CLI Commands

The Team 51 (Special Projects) CLI is an open source tool which offers a variety of functions. At any point you can see a full list of functions by running team51 list. The most common commands are listed below. This will allow you to easily copy and paste them to use.

A quick note before you read further though, the commands in the CLI now include a prompt based system, so you don’t need to learn all the arguments for a command. Try team51 jetpack:plugin-search for example, you’ll be prompted for next steps.

1. Create a production site on Pressable with a new repo:
2. Create a clone of a Pressable site to use a staging site:
   1. Skip installing SafetyNet
3. Create a production site on WPCOM with a new repo:
4. Create a staging site for a WPCOM site:
   1. Skip installing SafetyNet
5. Create a GitHub repository without a site:
   1. Connecting the new repository to an existing WPCOM Business site
   2. Connecting the new repository to an existing Pressable site
6. List the plugins installed on a site
7. Search for a plugin throughout all of our sites
   1. Include partial matches
   2. Certain versions only
8. Add a new domain as primary domain to a Pressable site
9. Add/Remove Blog Stickers on WPCom sites
10. Connect a WPCom Staging Site to a GitHub Repository
11. Cloning a Multisite
12. Troubleshooting Issues
13. Granting CLI Access to External Contractors
14. Removing Users from WPCOM and Pressable sites
15. Pulling Sites with Specific Stickers
16. Pulling Site Count and Site List
17. Pulling Site Traffic
18. Pulling Woo Gross Sales
19. Commands that contractors have default access to

Create a production site on Pressable with a new repo:

team51 pressable:create-site <pressable-site-slug> --repository=<github-repo-slug>

If the GitHub repository doesn’t exist, it will ask if you want to create it. Similarly, you’ll be asked if you want to change the default datacenter of the new site — you can use the up/down arrows to choose a different location.

If you prefer a wizard version of the process, simply type in team51 pressable:create-site and you’ll be guided through the process end-to-end.

Example:

team51 pressable:create-site example--repository=example

The command above created:

Github Repo: https://github.com/a8cteam51/example

Production URL: https://example-production.mystagingwebsite.com/

Create a clone of a Pressable site to use a staging site:

team51 pressable:clone-site <pressable-site-id-or-url> <suffix> --branch=<github-deployment-branch> 

The default suffix is development but a good alternative is the issue number for which the staging site is being generated. The command will fail if a site with the given suffix already exists.

Note: we no longer support the temporary clone option which generated a suffix based on the timestamp. Please use a suffix that lets us figure out why the clone was created and whether it’s still needed!

The default GitHub deployment branch is develop.

If you’re unsure where the Pressable ID comes from, it’s the end of the URL when you view the website in Pressable:

If you prefer a wizard version of the process, simply type in team51 pressable:clone-site and you’ll be guided through the process end-to-end.

Optional and risky: if you have a good reason to do it, you can append --skip-safety-net to the command to not install SafetyNet on the cloned site.

Example:

team51 pressable:clone-site example.com

The command above created:

Staging URL: https://example-development.mystagingwebsite.com/

Note 1: the command might ask you about the root name of the site if you’re trying to clone an existing staging site whose production site has been deleted. Either confirm as-is or enter a new root name before confirming. The root name is the one that the [suffix] will be appended to.

Note 2: the command will also rotate passwords immediately after the new Pressable site has been deployed. Doing so will save any new concierge user’s password in the Internal Shared vault, or update the password for existing the entry in 1Password.

Note 3: You must check the new staging site after completing the CLI. You’ll do this by logging in to the new site, as well as checking the URL in your browser. And if the CLI fails in Terminal, please ping a teammate in Slack to help diagnose the problem.

Skip installing SafetyNet

If, for whatever reason, you want to not install SafetyNet on the new site, then add the --skip-safety-net option to your command:

team51 pressable:clone-site <pressable-site-id-or-url> <suffix> --branch=<github-deployment-branch> --skip-safety-net

Create a production site on WPCOM with a new repo:

team51 wpcom:create-site <wpcom-site-slug> --repository=[github-repo-slug]

If the GitHub repository doesn’t exist, it will ask if you want to create it. Unlike Pressable, we cannot use the CLI to choose a different datacenter yet.

