Plugin Creation

Silver Assist — Plugin Creation

This skill covers scaffolding a brand-new Silver Assist WordPress plugin from zero, following the unified standards documented in SILVERASSIST_STANDARDS.md v2.0.0.

When to Use

• Creating a new Silver Assist WordPress plugin from scratch
• Setting up the full directory structure for a plugin
• Understanding the standard plugin architecture
• Bootstrapping all configuration files (PHPCS, PHPStan, PHPUnit, CI/CD)
• Adding AI agent customization (copilot-instructions, file instructions, skills)

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.2+
• Composer installed globally
• WordPress 6.5+ development environment
• GitHub repository under the SilverAssist organization

Architecture Overview

File Structure

Every Silver Assist plugin follows this structure:

plugin-name/
├── plugin-name.php              # Main plugin file
├── composer.json                # Composer dependencies & autoloading
├── README.md                    # User documentation
├── CONTRIBUTING.md              # Developer documentation
├── CHANGELOG.md                 # Version history
├── LICENSE                      # License file
├── phpcs.xml                    # PHPCS configuration
├── phpstan.neon                 # PHPStan configuration
├── phpunit.xml.dist             # PHPUnit configuration
├── .github/
│   ├── copilot-instructions.md  # Global AI agent context
│   ├── instructions/            # File-specific AI instructions
│   │   ├── php.instructions.md
│   │   ├── testing.instructions.md
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── skills/                  # Specialized AI task skills
│   │   ├── release-management/
│   │   ├── quality-checks/
│   │   └── ...
│   └── workflows/               # CI/CD workflows
│       ├── ci.yml
│       ├── release.yml
│       ├── dependency-updates.yml
│       └── quality-checks.yml
├── includes/                    # PSR-4 classes
│   ├── Core/
│   │   ├── Plugin.php           # Main plugin bootstrap (extends AbstractPlugin)
│   │   └── Activator.php        # Activation/deactivation logic
│   ├── Service/                 # Business logic services
│   │   └── Loader.php
│   ├── Admin/                   # WordPress admin integration
│   │   └── Loader.php
│   ├── Controller/              # HTTP/Admin request handlers
│   ├── View/                    # HTML rendering (static classes)
│   ├── Model/                   # Domain models
│   ├── Repository/              # Data access layer
│   └── Utils/                   # Utility classes
│       ├── Helpers.php
│       └── Logger.php
├── assets/
│   ├── css/
│   └── js/
├── languages/
│   └── plugin-name.pot
├── scripts/
│   ├── build-release.sh
│   ├── run-quality-checks.sh
│   ├── install-wp-tests.sh
│   ├── update-version-simple.sh
│   └── check-versions.sh
├── tests/
│   ├── bootstrap.php
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── Unit/
│   ├── Integration/
│   └── Helpers/
│       ├── TestCase.php
│       └── Helpers.php
└── docs/
    └── API_REFERENCE.md

PSR-4 Autoloading

Namespace: SilverAssist\PluginName\

• PHP classes: PascalCase.php matching class names exactly
• Directories: PascalCase/ (e.g., Core/, Admin/, Service/)
• Assets: kebab-case.css, kebab-case.js

LoadableInterface Priority System

LoadableInterface and the AbstractPlugin bootstrap it powers both ship from the silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel package (composer require silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel) — plugins implement \SilverAssist\PluginKernel\Interfaces\LoadableInterface, they do not hand-write it per repo.

All components implement LoadableInterface with three methods:

• init() — Initialize the component
• get_priority() — Loading order (lower = first)
• should_load() — Conditional loading

Priority values (unchanged from before the kernel package existed):

• 10: Core components (Plugin, Activator, critical services)
• 20: Services (business logic, API clients)
• 30: Admin components (controllers, settings pages)
• 40: Utils & Assets (helpers, loggers)

Plugin.php itself extends \SilverAssist\PluginKernel\AbstractPlugin, which provides instance(), init(), and the priority-ordered load loop — the concrete plugin only implements get_components(): array (and, optionally, init_hooks() for non-component plugin-level hooks such as wp-github-updater initialization). See Step 3 below.

