Add wp-env as an alternative local development environment

[dd32]

Summary

Adds @wordpress/env (wp-env) as a simpler alternative to the existing Docker Compose setup for local development. Both environments coexist — the .docker/ setup is unchanged.

What this PR does

• wp-env configuration (.wp-env.json) — Multisite on port 80, plugins/themes from wordpress.org download URLs, directory mappings for mu-plugins/plugins/themes/sunrise files, and a lifecycle script for database seeding
• Multi-network setup script (.wp-env/setup.mjs) — Idempotent afterStart lifecycle script that creates 3 WordPress networks (WordCamp, Events, Campus) with specific blog IDs matching production
• Dynamic sunrise network detection — load_network_sunrise(), sunrise-events.php, and sunrise-wordcamp.php now detect the network from HTTP_HOST instead of static SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE / WORDCAMP_NETWORK_ID constants. This is backward-compatible since get_domain_network_id() already handles both .test and .org domains
• PHPUnit bootstrap wp-env support — Detects the wp-env environment (/var/www/html) and adjusts paths for plugins, vendor autoload, and WP test suite location
• CI migration to wp-env — The unit-php GitHub Actions job now uses wp-env instead of manual MySQL service + install-wp-tests.sh. PHP version matrix is handled via .wp-env.override.json
• Dependency cleanup — Removes plugins/themes from Composer that are now installed by wp-env (akismet, bbpress, classic-editor, edit-flow, gutenberg, jetpack, etc.). Removes supportflow entirely (deactivated network-wide). Removes all camptix-* payment gateways (not needed for local dev)

Sites available after npx wp-env start

URL	Network	Description
http://central.wordcamp.test/	WordCamp	WordCamp Central
http://narnia.wordcamp.test/2026/	WordCamp	Sample WordCamp
http://events.wordpress.test/	Events	Events root
http://events.wordpress.test/rome/2024/training/	Events	Sample event

Login: admin / password

Prerequisites (one-time)

Add to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 wordcamp.test central.wordcamp.test narnia.wordcamp.test
127.0.0.1 events.wordpress.test campus.wordpress.test

Quick start

yarn                        # Install deps (includes @wordpress/env)
yarn workspaces run build   # Build JS assets
npx wp-env start            # Start environment + seed database

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wp-env quirks and workarounds

This section documents the non-obvious wp-env behaviors discovered and the workarounds used. These are worth knowing for anyone maintaining or extending the wp-env setup.

1. WP_TESTS_DOMAIN gets the test port appended

wp-env automatically appends testsPort to WP_TESTS_DOMAIN, WP_SITEURL, and WP_HOME via appendPortToWPConfigs() in its post-processing. With testsPort: 8889, the test domain becomes localhost:8889 instead of localhost.

Only ports 80 and 443 are excluded from appending (see node_modules/@wordpress/env/lib/config/add-or-replace-port.js).

Impact: Tests that check domain names (e.g. Let's Encrypt test_get_domains) got localhost:8889 instead of a clean domain.

Workaround: phpunit-bootstrap.php defines WP_TESTS_DOMAIN, WP_SITEURL, and WP_HOME early (before wp-env's wp-tests-config.php loads) to override the port-appended values. We tried setting these to null in .wp-env.json's tests config, but wp-env validates config values and rejects null — only string | number | boolean are accepted.

2. wp-tests-config.php is generated from wp-config.php

wp-env generates wp-tests-config.php by copying wp-config.php and stripping the require wp-settings.php line (via sed). This means:

• $table_prefix is wp_, not wptests_ as in standard WP test setups
• All wp-env config constants (from .wp-env.json) are present in the test config
• Constants defined in phpunit-bootstrap.php before the WP test suite loads take precedence over wp-tests-config.php values (first define() wins)

Impact: The subroles test hardcoded wptests_capabilities as the user meta key, which didn't match wp-env's wp_ prefix. Also, phpunit-bootstrap.php was defining WORDCAMP_ROOT_BLOG_ID=5 before wp-tests-config.php could set it to 1, causing tests that depend on blog IDs to fail.

Workaround:

• Subroles test now uses $wpdb->get_blog_prefix() . 'capabilities' instead of a hardcoded key
• phpunit-bootstrap.php skips defining bootstrap constants when running in wp-env (they come from wp-config.php with correct values)

3. No mu-plugins-private/ directory in wp-env

The 2-autoloader.php autoloader does require_once for files in mu-plugins-private/wporg-mu-plugins/pub-sync/utilities/. These private files don't exist in wp-env or CI.

Impact: Any test that triggers class_exists() for a WordPressdotorg\MU_Plugins\Utilities class would hit a fatal require_once error, even if the test had markTestSkipped() logic (the autoloader runs before the skip check).

Workaround: Added a file_exists() guard in 2-autoloader.php before require_once for the private path. This is safe for production since the file will always exist there.

4. Constants unavailable during mu-plugin loading

wp-env loads mu-plugins before wp-config.php constants are fully available in certain bootstrap phases (e.g. during wp-env start install). Several mu-plugins reference constants like WORDCAMP_ENVIRONMENT unconditionally.

Workaround: Created .wp-env/0-early-mu-plugin.php mapped to wp-content/mu-plugins/0-aaa-wp-env-constants.php (alphabetically first) that defines fallback values for required constants. Added defined() guards in mu-plugins that run early.

5. Multisite subdomain install + localhost = problems

wp-env's multisite uses localhost as the domain. Subdomain install with localhost doesn't work because *.localhost doesn't resolve. The actual multisite setup with custom domains (wordcamp.test, events.wordpress.test) requires the sunrise.php drop-in and /etc/hosts entries.

Workaround: The .wp-env/setup.mjs lifecycle script runs after wp-env start and creates the multi-network topology with proper custom domains via WP-CLI. The sunrise files handle routing requests to the correct network based on HTTP_HOST.

6. CI doesn't have /etc/hosts entries

In CI, there are no custom domain entries. Tests that rely on $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] being set to a specific domain need to set it themselves.

Workaround: Tests like test-sunrise-events.php explicitly set $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] before calling functions that depend on it. The test environment config uses BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE=1 and WORDCAMP_ROOT_BLOG_ID=1 (overriding the dev defaults of 5) so tests don't depend on specific blog IDs that require the full multi-network setup.

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Test plan

• npx wp-env start completes without errors
• curl -I http://central.wordcamp.test/ returns 200
• curl -I http://narnia.wordcamp.test/2026/ returns 200
• curl -I http://events.wordpress.test/ returns 200
• npx wp-env run cli wp site list shows all 4+ sites
• npx wp-env run cli wp network list shows 3 networks
• PHPUnit via wp-env: yarn wp-env:test:php passes
• CI PHP tests pass on all matrix versions (8.1, 8.4, 8.5)
• Existing Docker setup still works (no changes to .docker/)

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