This is my starter plugin that I use for every project.

Installing

Clone this repo in an empty directory, remove the git and start your own git.

git clone git@github.com:janw-me/janw-plugin-base.git .
rm -rf .git
git init

See examples/ for ready-to-copy feature patterns (settings page, AJAX, cron) and AGENTS.md for the project conventions.

Setup

Rename the boilerplate for your project with the bundled script (run once, from the plugin root):

composer setup -- --name "My Plugin" --slug my-plugin --namespace "Acme\\My"

# or call it directly:
bin/setup.sh --name "My Plugin" --slug my-plugin --namespace "Acme\\My"

This replaces every placeholder (slug, constants, namespace, function/hook prefixes, plugin name), renames the main file and the language file, resets the git history to a single initial commit, and then removes itself. Run bin/setup.sh --help to see the optional flags (--prefix, --short-prefix, --const-prefix, --description).

Afterwards:

• Review composer.json — the janw-me vendor name and the dev packages (double-check them).
• Review the plugin header in <your-slug>.php and the title line in readme.txt.
• Remove this Installing / Setup section.
• Run composer install && composer ci && composer test.

See AGENTS.md for the project conventions and day-to-day commands.

Change php version

Default is set to 8.2, to update it change:

• janw-plugin-base.php
• composer.json (2 places)
• phpcs.xml.dist
• readme.txt
• phpstan.neon.dist
• phpcs-fixer.dist.php

Change WP version

The default is 6.6, to update is change:

• janw-plugin-base.php
• phpcs.xml.dist
• readme.txt

Bundled commands

Inside composer several extra tools have been added. See AGENTS.md for the full development loop.

Code quality (the toolchain is rector → php-cs-fixer → phpcbf → phpcs → phpstan):

• composer ci Run the whole toolchain on every file.
• composer ci:changed Run the whole toolchain on changed files only.
• composer phpcbf Run phpcbf, the WordPress-standard autoformatter.
• composer phpfixer Run php-cs-fixer, the secondary autoformatter.
• composer phpcs Run phpcs, checks style against the WordPress Coding Standard.
• composer phpstan Run phpstan, static analysis (types, docblocks, unknown symbols).
• composer phprector Run rector, automated refactors.

Tests:

• composer test Fast PHPUnit unit suite (no WordPress, no database).
• composer test:install Install the WordPress test library (run once before test:wp).
• composer test:wp WordPress integration suite (needs test:install).

Creating a plugin zip:

• composer createzip Create plugin-slug.zip in the plugin folder.
• composer createzip:downloads Create plugin-slug-0.1.0.zip in ~/Downloads.

Versioning & release:

• composer bumpversion:patch|minor|major Run CI, then bump the version everywhere.
• composer publish-version Commit, tag, and push the new version.