Step-by-Step Plugin Creation

Step 1: Create Directory and Initialize Composer

mkdir plugin-name && cd plugin-name

Create composer.json:

{
    "name": "silverassist/plugin-slug",
    "description": "WordPress plugin description",
    "type": "wordpress-plugin",
    "license": "PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0",
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "Silver Assist",
            "homepage": "https://silverassist.com/"
        }
    ],
    "minimum-stability": "stable",
    "require": {
        "php": ">=8.2",
        "composer/installers": "^2.0",
        "silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel": "^1.0",
        "silverassist/wp-github-updater": "^1.1",
        "silverassist/wp-settings-hub": "^1.0"
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer": "^1.0",
        "php-stubs/wordpress-stubs": "^6.6",
        "php-stubs/wordpress-tests-stubs": "^6.6",
        "phpstan/phpstan": "*",
        "phpunit/phpunit": "^9.6",
        "silverassist/coding-standards": "^1.0",
        "silverassist/wp-coding-standards": "^1.0",
        "szepeviktor/phpstan-wordpress": "^1.3 || ^2.0",
        "yoast/phpunit-polyfills": "^4.0"
    },
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "SilverAssist\\PluginName\\": "includes/"
        }
    },
    "autoload-dev": {
        "psr-4": {
            "SilverAssist\\PluginName\\Tests\\": "tests/"
        }
    },
    "scripts": {
        "phpcs": "phpcs",
        "phpcbf": "phpcbf",
        "phpstan": "phpstan analyse --memory-limit=1G",
        "phpunit": "phpunit",
        "test": [
            "@phpcs",
            "@phpstan",
            "@phpunit"
        ]
    },
    "config": {
        "allow-plugins": {
            "composer/installers": true,
            "dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer": true
        }
    }
}

Then run:

composer install

Step 2: Create Main Plugin File

File: plugin-name.php

CRITICAL: Must include Update URI header to prevent WordPress.org update conflicts.

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: Plugin Display Name
 * Plugin URI: https://github.com/SilverAssist/plugin-slug
 * Description: Brief plugin description.
 * Version: 1.0.0
 * Author: Silver Assist
 * Author URI: https://silverassist.com
 * License: PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0
 * License URI: https://polyformproject.org/licenses/noncommercial/1.0.0/
 * Text Domain: plugin-text-domain
 * Domain Path: /languages
 * Requires at least: 6.5
 * Tested up to: 6.8
 * Requires PHP: 8.2
 * Network: false
 * Update URI: https://github.com/SilverAssist/plugin-slug
 *
 * @package SilverAssist\PluginName
 * @author Silver Assist
 * @license PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0
 * @since 1.0.0
 */

// Prevent direct access.
\defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

// Define plugin constants.
define( 'PLUGIN_PREFIX_VERSION', '1.0.0' );
define( 'PLUGIN_PREFIX_FILE', __FILE__ );
define( 'PLUGIN_PREFIX_PATH', plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) );
define( 'PLUGIN_PREFIX_BASENAME', plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) );

/**
 * Composer autoloader with security validation.
 */
$plugin_prefix_autoload_path      = PLUGIN_PREFIX_PATH . 'vendor/autoload.php';
$plugin_prefix_real_autoload_path = realpath( $plugin_prefix_autoload_path );
$plugin_prefix_plugin_real_path   = realpath( PLUGIN_PREFIX_PATH );

// Validate: both paths resolve, autoloader is inside plugin directory.
if (
    $plugin_prefix_real_autoload_path &&
    $plugin_prefix_plugin_real_path &&
    0 === strpos( $plugin_prefix_real_autoload_path, $plugin_prefix_plugin_real_path )
) {
    require_once $plugin_prefix_real_autoload_path;
} else {
    add_action(
        'admin_notices',
        function () {
            printf(
                '<div class="notice notice-error"><p>%s</p></div>',
                esc_html__( 'Plugin Name: Missing or invalid Composer dependencies. Run "composer install".', 'plugin-text-domain' )
            );
        }
    );
    return;
}

