Getting Started

Installation

Via Composer (Recommended)

composer require rudel/rudel

Composer installations receive updates through Composer.

Manual Installation

Download latest release from GitHub

Upload the zip to your WordPress plugins directory and activate the plugin, or install via WP-CLI:

wp plugin install rudel.zip --activate

Setup

On activation, Rudel adds a single line to your wp-config.php:

require_once __DIR__ . '/wp-content/plugins/rudel/bootstrap.php';

This bootstrap file runs before wp-settings.php and detects sandbox context from the incoming request. When no sandbox is active, WordPress boots normally with zero overhead.

Rudel also downloads the SQLite Database Integration into its lib/ directory automatically.

Configuration

Rudel works out of the box with sensible defaults. The following optional constants can be defined in wp-config.php before the plugin loads:

Constant	Default	Description
`RUDEL_CLI_COMMAND`	`rudel`	WP-CLI command name. Set to e.g. `sandbox` for white-label use.
`RUDEL_PATH_PREFIX`	`__rudel`	URL path prefix for sandbox access. Change to customize the URL structure.

Verify installation

Check that everything is set up correctly:

wp rudel status

This shows:

Field	Description
Bootstrap installed	Whether the `wp-config.php` line is in place
Sandboxes directory	Where sandboxes are stored
Active sandboxes	Number of existing sandboxes
SQLite integration	Whether the SQLite library is installed
PHP version	Current PHP version
SQLite3 extension	Whether the SQLite3 PHP extension is available
PDO SQLite	Whether PDO SQLite is available

Create your first sandbox

wp rudel create --name="my-first-sandbox"

This creates a blank sandbox with a fresh SQLite database and empty wp-content directory. The output includes the sandbox path and access URL.

To start using the sandbox via WP-CLI:

cd /path/to/sandboxes/my-first-sandbox-a1b2
wp post list

Any wp command run from within the sandbox directory is automatically scoped to that sandbox's database and content, thanks to the wp-cli.yml file.

Create a sandbox with cloned content

To clone your host site's database and content into a sandbox:

wp rudel create --name="full-clone" --clone-all

This copies the host MySQL database into an SQLite database, along with all themes, plugins, and uploads. See Creating Sandboxes for all available options.

Access a sandbox in the browser

Sandboxes can be accessed via:

Path prefix: example.com/__rudel/sandbox-123/ (no DNS required, prefix configurable via RUDEL_PATH_PREFIX)
Subdomain: sandbox-123.example.com (requires wildcard DNS)
Header: X-Rudel-Sandbox: sandbox-123 (for programmatic access)
Cookie: rudel_sandbox=sandbox-123 (for browser sessions)

The path prefix method works out of the box with no DNS configuration.

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