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wp server

wp server

Launches PHP’s built-in web server for a specific WordPress installation.

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This command runs on the before_wp_load hook, just before the WP load process begins.
Note: The following options are not part of a stable WP-CLI release yet: --adapt-scheme. To use them now, switch to the nightly build with wp cli update --nightly. If you installed the command as a separate package, updating that package may be enough.
Uses php -S to launch a web server serving the WordPress webroot. <http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.webserver.php> Importantly, PHP’s built-in web server doesn’t support .htaccess files. If this is a requirement, please use a more advanced web server.

Options

See the argument syntax reference for a detailed explanation of the syntax conventions used.
[–host=<host>]
The hostname to bind the server to. — default: localhost —
[–port=<port>]
The port number to bind the server to. — default: 8080 —
[–docroot=<path>]
The path to use as the document root. If the path global parameter is set, the default value is it.
[–config=<file>]
Configure the server with a specific .ini file.
[–adapt-scheme]
Replace HTTPS URLs matching the original site URL with HTTP in server responses. Useful when the site is configured with HTTPS but the development server runs on HTTP.
[<passthrough>…]
Optional arguments to pass to the PHP binary. Any arguments after -- will be passed through to the php command.

Examples

# Make the instance available on any address (with port 8080)
$ wp server --host=0.0.0.0
PHP 5.6.9 Development Server started at Tue May 24 01:27:11 2016
Listening on http://0.0.0.0:8080
Document root is /
Press Ctrl-C to quit.

# Run on port 80 (for multisite)
$ wp server --host=localhost.localdomain --port=80
PHP 5.6.9 Development Server started at Tue May 24 01:30:06 2016
Listening on http://localhost1.localdomain1:80
Document root is /
Press Ctrl-C to quit.

# Configure the server with a specific .ini file
$ wp server --config=development.ini
PHP 7.0.9 Development Server started at Mon Aug 22 12:09:04 2016
Listening on http://localhost:8080
Document root is /
Press Ctrl-C to quit.

# Pass extra parameters to the PHP binary
$ wp server --docroot=public -- -dzend_extension=xdebug.so
PHP 7.4.0 Development Server started at Wed Nov 10 18:00:00 2025
Listening on http://localhost:8080
Document root is /var/www/public
Press Ctrl-C to quit.

# Adapt HTTPS links when the site is configured with HTTPS
$ wp server --adapt-scheme
PHP 8.0.0 Development Server started at Wed Nov 10 18:00:00 2025
Listening on http://localhost:8080
Document root is /var/www/html
Press Ctrl-C to quit.

Global Parameters

These global parameters have the same behavior across all commands and affect how WP-CLI interacts with WordPress.
Argument Description
--path=<path> Path to the WordPress files.
--url=<url> Pretend request came from given URL. In multisite, this argument is how the target site is specified.
--ssh=[<scheme>:][<user>@]<host\|container>[:<port>][<path>] Perform operation against a remote server over SSH (or a container using scheme of “docker”, “docker-compose”, “docker-compose-run”, “vagrant”).
--ssh-args=<args> Pass additional arguments to SSH (or other tools specified by –ssh scheme).
--http=<http> Perform operation against a remote WordPress installation over HTTP.
--user=<id\|login\|email> Set the WordPress user.
--skip-plugins[=<plugins>] Skip loading all plugins, or a comma-separated list of plugins. Note: mu-plugins are still loaded.
--skip-themes[=<themes>] Skip loading all themes, or a comma-separated list of themes.
--skip-packages Skip loading all installed packages.
--require=<path> Load PHP file before running the command (may be used more than once).
--exec=<php-code> Execute PHP code before running the command (may be used more than once).
--context=<context> Load WordPress in a given context.
--[no-]color Whether to colorize the output.
--debug[=<group>] Show all PHP errors and add verbosity to WP-CLI output. Built-in groups include: bootstrap, commandfactory, and help.
--prompt[=<assoc>] Prompt the user to enter values for all command arguments, or a subset specified as comma-separated values.
--quiet Suppress informational messages.
--alias=<name> Name of the alias to use. Aliases can reference local WordPress installations or remote SSH connections. Aliases are defined in the wp-cli.yml file.
--assume-https Set $_SERVER[‘HTTPS’] to make WordPress treat the site as HTTPS. Use when WordPress is behind an HTTPS proxy or load balancer.

Command documentation is regenerated at every release. To add or update an example, please submit a pull request against the corresponding part of the codebase.