// Initialize plugin.
add_action(
    'plugins_loaded',
    function () {
        \SilverAssist\PluginName\Core\Plugin::instance()->init();
    }
);

// Register activation hook.
register_activation_hook(
    __FILE__,
    function () {
        \SilverAssist\PluginName\Core\Activator::activate();
    }
);

Key Elements:

• Prefixed global variables ($plugin_prefix_*) for WPCS compliance
• Security validation for Composer autoloader path (prevents path traversal)
• Graceful degradation with admin notice if autoloader missing
• Hook registration via closures

Step 3: Create Core Classes

LoadableInterface

Not hand-written per plugin. silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel ships \SilverAssist\PluginKernel\Interfaces\LoadableInterface (require it via composer require silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel); components implement that interface directly rather than a local includes/Core/Interfaces/LoadableInterface.php copy. The contract is unchanged: init(): void, get_priority(): int, should_load(): bool, with the same priority bands (10 core, 20 services, 30 admin, 40 utils).

Plugin.php (Main Bootstrap)

File: includes/Core/Plugin.php

Plugin extends \SilverAssist\PluginKernel\AbstractPlugin, which provides instance() (per-subclass singleton), init() (final — do not override it), and the should_load()-filter/priority-sort/init() loading loop. The concrete plugin only implements get_components() and, if it needs plugin-level hooks that aren't themselves a LoadableInterface component (e.g. the GitHub updater), overrides init_hooks():

<?php
namespace SilverAssist\PluginName\Core;

use SilverAssist\PluginKernel\AbstractPlugin;

/**
 * Main Plugin Class.
 *
 * @package SilverAssist\PluginName\Core
 * @since 1.0.0
 */
final class Plugin extends AbstractPlugin {
    /**
     * Get components to load.
     *
     * @return array<class-string<\SilverAssist\PluginKernel\Interfaces\LoadableInterface>>
     */
    protected function get_components(): array {
        return [
            // Add component classes here.
            // \SilverAssist\PluginName\Service\ServiceName::class,
            // \SilverAssist\PluginName\Admin\Settings::class,
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Plugin-level hooks that aren't themselves a LoadableInterface component.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    protected function init_hooks(): void {
        $this->init_updater();
    }

    /**
     * Initialize GitHub updater.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    private function init_updater(): void {
        if ( ! class_exists( \SilverAssist\GitHubUpdater\UpdaterConfig::class ) ) {
            return;
        }

        $config = new \SilverAssist\GitHubUpdater\UpdaterConfig(
            plugin_basename: PLUGIN_PREFIX_BASENAME,
            version: PLUGIN_PREFIX_VERSION,
            github_repo: 'SilverAssist/plugin-slug',
            plugin_file: PLUGIN_PREFIX_FILE
        );

        $config->init();
    }
}

Activator.php

File: includes/Core/Activator.php

<?php
namespace SilverAssist\PluginName\Core;

/**
 * Plugin Activator.
 *
 * @package SilverAssist\PluginName\Core
 * @since 1.0.0
 */
class Activator {
    /**
     * Plugin activation logic.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public static function activate(): void {
        // Create database tables.
        // self::create_tables();

        // Set default options.
        self::set_default_options();

        // Flush rewrite rules.
        \flush_rewrite_rules();
    }

    /**
     * Plugin deactivation logic.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public static function deactivate(): void {
        // Clean up temporary data.
        \flush_rewrite_rules();
    }

    /**
     * Set default options.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    private static function set_default_options(): void {
        if ( ! \get_option( 'plugin_prefix_settings' ) ) {
            \update_option( 'plugin_prefix_settings', [
                'enabled' => true,
            ] );
        }
    }
}

