Automattic

Daniel Bachhuber

Gary Jones

Tim Moore

A simple WordPress admin tool for inspecting rewrite rules. View a listing of all your rewrite rules, see which rewrite rules match a given URL (and the priorities they match in), or filter by different sources of rewrite rules. Perform a soft flush of your rewrite rules to regenerate them.
<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/Rewrite-Rules-Inspector/" rel="nofollow ugc">Developed on GitHub</a> — pull requests are always welcome. Please leave feedback, questions, bug reports, and feature requests in the GitHub issues.
<h3>Where to find it</h3>
Go to <code>Tools → Rewrite Rules</code> in the WordPress admin.
<h3>URL Tester</h3>
Quickly test any URL (or path) against your site’s rewrite rules:
<ul>
<li>See whether the URL would be a 404 or which rule would match first (the one WordPress uses).</li>
<li>View the list of all matching rules, in match priority order.</li>
<li>Inspect the query variables extracted from the match and the resulting final query WordPress would run.</li>
</ul>
Works with full URLs or paths and automatically handles sites installed in a subdirectory.
<h3>Permastructs</h3>
Browse a table of all permastructs that WordPress is aware of, including:
<ul>
<li>Name — the permastruct key (e.g. for posts, taxonomies, authors).</li>
<li>Structure — the permalink structure pattern used to generate rules.</li>
<li>Description — a human-friendly summary of what the permastruct controls.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Flush Rules</h3>
The “Flush Rules” button allows you to regenerate your site’s rewrite rules. Here’s exactly what happens when you click it:
<h4>What the Flush Rules Button Does</h4>
When you click the “Flush Rules” button, the following sequence occurs:
<ol>
<li>
Security Check: The system verifies you have the proper permissions (<code>manage_options</code> capability) and validates the security nonce to prevent unauthorized access.
</li>
<li>
Cache Clearing: WordPress deletes the cached rewrite rules from the options cache using <code>wp_cache_delete('rewrite_rules', 'options')</code>.
</li>
<li>
Rule Regeneration: WordPress calls <code>flush_rewrite_rules(false)</code> to regenerate all rewrite rules based on:
<ul>
<li>Current permalink structure settings</li>
<li>Custom post types and taxonomies</li>
<li>Any custom rewrite rules added by themes or plugins</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Hook Execution: The <code>rri_flush_rules</code> action hook is fired, allowing other plugins to perform additional cleanup or actions after the flush.
</li>
<li>
Success Feedback: You’re redirected back to the Rewrite Rules Inspector page with a success message confirming the rules have been flushed.
</li>
</ol>
<h4>When to Use Flush Rules</h4>
Use the “Flush Rules” button when:
<ul>
<li>Missing Rules: You see rules marked as “missing” (red background) in the inspector</li>
<li>Custom URLs Not Working: Your custom permalinks or post type URLs aren’t working properly</li>
<li>After Plugin Changes: You’ve activated/deactivated plugins that register custom rewrite rules</li>
<li>Permalink Structure Changes: You’ve modified your site’s permalink structure</li>
<li>Custom Post Type Issues: New custom post types or taxonomies aren’t generating proper URLs</li>
</ul>
<h4>Important Notes</h4>
<ul>
<li>Soft Flush: This performs a “soft” flush (using <code>flush_rewrite_rules(false)</code>), which is safer than a hard flush as it doesn’t force regeneration of all rules unnecessarily.</li>
<li>Permissions Required: Only users with <code>manage_options</code> capability can flush rules.</li>
<li>No Data Loss: Flushing rules doesn’t delete any content or settings, it only regenerates the URL routing rules.</li>
<li>Immediate Effect: Changes take effect immediately after flushing.</li>
</ul>

Rewrite Rules Inspector

Best option when working with permalinks and custom urls structs

A must have for permalinks work

Easy Testing what wordpress rewrite thinks about any url ;) 

Nice one!


Sometimes you get into a trap that logically leads nowhere and this plugin can help you find a way out of this vicious circle. Thanks.


Genius tool for debugging redirect errors

A simple admin tool for inspecting rewrite rules.

Oleg Butuzov

Debug Bar Rewrite Rules adds information about Rewrite Rules (changed via filters) to a new panel in the Debug Bar. This plugin is an extension for <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debug-bar/" rel="ugc">Debug Bar</a>, but it is also can work in standalone mode (as admin tools page). Note: this plugin not able to track <code>add_rewrite_rule</code> function calls, for a reason this function is untraceable.
Once installed, you will have access to the following information:
<ul>
<li>Number of existing rewrite rules</li>
<li>List of rewrite rules</li>
<li>List of available filter hooks that can affect rewrite rules.</li>
<li>List of filters that affects rewrite rules.</li>
<li>Ability to search in rules with highlighting matches.</li>
<li>Ability to test url and see what rules can be applied to it.</li>
<li>Ability to flush rules directly from debug bar panel/tools page.</li>
</ul>

Debug Bar Rewrite Rules

This plugin makes it so easy to debug and even discover WP rewrite rules. Thanks a lot!!

Amazing plugin!

Debug Bar Rewrite Rules adds a new panel to Debug Bar that displays information about WordPress Rewrites Rules (if used).

Rewrite Rules Inspector vs Debug Bar Rewrite Rules