If you prefer a wizard version of the process, simply type in team51 wpcom:create-site and you’ll be guided through the process end-to-end.

Note 1: Unlike Pressable sites, WPCOM sites don’t use DeployHQ. Instead, WPCOM sites deploy using the WPCOM native GitHub Deployments feature.

Note 2: If you get the following error, check to make sure that [sitename].wordpress.com does not already exist. If it does, it will cause this error.

API error (500 https://███████████████/wp-json/wpcomsp/wpcom/v1/sites): {"code":400,"message":"Bad Request","data":null}

Create a staging site for a WPCOM site:

team51 wpcom:clone-site <wpcom-site-id-or-url> --branch=<github-deployment-branch> 

If you prefer a wizard version of the process, simply type in team51 wpcom:clone-site and you’ll be guided through the process end-to-end.

Optional and risky: if you have a good reason to do it, you can append --skip-safety-net to the command to not install SafetyNet on the cloned site.

Note 1: Unlike Pressable sites, a single staging site can exist for every WPCOM production site. If you try to create a clone of a site that already has a staging site, this command will fail.

Skip installing SafetyNet

If, for whatever reason, you want to not install SafetyNet on the staging site, then add the --skip-safety-net option to your command:

team51 wpcom:clone-site <wpcom-site-id-or-url> --branch=<github-deployment-branch> --skip-safety-net

Create a GitHub repository without a site:

team51 github:create-repository <github-repo-slug> --type=project --homepage="https://<url_to_production_site>.com" --custom-properties="php-globals-long-prefix=<php_long_prefix>" --custom-properties="php-globals-short-prefix=<php_short_prefix>"

The values of <php_long_prefix> and <php_short_prefix> can be anything but ideally would be somehow related to your project names. For example, if you project is named Foo Bar Spam Ham then a good long prefix would be foobar_spamham and a good short prefix would be fbsh.

If you don’t type in the --type=project option, you’ll be prompted to choose a repo type. Other options include, e.g., plugin. All options are asking which Team51 scaffold should be used to generate the repository simply.

Example:

team51 github:create-repository example-partner --type=project --homepage="https://example.com" --custom-properties="php-globals-long-prefix=example-partner" --custom-properties="php-globals-short-prefix=dd"

The command above created:

Github Repo: https://github.com/a8cteam51/example-partner

Connecting the new repository to an existing WPCOM Business site

team51 wpcom:connect-site-repository <wpcom-site-id-or-url> <github-repo-slug> --branch=trunk --target_dir="/wp-content/" --deploy

Connecting the new repository to an existing Pressable site

team51 deployhq:create-project <project-name> --repository=<github-repo-slug>

If successful, follow-up with:

team51 deployhq:create-project-server <project-name> <pressable-site-id-or-url> Production --branch=trunk

The <project-name> value must be the same in both commands (it’s the name of the project on DeployHQ and the server must be created in that project).

List the plugins installed on a site

You can export the list of plugins installed on a WPCOM Business site or Pressable site connected to WPCOM via Jetpack by running this command:

team51 jetpack:export-site-plugins <wpcom-site-id-or-url> 

This will output the plugins to a CSV file in your Downloads folder but you can change that during the prompt.

Search for a plugin throughout all of our sites

team51 jetpack:plugin-search <plugin-name-or-textdomain-or-main-file>

This will search through all WPCOM Business sites and all Jetpack-connected sites to our team account, and return the values inside the console.

Include partial matches

team51 jetpack:plugin-search <plugin-name-or-textdomain-or-main-file> --partial

By including the option --partial you will get all the plugins that also kinda match the name. For example, if you search for woocommerce, you will also get all extensions containing woocommerce in their name.

Certain versions only

team51 jetpack:plugin-search <plugin-name-or-textdomain-or-main-file> --version-search=<version> --version-operator=<operator>

Supported operators are: <, <=, >, >=, ==, =, !=, <>

Add a new domain as primary domain to a Pressable site

team51 pressable:add-site-domain <pressable-site-id-or-url> --domain=<new-domain> --primary

Full details available in ███████████████ (search for the “pressable:add-site-domain” command). The --primary flag is optional.

