Indistinguishable at the seams. Radically simpler inside.
Minn Engine is a from-scratch, MIT-licensed engine that speaks WordPress's operational contracts (the wp_* database schema, the file layout, the wp/v2 REST surface, the WP-CLI ops verbs) so precisely that hosting infrastructure cannot tell the difference. It pairs with Minn Admin as its native interface, and it is built agent-first from day one.
It is not a fork. No WordPress code appears in this repository, which is what makes the MIT license possible. See docs/vision.md for the full thesis, including the two-tier compatibility model and the license analysis, and CLAUDE.md for the ground rules every contribution follows.
0.1.0, the first release. Minn swaps into an existing WordPress site's webroot in one command and back out in one, beside the site's untouched wp-config.php and database and its own wp-content/. Visitors read the site through its theme, Minn Admin is the admin, plugins written for WordPress load against Minn's own implementation of the functions and hooks they call, and backup, migration and WP-CLI tooling keep working. What it does is listed in changelog.md.
Measured against WordPress 7.1.3 on the same database:
- The whole PHP API is accounted for. All 3,914 functions, 380 classes and 4,075 methods WordPress defines are either implemented and proven by a probe that compares Minn's answer with WordPress's, or a deliberate dead end that answers harmlessly. The dead ends are mostly the screens Minn replaces (wp-admin, the block and site editors, the Customizer) and XML-RPC.
- Every hook WordPress fires is accounted for, 2,543 of them.
- No page runs more database queries than WordPress on the five pages measured: the front page, a post, an archive, a search, and the REST posts list.
- 91 test suites, about 26,700 checks, most of them comparing Minn's answer with a running WordPress on the same database. 87.6% of the engine's lines run under them.
- A security sweep before the release: 30 findings, each fixed and pinned by a test. Reporting a vulnerability:
security.md. - Never contacts wordpress.org. Update checks, directory search, translations and downloads go to updates.minn.run, Minn's update service.
On a host, from the WordPress webroot (the directory with wp-config.php):
bash <(curl -sL https://minn.run/install)
That downloads the latest engine zip, runs preflight, and swaps the webroot over.
wp-config.php, wp-content/, and the database stay where they are; the first
request puts Minn Admin in wp-content/plugins/minn-admin, where it stays after
an eject. Reverse it with php minn/bin/minn eject .. See docs/install.md.
The engine is one folder, public/minn/, dropped into a WordPress webroot beside an untouched wp-config.php:
public/
index.php stock front controller
wp-config.php the file WordPress generated, never edited
wp-settings.php two lines: require minn/bootstrap.php
wp-cli.yml routes the WP-CLI verbs to the engine (contracts/cli.md)
wp-includes/
version.php the version file tooling parses (contracts/layout.md)
wp-content/ themes and uploads
minn/
bootstrap.php version, autoloader, Minn\Engine::serve()
src/Minn/ the engine (PSR-4)
assets/ data/ the engine's own stylesheet and seeded registries
admin/ the Minn Admin release it ships, laid into wp-content/plugins
cli.php WP-CLI entry point
layout/ templates of the four shape files above, for install
bin/minn preflight, install, eject, status, update (docs/install.md)
Everything else in this repository (tests/, contracts/, docs/, scripts/, the changelog, and site/, the block theme behind the project's own site) is development only and never ships. php scripts/build-release.php builds the release archive: the engine as committed plus the latest Minn Admin release, whole, at minn/admin, signed with the release key. On a development site public/minn can be a symlink into this repository so several sites run the same code.
Every surface is pinned by two suites: fixtures captured from a reference WordPress, and a live parity diff that treats a running WordPress on the same database as the oracle. Run them with tests/run-all.sh. Contract notes and known gaps live in contracts/. The whole engine follows docs/style.md (modern namespaced PHP under public/minn/src/Minn/, enforced by tests/style.test.php).
MIT. WordPress is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation; Minn Engine is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the WordPress Foundation or Automattic.
