Title: Community Summit: Contributing to WP-CLI
Author: Daniel Bachhuber
Published: July 25, 2017

---

 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/danielbachhuber/) [Daniel Bachhuber](https://profiles.wordpress.org/danielbachhuber/)
12:38 pm _on_ July 25, 2017      

# Community Summit: Contributing to WP-CLI

“Contributing to WP-CLIWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress,
used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project
page is [http://wp-cli.org/](http://wp-cli.org/) [https://make.wordpress.org/cli/](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/)”
was the second of two discussions we held at the Community Summit. For notes from
the first, [see details embedded in the feature development post](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2017/07/05/how-should-we-embark-upon-new-feature-development/).

We began the conversation by giving an overview to the current contribution process.
Notably:

 * We have a primary [Contributing](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/contributing/)
   document that links to further detail on [submitting a bug report](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/bug-reports/)
   and [creating a pull request](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/pull-requests/).
 * Our documentation is produced in the [wp-cli/handbook](https://github.com/wp-cli/handbook/)
   repo and [pulled into WordPress.org](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/)
   site with a [WordPress plugin](https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sites/trunk/wordpress.org/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wporg-cli).
 * Command and internal APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a 
   software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share
   data in limited, clearly defined ways. documentation are [dynamically generated from the codebase with a WP-CLI command](https://github.com/wp-cli/handbook/blob/master/bin/command.php)
   and rendered into standalone markdown files.

From the introduction, the conversation turned more free-form. In no particular 
order, some highlights:

 * One big challenge is that WP-CLI is a rather complex project and assumes a lot
   of knowledge from a contributor. When onboarding new contributors, they have 
   to learn two things: the process for contributing, and how everything works (
   without reading the code). Although the internals page is reasonably helpful,
   it doesn’t cover the command execution flow. Having a flow document would be 
   useful.
 * One observation is that potential contributors can enter the project in different
   ways (e.g. GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation
   of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers.
   Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription.
   GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in
   branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by
   the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/) repo for a custom
   command vs. a third-party tutorial on how to use WP-CLI). Documentation primarily
   provides a linear path.
 * We’re seeing some contributors submit documentation but not a ton. It’s unclear
   whether this indicates the documentation is good enough, or whether the path 
   to contributing documentation is too confusing. It’d be helpful to see more users
   open questions about the documentation, as a way of validating/improving the 
   content.
 * Another challenge is that generally of WP-CLI tools is that the user knows the
   abstract problem, but not which command addresses the problem. Related to this:
    - It would be useful if a help command also included the URLURL A specific web
      address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL 
      www.wordpress.org for more information.
    - It’d be nice if you could easily see a tree of all commands.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

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 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/44d2afa74041c6783dff26e86d94a8d465021341ef99407a8c9a9b57b19aca43?
    s=32&d=mm&r=g)
 2.  [sleepysteve](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sleepysteve/)  1:04 pm _on_ July 
    25, 2017
 3. I Can relate to the last two bullet points. I’m relatively new to WP-CLIWP-CLI 
    WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and
    development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is [http://wp-cli.org/](http://wp-cli.org/)
    [https://make.wordpress.org/cli/](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/) and CLICLI Command
    Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for
    WordPress.’s in general and I do feel the “gaps” I experience when reading the 
    documentation are self inflicted. When I am able to process the correct way to 
    interpret the documentation It’s usually easy to see how the contributor would 
    be satisfied with their documentation and not see the need to add anything more.
 4. If I’m needing to clarify documentation where is the proper place to voice those
    questions? GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of
    git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers.
    Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription.
    GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in 
    branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the
    repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)? or the SlackSlack
    Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
    The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/)
    channel?
 5. Thanks for the post update!
 6.  * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/16b43937020e44059fb472b2e1f0b5bc19bb195123b9a303f7b1ed5abf2c35e5?
       s=32&d=mm&r=g)
     *  [Daniel Bachhuber](https://profiles.wordpress.org/danielbachhuber/)  1:10 pm
       _on_ July 25, 2017
     * > If I’m needing to clarify documentation where is the proper place to voice
       > those questions? GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation
       > of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other
       > developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require
       > a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where
       > code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed
       > before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)?
       > or the SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
       > The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/)
       > channel?
     * Whichever you prefer! Slack is good for a quick chat about things, but work 
       issues always end up tracked in GitHub.

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# Post navigation

[← Feature Development Discussion Recap](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2017/07/18/feature-development-discussion-recap/)

[Good first issues for new contributors →](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2017/08/03/good-first-issues-for-new-contributors-3/)