Dan Knauss

Maestro is an inline admin menu editor. Instead of a separate settings 
screen, it turns the WordPress admin menu into something you edit in place — 
right where it lives. Toggle Edit Menu from the admin bar and the menu 
becomes editable: click a label to rename it, drag rows to reorder, swap a 
top-level icon, or hide items from chosen roles.
Try it first. Launch a throwaway demo in 
<a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dknauss/Maestro/main/playground/blueprint-hosted.json" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress Playground</a> 
— it boots a site with Maestro active, User Switching, and test users (editor, 
author, contributor, subscriber; password <code>password</code>) so you can try per-role 
visibility by switching users before you install anything.
<h4>What you can do</h4>
<ul>
<li>Rename any top-level or submenu item — just click the label.</li>
<li>Reorder items by dragging (top-level items among themselves, submenu items 
within their parent), or with the keyboard (<code>Alt</code>+<code>Arrow</code>).</li>
<li>Swap icons on top-level items. The picker offers dashicons and bundled 
Bootstrap Icons with search, and accepts any of WordPress’s four native icon 
forms (dashicon, “none”, base64 image data-URI, or an image URL).</li>
<li>Hide items from chosen roles — including administrators. Custom roles 
registered by other plugins 
(<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/user-role-editor/" rel="ugc">User Role Editor</a>, 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/members/" rel="ugc">Members</a>, etc.) appear automatically.</li>
<li>Reset a single item to its WordPress default, or reset everything at once.</li>
</ul>
Changes are global — one configuration applies to everyone — and are stored 
as a sparse delta layered over the menu WordPress builds on each load. Nothing 
is rebuilt or duplicated, so a reset simply removes the delta and the original 
menu returns.
<h4>Important: visibility is cosmetic, not access control</h4>
Hiding a menu item only declutters the menu. The underlying admin page still 
loads for anyone who knows or types its URL, because a page’s own registered 
capability is the true lock. Maestro operates on the menu (presentation), 
which is a different plane from authorization.
If you need to actually prevent access, pair Maestro with a capability manager:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/user-role-editor/" rel="ugc">User Role Editor</a> — the 
simplest way to edit what a role can do.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/capability-manager-enhanced/" rel="ugc">PublishPress Capabilities</a> — 
menu-aware; its Pro tier can block admin pages by URL.</li>
</ul>
The <code>maestro_capability</code> filter lets such a plugin hand editing rights to a 
custom capability instead of the default <code>manage_options</code>.
<h4>Accessibility and localization</h4>
The editor is keyboard-operable end to end — select with <code>Enter</code>/<code>Space</code>, 
reorder with <code>Alt</code>+<code>Arrow</code>, and every move and save is announced to screen 
readers. Modified items carry a non-color indicator with screen-reader text, so 
state never depends on color alone.
Maestro uses the <code>maestro-menu-editor</code> text domain and ships a translation 
template plus starter language packs for Spanish (<code>es_ES</code>), German (<code>de_DE</code>), 
Japanese (<code>ja</code>), French (<code>fr_FR</code>), Portuguese – Brazil (<code>pt_BR</code>), and Italian 
(<code>it_IT</code>). WordPress.org language packs override and extend these; native-speaker 
and WordPress Polyglots review is welcome.
<h3>Architecture (for developers)</h3>
<ul>
<li><code>Config</code> — reads/writes/sanitizes a single option (<code>maestro_config</code>) holding only 
the deltas. Reset = delete the option; the natural menu returns automatically.</li>
<li><code>Replay</code> — on a late <code>admin_menu</code> pass, applies rename/icon/visibility to the 
 $menu/<code>$submenu</code> globals and reorders submenus. Top-level order uses the 
core <code>custom_menu_order</code> + <code>menu_order</code> filters. Resilient to missing slugs 
(orphans are skipped) and new items (appended at the end).</li>
<li><code>Rest</code> — <code>maestro/v1/config</code> (GET/POST/DELETE), capability-gated, <code>X-WP-Nonce</code>.</li>
<li>The editor JS is driven by a localized model (with DOM ids), not DOM scraping, 
and diffs against captured pristine defaults so the stored config stays sparse.</li>
<li>Localized editor labels are passed from PHP to JavaScript in <code>maestroData.i18n</code>; 
the runtime zip includes the bundled POT template and starter catalogs.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Known limits / deferred to v2</h3>
<ul>
<li>Reparenting (moving an item between a top-level position and a submenu) is 
not included. Top-level items reorder among top-level items and submenu items 
reorder within their current parent. Reparenting needs hand-splicing of the 
globals plus <code>parent_file</code>/<code>submenu_file</code> highlighting fixes — a known 
minefield, parked deliberately.</li>
<li>Separators are preserved in place but not yet add/move/delete-able; their 
generated slugs (<code>separator1</code>…) have no stable identity to key against.</li>
<li>Renaming an item drops any core-appended count badge (e.g. pending 
comments) from that label, since the badge lives inside the title string.</li>
<li>Submenu sort relies on items registering by the late <code>admin_menu</code> pass; a 
plugin that registers submenus on an unusually late hook may not be captured.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Credits</h3>
Bundled <a href="https://icons.getbootstrap.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Bootstrap Icons</a> are © The Bootstrap 
Authors, licensed under the MIT License. They are recoloured to the WordPress 
menu grey and embedded as data-URIs; see <code>bin/generate-bootstrap-icons.mjs</code>.
<h3>Support This Plugin</h3>
If Maestro saves you time, you can support its ongoing maintenance through 
<a href="https://github.com/sponsors/dknauss" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub Sponsors</a>.

Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor

Rename, reorder, re-icon, and hide WordPress admin menu items per role — an inline admin menu editor you drive right on the menu itself.

The 9 Dollar Plugins

Take full control of your WordPress admin sidebar — without touching a single line of code. Hide any menu item with a checkbox click, reorder everything via drag & drop, and keep your backend clean and focused.
Why you’ll actually like it 
Let’s be honest: the WordPress admin sidebar can be a mess. Plugins keep adding their own menu items, custom post types pile up, and suddenly you’re scrolling past fifteen things you never use. Menu Valet gives you back control — no CSS hacks, no <code>remove_menu_page()</code> functions in your <code>functions.php</code>, no frustration. 
Just checkboxes and drag & drop.
Core Features — LITE (free) 
– See everything in one overview — all admin menu items and their submenus, clearly laid out 
– Hide any menu item with one click — checkbox toggles via Ajax, instant result 
– Reorder via drag & drop — grab any item and move it up or down. Also Ajax, also instant 
– Changes apply to all users — anyone with <code>manage_options</code> sees the same clean sidebar 
– Auto-hide submenus — hide a parent item, all its children disappear too 
– Smart submenu locking — when parent is hidden, submenus are automatically disabled 
– Supports everything — WordPress core, plugins, custom post types, you name it 
– Snapshot system — captures original menu before you change anything. Safety net included 
– High priority hooks — changes apply late, so no conflicts with other menu-altering plugins 
– Delete data on uninstall option — your call whether to leave a trace 
– Lightweight — no bloat, no external dependencies, no drama
PRO Version extras 
– Live search in the admin sidebar — start typing, menu items filter instantly. Great for deep backends 
– Rename any menu or submenu item inline — click, edit, done. Original name preserved as tooltip 
– Custom sidebar width — live slider from 160 px to 380 px. Make it narrow or spacious, your call 
– Priority support — because sometimes you need a human
How it works 
1. Install and activate the plugin. 
2. Go to Menu Valet in your WordPress admin sidebar. 
3. See your entire menu structure — parents, children, everything. 
4. Hide what you don’t need (checkboxes). Reorder the rest (drag & drop). 
5. That’s it. Your admin sidebar is now yours.
Behind the scenes (for the curious) 
The plugin hooks into the WordPress admin menu system and captures the full menu structure before any modifications are applied. That snapshot is your safety net. 
When you hide or reorder items, your changes are saved via AJAX — no page reloads, no waiting. 
Hidden items are removed from the global <code>$menu</code> and <code>$submenu</code> arrays before rendering. They simply don’t exist as far as the sidebar output is concerned. 
Menu order uses WordPress’s built-in <code>custom_menu_order</code> and <code>menu_order</code> filters. The plugin merges your saved order with newly registered menu items — so when you install a new plugin, its menu item appears at the bottom (until you move it).
No core files are ever touched. Everything runs through standard WordPress hooks. Safe, clean, reversible.

The 9 Dollar Menu Valet

Take full control of your WordPress admin sidebar: hide items with a click, reorder them via drag & drop, and rename them to fit your workflow.

Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor vs The 9 Dollar Menu Valet