Step 4: Create Configuration Files

phpcs.xml

Requires silverassist/coding-standards and silverassist/wp-coding-standards as require-dev (see the composer.json template above). The shared SilverAssistWP ruleset — registered by silverassist/wp-coding-standards via Composer's phpcodesniffer-composer-installer — already includes WordPress-Extra (with the PSR-4 file-naming and K&R brace exclusions), WordPress-Docs, Generic.CodeAnalysis.UnusedFunctionParameter, Generic.Commenting.Todo, and the testVersion/minimum_supported_wp_version config. A plugin's own phpcs.xml only needs to reference it and declare its own PrefixAllGlobals prefixes — it is not a long list of WordPress-Extra rules with manual <exclude> lines:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ruleset name="SilverAssist Plugin Standards">
    <description>WordPress Coding Standards for SilverAssist Plugins</description>

    <file>.</file>

    <exclude-pattern>*/vendor/*</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*/node_modules/*</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*/.git/*</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*/tests/*</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*/build/*</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*/assets/js/*</exclude-pattern>
    <exclude-pattern>*/assets/css/*</exclude-pattern>

    <rule ref="SilverAssistWP"/>

    <!-- Plugin-specific: PrefixAllGlobals must be declared per-plugin,
         it can't live in the shared ruleset. -->
    <rule ref="WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals">
        <properties>
            <property name="prefixes" type="array">
                <element value="plugin_prefix"/>
                <element value="SilverAssist\PluginName"/>
            </property>
        </properties>
    </rule>
</ruleset>

IMPORTANT: Replace plugin_prefix and SilverAssist\PluginName with the actual plugin prefix and namespace.

phpstan.neon

level: 8 is set by the shared silverassist/coding-standards base config — a plugin's own phpstan.neon must not redeclare level: itself. All three shared files must be includes:-ed directly (relative includes: inside wp-coding-standards/phpstan/base.neon can't chain to the other two once this file is consumed as a dependency — see that package's own comments for why):

includes:
    - vendor/silverassist/coding-standards/phpstan/base.neon
    - vendor/silverassist/wp-coding-standards/phpstan/base.neon
    - vendor/szepeviktor/phpstan-wordpress/extension.neon

parameters:
    paths:
        - includes
    bootstrapFiles:
        - plugin-main-file.php
    excludePaths:
        - tests/*
        - build/*
    ignoreErrors:
        # Plugin-specific scoped ignores only, with a reason.

IMPORTANT: Replace plugin-main-file.php with the actual main plugin filename.

If the plugin's tests use silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel's Testing\TestCase (which extends WP_UnitTestCase), add tests to paths and a scanFiles entry for vendor/php-stubs/wordpress-tests-stubs/wordpress-tests-stubs.php — see the testing skill and silverassist/wp-coding-standards's own README for why scanFiles, not stubFiles, is required there.

phpunit.xml.dist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<phpunit
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="https://schema.phpunit.de/9.6/phpunit.xsd"
    bootstrap="tests/bootstrap.php"
    colors="true"
    verbose="true"
    stopOnFailure="false"
    stopOnError="false"
    beStrictAboutOutputDuringTests="true"
    beStrictAboutTodoAnnotatedTests="true">

    <testsuites>
        <testsuite name="unit">
            <directory suffix="Test.php">./tests/Unit</directory>
        </testsuite>
        <testsuite name="integration">
            <directory suffix="Test.php">./tests/Integration</directory>
        </testsuite>
        <testsuite name="all">
            <directory suffix="Test.php">./tests/Unit</directory>
            <directory suffix="Test.php">./tests/Integration</directory>
        </testsuite>
    </testsuites>

    <groups>
        <exclude>
            <group>ajax</group>
            <group>ms-files</group>
            <group>external-http</group>
        </exclude>
    </groups>

    <coverage processUncoveredFiles="true">
        <include>
            <directory suffix=".php">./includes</directory>
        </include>
        <exclude>
            <directory>./vendor</directory>
            <directory>./tests</directory>
        </exclude>
    </coverage>

    <php>
        <env name="WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE" value="test"/>
        <env name="WP_DEBUG" value="true"/>
        <env name="WP_DEBUG_LOG" value="false"/>
        <env name="WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY" value="false"/>
        <env name="SCRIPT_DEBUG" value="false"/>
        <const name="WP_TESTS_PHPUNIT_POLYFILLS_PATH" value="vendor/yoast/phpunit-polyfills"/>
        <const name="PLUGIN_PREFIX_TESTING" value="true"/>
    </php>
</phpunit>

Step 5: Create Test Infrastructure

See the testing skill for full details on tests/bootstrap.php, tests/Helpers/TestCase.php, and test patterns.

