorded.

Limits

Only the official wordpress image. Multisite networks work for updates and plugin management; plugin activation is per site (network activation isn't offered).
The WP-CLI container needs to pull wordpress:cli from Docker Hub once per server.
Debug mode and PHP settings are for one service; they don't follow a clone of the site.
WP-CLI needs a Docker service on one of your servers; on a cloud workspace the tab says it can't run.

API

The tab uses these service endpoints (see Services):

Endpoint	What it does
`GET /api/projects/:id/services/:serviceId/wordpress`	Status: versions, URLs, plugins, themes, updates, maintenance, debug, PHP settings, backup policies.
`POST /api/projects/:id/services/:serviceId/wordpress/actions`	One action: `core.update`, `plugins.update`, `themes.update`, `plugin.activate`, `plugin.deactivate`, `plugin.delete`, `theme.activate`, `cache.flush`, `maintenance.set`, `debug.set`.
`POST /api/projects/:id/services/:serviceId/wordpress/search-replace`	Dry run (default) or replace with `dryRun: false` and the confirmed `expectedCount`.
`POST /api/projects/:id/services/:serviceId/wordpress/reset-password`	New generated password for an administrator, returned once.
`PUT /api/projects/:id/services/:serviceId/wordpress/php`	Save the PHP settings file; redeploy the service to apply it.

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