Example usage:

team51 pressable:add-site-domain --primary atypi-production.mystagingwebsite.com atypi.org

This command will:

1. Add a new domain to a given Pressable site
   • If the current primary domain is the *.mystagingwebsite.com one, it will also automatically become the primary domain
   • Otherwise this can also be done using the --primary flag in the command
   • Staging sites on Pressable do not support having domains added to them, so when using this command on a staging site, it will also convert the site into a production site
2. After adding the primary domain, the command will also execute the WP-CLI search-replace command to replace all instances of the old domain name with the new one in the database (and also flush the object cache afterward)
3. It will also look through all 1Password entries tagged team51-cli in the category login and update the ones that match the old URL to match the new one such that autocomplete in the browser keeps working.

Note: If you’re unsure about the exact site name, just leave both arguments empty, and you will be prompted for them during an interactive prompt (with autocomplete options for the current domain).

Add/Remove Blog Stickers on WPCom sites

To add a blog sticker:

team51 wpcom:add-site-sticker <site> <sticker>

To remove a blog sticker:

team51 wpcom:remove-site-sticker <site> <sticker>

Example usage:

team51 wpcom:add-site-sticker 123456789 team51-strike or team51 wpcom:remove-site-sticker 123456789 team51-strike

You can use WPCom blog ID or the domain as the first argument of this command. Note that you’re limited only to certain stickers with this command, specifically those with a team51- prefix.

Connect a WPCom Staging Site to a GitHub Repository

team51  wpcom:connect-site-repository <site> <repository> --branch=develop

Example usage:

team51 wpcom:add-site-sticker 123456789 repository-slug --branch=develop

Because this is connecting a staging site, be sure to designate the develop branch. The site can be either the WPCom blog ID or the domain. The repository must be the repository slug e.g example-partner and you can specify any branch, but develop would be typical.

Cloning a Multisite

There are a few extra steps that must be performed when cloning a multisite. Details can be found here: ███████████████

Troubleshooting Issues

A good starting point is this: ███████████████

Granting CLI Access to External Contractors

Sometimes external contractors might also need CLI access when working on a project. In this case, follow these instructions:

1. Set up an account with the role Contractor on ███████████████ for the contractor (should use the same email address as their Special Projects 1PW guest account)
2. Have the contractor follow the steps in the README to set up the CLI locally: https://github.com/a8cteam51/team51-cli
3. The contractor must log in into OpsOasis and generate an application password for their account; the generated app password should be added to their ~/.zshrc file like this: export OPSOASIS_APP_PASSWORD="<app_password>" — the CLI should work after restarting the terminal

Removing Users from WPCOM and Pressable sites

team51 wpcom:delete-site-wp-user --multiple all

team51 pressable:delete-site-collaborator --delete-wp-user --multiple all

These commands will remove users (by email address) from access to our WPCOM sites, Pressable Collaborator access, and Pressable wp-admin access.

Pulling Sites with Specific Stickers

team51 wpcom:list-sites-with-sticker team-51-strike

These commands will pull list of sites that have been stickered / flagged with specific flags.

███████████████

More context in our internal documentation: ███████████████.

Pulling Site Count and Site List

team51 wpcom:list-sites

This command will output a list of all Special Projects production sites, their Blog IDs, where they are hosted, and a report summary.

Pulling Site Traffic

team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-summary

The command outputs a table sorted by the sites with the highest traffic over the given time period, and also summarizes traffic across all sites. You can adjust the command for the period.

If we’re looking for Q2 2025 metrics:

team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-summary --num=3 --period=month --date=2025-06-30

If you’re looking for traffic across all of our sites in 2024:

team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-summary --period=year --date=2024-12-31

Pulling Woo Gross Sales

team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-orders --unit=year --date=2024

We can pull order information from WordPress.com for Jetpack-connected sites. It is using an undocumented endpoint, so the formatting is a little strange. For quarterly data, run 3 different commands and combine them:

team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-orders --unit=month --date=2025-04
team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-orders --unit=month --date=2025-05
team51 wpcom:list-sites-stats-orders --unit=month --date=2025-06

Commands that contractors have default access to

This is the list of CLI commands that external contractors have access to by default, unless higher access is granted to them on an individual basis:

team51 pressable:create-site-collaborator
team51 pressable:open-site-shell
team51 pressable:list-site-php-errors