Wp Defaults

WP Defaults

Routine cleanup Mark does on every fresh WordPress install, automated so it happens the same way every time.

Fresh installs only. If the project is an existing site pulled into DDEV, do not run this — it would stomp on the client's own wp-config.php and could delete real content that happens to share a title with WordPress's default sample content.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS — optional path to the DDEV project directory. If omitted, use the current directory.

Step 0 — Confirm context

Verify this looks like a DDEV WordPress project with WordPress already installed:

ddev wp core is-installed

If this fails (DDEV not running, or WP not installed yet), stop and report — don't guess at what state the project is in. This skill runs after wp core install, not instead of it.

Step 1 — wp-config debug constants

ddev wp config set WP_DEBUG true --raw --type=constant
ddev wp config set WP_DEBUG_LOG true --raw --type=constant
ddev wp config set WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY false --raw --type=constant
ddev wp config set SCRIPT_DEBUG true --raw --type=constant

Step 2 — Remove default sample content

WordPress's own installer creates a "Hello world!" post, a "Sample Page", and one comment on that post. Find and delete them by exact title match (don't assume IDs 1/2 — safer against any variation in install order):

ddev wp post delete $(ddev wp post list --post_type=post --title="Hello world!" --field=ID --format=csv) --force
ddev wp post delete $(ddev wp post list --post_type=page --title="Sample Page" --field=ID --format=csv) --force

Deleting the post cascades to its comments, so there's no separate comment deletion needed once the post itself is gone. If either title isn't found (empty ID list), skip that delete silently rather than erroring on an empty argument.

Step 3 — Remove default bundled plugins

ddev wp plugin delete hello
ddev wp plugin delete akismet

Hello Dolly's plugin slug is hello (the folder is hello.php, not hello-dolly) — using the wrong slug doesn't error, wp plugin delete just reports "already deleted" and exits 0 while leaving the real plugin in place, so double check the plugin is actually gone (wp plugin list or ls wp-content/plugins/) rather than trusting the delete command's own exit code.

Jetpack is not bundled by a plain wp core download + wp core install — it only shows up on some hosting providers' images. Check before deleting:

ddev wp plugin is-installed jetpack && ddev wp plugin delete jetpack

is-installed correctly exits 1 when absent, so the && guard skips the delete cleanly in the normal fresh-install case.

If any plugin delete fails because the plugin isn't present, don't treat it as an error — report it as "not present, skipped" and continue.

Step 4 — Report

wp-defaults: {path}
  ✓ WP_DEBUG=true, WP_DEBUG_LOG=true, WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY=false, SCRIPT_DEBUG=true
  ✓ Removed sample post/page (or: "not found, skipped")
  ✓ Removed hello-dolly, akismet  (note any "not present, skipped")

Guard rails

• Never run this against an existing-site pull. If unsure which case this is, ask rather than assume.
• Don't delete anything by ID without confirming by title first — a client's real content could coincidentally occupy post ID 1 or 2 on an existing site; title-matching against WordPress's exact default strings is the safeguard, and only applies at all on a fresh install where those titles are known to be the installer's own placeholders.