Step 6: Create CI/CD Workflows

See the release-management skill for release.yml and the CI workflow templates.

ci.yml

File: .github/workflows/ci.yml

The PHP-version quality-check jobs call silverassist/wp-coding-standards's reusable quality-checks.yml workflow (@v1 is a floating major-version tag, same convention as actions/checkout@v4) instead of a locally-defined quality-checks.yml job — so a new plugin does not get its own .github/workflows/quality-checks.yml file at all; delete it if one exists from an older scaffold. Only keep a local quality-checks.yml if the plugin's checks do genuinely repo-specific extra setup (installing Contact Form 7, WPGraphQL, ACF, etc. as part of the checks) that the shared workflow can't do generically.

name: CI
permissions:
  contents: read

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main, develop ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  quality-checks-82:
    name: Quality Checks (PHP 8.2)
    uses: SilverAssist/wp-coding-standards/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml@v1
    with:
      php-version: '8.2'
      skip-wp-setup: false
      # Only set true if phpunit.xml.dist actually generates coverage.xml
      # (a <coverage> clover report) -- otherwise this silently no-ops.
      upload-coverage: false

  quality-checks-83:
    name: Quality Checks (PHP 8.3)
    uses: SilverAssist/wp-coding-standards/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml@v1
    with:
      php-version: '8.3'
      skip-wp-setup: false
      upload-coverage: false

  quality-checks-84:
    name: Quality Checks (PHP 8.4)
    uses: SilverAssist/wp-coding-standards/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml@v1
    with:
      php-version: '8.4'
      skip-wp-setup: false
      upload-coverage: false

  security-scan:
    name: Security Scan
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.2'
          extensions: mbstring, intl
          coverage: none
      - run: composer install --no-interaction --no-progress --optimize-autoloader
      - run: composer audit

  compatibility:
    name: WordPress Compatibility
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        wordpress-version: ['6.5', '6.6', '6.7', 'latest']
    services:
      mysql:
        image: mysql:8.0
        env:
          MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
          MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress_test
        ports:
          - 3306:3306
        options: >-
          --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping"
          --health-interval=10s
          --health-timeout=5s
          --health-retries=5
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.2'
          extensions: mbstring, intl, mysql, pdo_mysql
          coverage: none
      - run: composer install --no-interaction --no-progress --optimize-autoloader
      - name: Install Subversion (required for WordPress Test Suite)
        run: sudo apt-get update -qq && sudo apt-get install -y -qq subversion
      - run: bash scripts/install-wp-tests.sh wordpress_test root 'root' 127.0.0.1 ${{ matrix.wordpress-version }} false
      - run: vendor/bin/phpunit

This compatibility job's scripts/install-wp-tests.sh call is unchanged — CLI usage is the same — but the file it calls should be a ~10-line thin wrapper delegating to vendor/silverassist/wp-coding-standards/scripts/install-wp-tests.sh, not a full standalone copy. See the Scripts note below.

Scripts

silverassist/wp-coding-standards ships the real implementations of install-wp-tests.sh and run-quality-checks.sh at vendor/silverassist/wp-coding-standards/scripts/. A new plugin's own scripts/install-wp-tests.sh (and, when applicable, run-quality-checks.sh) should be a thin wrapper, not a full copy-pasted script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Thin wrapper — delegates to the shared script in silverassist/wp-coding-standards
# so local dev commands and docs referencing `scripts/install-wp-tests.sh` keep
# working without every consumer hand-maintaining its own copy.
#
# @package SilverAssist\PluginName
#
set -e
SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
exec bash "$SCRIPT_DIR/../vendor/silverassist/wp-coding-standards/scripts/install-wp-tests.sh" "$@"

CLI usage is unchanged: bash scripts/install-wp-tests.sh <db-name> <db-user> <db-pass> [db-host] [wp-version] [skip-database-creation].

