Plugin Check is a WordPress.org tool which provides checks to help plugins meet the directory requirements and follow various best practices.

WordPress.org

David Perez

Evan Herman

Dion Hulse

Gustavo Bordoni

Alex Sanford

Francisco Torres

Plugin Check is a tool for testing whether your plugin meets the required standards for the WordPress.org plugin directory. With this plugin you will be able to run most of the checks used for new submissions, and check if your plugin meets the requirements.
Additionally, the tool flags violations or concerns around plugin development best practices, from basic requirements like correct usage of internationalization functions to accessibility, performance, and security best practices.
The checks can be run either using the WP Admin user interface or WP-CLI:
<ul>
<li>To check a plugin using WP Admin, please navigate to the Tools > Plugin Check menu. You need to be able to manage plugins on your site in order to access that screen.</li>
<li>To check a plugin using WP-CLI, please use the <code>wp plugin check</code> command. For example, to check the “Hello Dolly” plugin: <code>wp plugin check hello.php</code>
<ul>
<li>Note that by default when using WP-CLI, only static checks can be executed. In order to also include runtime checks, a workaround is currently necessary using the <code>--require</code> argument of WP-CLI, to manually load the <code>cli.php</code> file within the plugin checker directory before WordPress is loaded. For example: <code>wp plugin check hello.php --require=./wp-content/plugins/plugin-check/cli.php</code></li>
<li>You could use arbitrary path or URL to check a plugin. For example, to check a plugin from a URL: <code>wp plugin check https://example.com/plugin.zip</code> or to check a plugin from a path: <code>wp plugin check /path/to/plugin</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
The checks are grouped into several categories, so that you can customize which kinds of checks you would like to run on a plugin.
Keep in mind that this plugin is not a replacement for the manual review process, but it will help you speed up the process of getting your plugin approved for the WordPress.org plugin repository, and it will also help you avoid some common mistakes.
Even if you do not intend to host your plugin in the WordPress.org directory, you are encouraged to use Plugin Check so that your plugin follows the base requirements and best practices for WordPress plugins.

Plugin Check (PCP)


I found a problem in the plugin and created a new issue in the repo. They fixed it and released a new version in less than 24hs! Very responsive team 👏


Speedy feedback by the team


That a great tool! Thank you guys. It can help us quickly identify some issues with our code that might otherwise be overlooked. 



I hope it gets better by the time and save time to a lot of people :)


Thanks for this


Great tool. It will probably save a lot of time for those who are waiting for their plugins to be reviewed, and would probably get a lot of homework to do.



Great initiative. Well done!



Hopefully it will make new plugins to get an approval faster. 🤞


Must have for any plugin developer


Unfortunately, one of the most dangerous PHP functions shell_exec is required and this is not specified anywhere from what I can see.


shell_exec is required


Awesome plugin to learn and improve code and myself. Thank you!


Must-have for any developer!


Wonderful plugin.Looking forward to more features.


Now you can be closer to Wordpress development standards


A great way to validate plugins against WordPress ecosystem standards. Yet another useful tool.


That's a great start


We always use this plugin before submit to Wordpress plugin repository


Great Plugin


DevTools for WordPress is an essential toolkit for WordPress plugin developers, providing a comprehensive suite of features to simplify and accelerate the development process. This plugin is designed to enhance your coding efficiency, improve testing workflows, and ensure seamless integration of your custom plugins into WordPress environments.


Useful plugin for plugin Developer


This tests for a ton of different aspects of plugins. A must have for developers


A must have for plugin development!


Thanks, it is useful to find security issues like missed escape function or sanitization even if you do not plan on submitting the plugin to wordpress.org.


Useful to find security issues


I am very impressed with this plugin. I am in the final steps of submitting a new plugin and through the approval process this has helped speed up the process.



I am developing a script that will install this plugin if not already installed then run the cli tool to create a report. Eventually this will be a step in the CI/CD pipeline.



cli usage can be found on the project's GitHub project under docs/CLI.md



I got some ideas for this plugin to make it more friendly for GitHub, starting that convo with the contributors next.


This is awesome! WP-CLI supported!!!


Run it on any plugin, including popular ones like Woo and you'll see tons of nonsense "Error" messages about inescaped output. This doesn't help anyone. These so-called error messages appear even for static text or well trusted data. 



Just a random example from Woo:The plugin reports "WordPress.Security.EscapeOutput.ExceptionNotEscaped" for this:throw new \Exception( sprintf( __( 'Could not find classname for order ID %d', 'woocommerce' ), $order_id ) );$order_id is already int, ensured by the function, and additionally %d ensures it cannot output anything dangerous. You have to either make this smart enough to find real issues or remove these nonsense messages entirely.How is this helping anyone?






Tons of false positives


This tool is a must for every WordPress plugin developer. You can use phpcs with WordPress standards and other useful tools, but this is an essential step to check your plugin, not only if your intention is to publish to WordPress public repo. Accomplish these standards is a must for everyone who works as plugin developer.



Thanks, plugin team, for this powerful tool. Now our developer lives are easier.


The best tool for WordPress plugin developers


This plugin is excellent for catching common mistakes before submission. It significantly saves time by reducing the back-and-forth process. I used it for the first time, and I really liked how efficiently it worked.


Very useful , Thanks !!


This plugin is extremely helpful for developers and is indispensable for reviewing and refining code before release. Thank you to the WordPress team for developing such a truly useful plugin.



I have a suggestion regarding the code inspection feature—it would be beneficial to integrate function call analysis. For example, when source code calls intermediary functions that handle nonce verification, sanitization, and other input validations within shared classes, it may result in false positives. This could potentially impact the efficiency of the plugin review process.



Overall, this plugin is fantastic for me! Many thanks to the WordPress Team!



Warm regards,


Essential Plugin for Developers


Simple and effective plugin check tool, there is room for improvement and adding more functionality with AI, but overall it currently still gets the job done.


Simple and effective tool for quick plugin checks


By it's nature this is going to flag false positives - potential issues that you've dealt with in different ways, or issues that don't necessarily apply to your particular case - and it does. But it's a really useful tool to run a quick check and uncover little omissions or improvements to be made.


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