Installation

Install the standard as a WordPress plugin, or install the development toolchain in a checkout. Generated plugins keep these same commands after the identity is renamed.

Install the plugin

Composer package name: linchpin/plugin-scaffold. The plugin header also allows uploading a release zip.

composer require linchpin/plugin-scaffold

This repository's composer.json registers https://packagist.linchpin.com in addition to the default Packagist. House development packages such as linchpin/coding-standards resolve through that repository.

A GitHub Release attaches plugin-scaffold.zip after Plugin Check passes. Upload that zip through WordPress when you are not installing from Composer.

The plugin will not boot without an autoloader. plugin-scaffold.php requires vendor/autoload.php when that file exists. If the Bootstrap class is missing, administrators who can activate plugins see:

Plugin Scaffold could not load its dependencies. Run composer install inside the plugin directory, or install a release build.

Development checkout

Prerequisites: PHP 8.3, Node from .nvmrc (24.13.0), and the tools scripts/build.sh requires when you build a zip (npm, composer, zip, rsync, php).

1. 1

   Install PHP dependencies

   From the repository root, run composer install. This pulls runtime and development packages, including the Linchpin coding standards from packagist.linchpin.com.

2. 2

   Install JavaScript dependencies

   Run npm install. The lockfile is npm. CI uses npm ci.

3. 3

   Build the admin bundle

   Run npm run build. Root webpack compiles src/admin/index.js to build/admin.js and build/admin.asset.php. The distributable zip asserts both files exist.

4. 4

   Run the gates

   Run composer test for every static PHP gate plus the unit suite. See quality gates.

composer install && npm install && npm run build && composer test

npm install runs prepare, which runs husky and installs the commit-msg and pre-commit hooks.

If you applied the blocks overlay, also install and build the nested blocks/ workspace. That overlay merges extra root scripts, including install:all and build:all.

What the zip contains

bash scripts/build.sh writes build/plugin-scaffold/ and build/plugin-scaffold.zip. It is the same command the release workflow, Plugin Check, and a local developer run. Details are on build and release.