In this article we list a number of useful WP-CLI commands you can run to administer your WordPress website from terminal.

List active plugins on your WordPress site

wp plugin list --status=active

Deactivate a plugin

wp plugin deactivate pluginname

Replace pluginname with the name of your plugin you want to deactivate. For example, to deactivate the ‘hello’ plugin run the following command;

wp plugin deactivate hello

Delete a plugin

wp plugin delete pluginname

Replace pluginname with the name of your plugin you want to delete. For example, to delete the ‘hello’ plugin run the following command;

wp plugin delete hello

Activate a plugin

wp plugin activate pluginname

Replace pluginname with the name of your plugin you want to activate. For example, to activate the ‘hello’ plugin run the following command;

wp plugin activate hello

Install a plugin

wp plugin install pluginname

Replace pluginname with the name of your plugin you want to install. For example, to install the ‘hello’ plugin run the following command;

wp plugin install hello

Install and activate plugin

wp plugin install pluginname --activate

Replace pluginname with the name of your plugin you want to install and activate. For example, to install and activate the ‘hello’ plugin run the following command;

wp plugin install hello --activate

Change WordPress Admin Username

Use the following command to change the username used to login to WordPress. Replace * old_username* with the username you wish to update. Replace new_username with the new user name you wish to use.

Use –dry-run option to run the search without making changes.

wp search-replace old_username new_username --dry-run

When ready run the following command to save changes. Again being sure to replace the placeholder values with your own.

wp search-replace old_username new_username

External Resources

WordPress Developer Resources WP-CLI Commands