Caveat: only thin-wrap run-quality-checks.sh too if the plugin's quality checks are otherwise generic. A plugin whose checks do genuinely repo-specific extra setup (e.g. installing Contact Form 7 or WPGraphQL before running PHPUnit) keeps its own full local run-quality-checks.sh and quality-checks.yml — only install-wp-tests.sh gets thin-wrapped in that case, since that sub-step has no plugin-specific logic. scripts/build-release.sh and scripts/update-version-simple.sh are not provided by silverassist/wp-coding-standards — see the release-management skill; those stay hand-copied per plugin for now.

Step 7: Create .gitignore

# Dependencies
vendor/
node_modules/
composer.lock

# Build
build/
dist/
*.zip
*.tar.gz

# IDE
.idea/
.vscode/
*.swp
*.swo

# OS
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Coverage
coverage/
.phpunit.result.cache

Step 8: Create CHANGELOG.md

# Changelog

All notable changes to Plugin Name will be documented in this file.

The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).

## [Unreleased]

## [1.0.0] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Added
- Initial release.

PHP Requirements & Coding Standards

PHP Version

• Minimum: PHP 8.2
• Recommended: PHP 8.3+
• Use modern PHP: enums, readonly properties, union types, named arguments

WordPress Naming Conventions (CRITICAL for WPCS)

1. Global variables: Prefix with plugin_prefix_
2. Functions: Prefix with plugin_prefix_
3. Constants: Prefix with PLUGIN_PREFIX_
4. Classes: Namespaced (no prefix needed)
5. Inline comments: MUST end with ., !, or ?
6. WordPress functions in namespaced code: MUST use backslash prefix (\add_action(), \get_option())
7. String quotation: Single quotes for literals, double quotes only for interpolation

Security Standards

Input Sanitization:

$text  = \sanitize_text_field( \wp_unslash( $_POST['field_name'] ) );
$email = \sanitize_email( $_POST['email'] );
$url   = \esc_url_raw( $_POST['url'] );
$int   = \absint( $_POST['number'] );

Output Escaping:

echo \esc_html( $text );
echo '<div class="' . \esc_attr( $class ) . '">';
echo '<a href="' . \esc_url( $url ) . '">';

Nonce Verification:

\wp_nonce_field( 'plugin_action', 'plugin_nonce' );
if ( ! isset( $_POST['plugin_nonce'] ) || ! \wp_verify_nonce( $_POST['plugin_nonce'], 'plugin_action' ) ) {
    \wp_die( \esc_html__( 'Security check failed.', 'plugin-text-domain' ) );
}

Capability Checks:

if ( ! \current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
    \wp_die( \esc_html__( 'Insufficient permissions.', 'plugin-text-domain' ) );
}

Database Operations

Use %i placeholder for table/column names (WordPress 6.2+):

$results = $wpdb->get_results(
    $wpdb->prepare(
        'SELECT * FROM %i WHERE status = %s AND form_id = %d',
        $table_name,
        $status,
        $form_id
    ),
    ARRAY_A
);

Documentation (PHPDoc)

All classes, methods, and properties MUST have PHPDoc:

/**
 * Class description.
 *
 * @package SilverAssist\PluginName
 * @since 1.0.0
 */
class ClassName {
    /**
     * Property description.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    private string $property;

    /**
     * Method description.
     *
     * @param string $param Parameter description.
     * @return bool Return value description.
     * @since 1.0.0
     */
    public function method_name( string $param ): bool {
        // Implementation.
        return true;
    }
}

Internationalization (i18n)

Pre-PR: Always regenerate .pot:

wp i18n make-pot . languages/plugin-text-domain.pot --domain=plugin-text-domain

Rules:

• ALWAYS use literal text domain strings (never variables/constants)
• ALWAYS use ordered placeholders for multiple args with translator comments

sprintf(
    /* translators: %1$s: form name, %2$d: submission count */
    __( 'Form "%1$s" has %2$d submissions', 'plugin-text-domain' ),
    $form_name,
    $count
);

SilverAssist Required Packages

wp-plugin-kernel

Ships the LoadableInterface/AbstractPlugin bootstrap pattern — see "LoadableInterface Priority System" and Step 3 above.

composer require silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel

Runtime dependency, not --dev — Plugin.php calls its classes directly.

wp-github-updater

Enables automatic updates from GitHub releases.

composer require silverassist/wp-github-updater:^1.1

Integration via UpdaterConfig in Plugin::init_updater() (see Plugin.php template above).

