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Add beginner-friendly documentation for non-technical WP-CLI users#629

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swissspidy merged 10 commits intomainfrom
copilot/improve-documentation-for-non-techies
Mar 17, 2026
Merged

Add beginner-friendly documentation for non-technical WP-CLI users#629
swissspidy merged 10 commits intomainfrom
copilot/improve-documentation-for-non-techies

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Copilot AI commented Mar 17, 2026

The handbook is developer-focused, leaving non-technical WordPress users without a clear entry point for learning WP-CLI.

New guides

  • guides/beginners-guide.md — A linear user manual designed to be read from start to finish. Explains what the command line is, how to open a terminal on macOS/Windows/Linux, basic shell navigation, what WP-CLI is, and how to read WP-CLI output. Also covers running WP-CLI inside vs. outside the WordPress folder, using wp help for built-in documentation, community support resources, and how to use WP-CLI on a remote server over SSH. Links to the existing installation guide rather than duplicating installation steps.

  • guides/common-tasks.md — Practical command reference organized by topic (plugins, themes, core, users, posts, comments, options, search-replace, media, cache, database). Each entry is a short description + copy-paste command. Includes a note on Windows shell-substitution compatibility for commands using $(...).

Updated

  • index.md — Promotes the two new guides to the top of the Guides section. Splits the Guides section into "For users" (Beginner's guide, Common tasks, Installing, Quick start, Running commands remotely, Common issues, External resources, Troubleshooting) and "For developers" (Commands cookbook, Writing Behat Tests, and other developer-oriented guides) to clearly separate user-facing from developer-oriented content.

  • guides/installing.md — Added a new ## Requirements section documenting the PHP 7.2.24 minimum version requirement, placed before the installation instructions.

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Improve documentation for non techies</issue_title>
<issue_description>The current documentation for CLI is mainly for developers. I think CLI could also be really helpful for users who are less technical. To onboard them and introduce them to CLI, the documentation and handbook should be present and described in a more detailed way.

Some Ideas that could help to reach that goal:

I will break those down into single issues.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)


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…dates

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Improve documentation for non techies Add beginner-friendly documentation for non-technical WP-CLI users Mar 17, 2026
Copilot AI requested a review from swissspidy March 17, 2026 14:42
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…p help, SSH guidance

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

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…ents to installing.md

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI requested a review from swissspidy March 17, 2026 15:37
@swissspidy

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@swissspidy swissspidy linked an issue Mar 17, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request
…oper guide separation

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

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@swissspidy swissspidy marked this pull request as ready for review March 17, 2026 16:35
@swissspidy swissspidy requested a review from a team as a code owner March 17, 2026 16:35
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 17, 2026 16:35
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Pull request overview

This PR expands the WP-CLI handbook’s “Guides” section for new users by adding two new introductory pages, updating the main index to group guides by audience, and registering the new pages (and a few existing ones) in the handbook manifest used for WordPress.org imports.

Changes:

  • Add new “Beginner’s Guide” and “Common Tasks with WP-CLI” guide pages.
  • Reorganize index.md to split guides into “For users” and “For developers”, and adjust the guide list accordingly.
  • Add a “Requirements” section to the Installing guide and update bin/handbook-manifest.json to include new/relocated entries.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
index.md Re-groups guide links into user/developer sections and adds new guide links.
guides/installing.md Adds a new Requirements section describing PHP minimum version.
guides/common-tasks.md Introduces a new task-oriented guide with command examples.
guides/beginners-guide.md Introduces a new beginner-focused guide explaining the command line and first WP-CLI steps.
bin/handbook-manifest.json Registers new handbook pages and adjusts manifest entries for import.

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swissspidy and others added 4 commits March 17, 2026 17:40
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
@swissspidy swissspidy merged commit b36ce98 into main Mar 17, 2026
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@swissspidy swissspidy deleted the copilot/improve-documentation-for-non-techies branch March 17, 2026 16:55
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Improve documentation for non techies Add actual "User Manual"

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