IMPORTANT: Do NOT add update-related headers to plugin file (handled programmatically by the package).

wp-settings-hub

Provides unified settings interface for all SilverAssist plugins.

composer require silverassist/wp-settings-hub:^1.0

Integration in Settings class:

use SilverAssist\SettingsHub\SettingsHub;

public function register_settings_page(): void {
    if ( ! class_exists( SettingsHub::class ) ) {
        // Fallback: standalone settings page.
        \add_options_page( ... );
        return;
    }

    SettingsHub::get_instance()->register_plugin_page(
        slug: 'plugin-settings',
        title: __( 'Plugin Name', 'plugin-text-domain' ),
        callback: [ $this, 'render_settings_page' ],
        icon: 'dashicons-admin-generic',
        position: 10
    );
}

Note: Settings Hub uses get_instance() (different from plugin singletons which use instance()).

View Classes (No LoadableInterface)

Views are static classes for HTML rendering — they do NOT implement LoadableInterface:

<?php
namespace SilverAssist\PluginName\View\Admin;

\defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

/**
 * Settings page view.
 *
 * @package SilverAssist\PluginName\View\Admin
 */
class SettingsView {
    /**
     * Render the settings page.
     *
     * @param array<string, mixed> $data Data to render.
     * @return void
     */
    public static function render( array $data ): void {
        ?>
        <div class="wrap">
            <h1><?php \esc_html_e( 'Settings', 'plugin-text-domain' ); ?></h1>
            <!-- HTML content -->
        </div>
        <?php
    }
}

AI Agent Customization (VS Code)

3-Tier System

copilot-instructions.md Template

Keep concise (~100-150 lines max). Move details to Instructions or Skills.

Should contain:

• Project overview (name, namespace, PHP version, WP version, standards)
• Architecture summary (LoadableInterface priorities, key directories)
• Critical rules (pre-PR checklist commands)
• Quick references (common commands)

Recommended Instructions Files

Recommended Skills

Checklist for New Plugin

• Directory created with correct slug
• composer.json with correct namespace, prefixes, and packages (including silverassist/wp-plugin-kernel and silverassist/wp-coding-standards)
• Main plugin file with all required headers (including Update URI)
• includes/Core/Plugin.php extending \SilverAssist\PluginKernel\AbstractPlugin, implementing get_components()
• includes/Core/Activator.php with activate/deactivate methods
• phpcs.xml referencing the SilverAssistWP ruleset with correct PrefixAllGlobals prefixes
• phpstan.neon with the three shared includes: and correct bootstrap file (no level: override)
• phpunit.xml.dist with correct constant prefix
• tests/bootstrap.php with correct constants and plugin file
• tests/Helpers/TestCase.php extending WP_UnitTestCase (or \SilverAssist\PluginKernel\Testing\TestCase)
• .github/workflows/ci.yml created, calling the reusable quality-checks.yml@v1 workflow (no local quality-checks.yml unless the plugin needs custom check setup)
• .github/workflows/release.yml created (see release-management skill)
• scripts/install-wp-tests.sh is a thin wrapper delegating to vendor/silverassist/wp-coding-standards/scripts/
• scripts/build-release.sh copied from existing plugin
• scripts/update-version-simple.sh created
• .gitignore configured
• CHANGELOG.md initialized
• README.md created
• LICENSE file added (PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0)
• composer install runs successfully
• vendor/bin/phpcs passes with 0 errors
• vendor/bin/phpstan analyse passes at level 8
• GitHub repository created under SilverAssist organization