Hosting Team FAQ

New contributors often have questions about the HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team. This page answers some of the more common ones!

For step-by-step account setup, see the Contributor Day page. For deeper context on team projects and meetings, see Get Involved.

About the Hosting Team

There’s a Hosting Team? I never knew there was a Hosting Team!

Hi, and welcome! The Hosting Team has been part of the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project since 2017. Everyone is welcome to participate — whether you work at a host, run your own sites, or are learning about hosting WordPress for the first time.

Introduce yourself in the #hosting channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/, or at a Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ table. There are always opportunities to contribute!

What does the Hosting Team do?

The Hosting Team works cross-functionally between WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ and web hosts that support WordPress. The team facilitates testing on hosting infrastructure and communication between WordPress.org and hosts.

In practice, that includes maintaining the Hosting Handbook, running automated hosting tests, publishing serverServer A server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers. compatibility guidance, and collaborating with other WordPress teams. See Get Involved and Team Projects for details.

Does the Hosting Team recommend a specific host?

No. The Hosting Team does not recommend any specific host. Users and site owners must use their own discretion when choosing hosting.

The team publishes best-practice documentation and compatibility guidance that applies across hosting environments. It does not endorse individual hosting companies.

When does the team meet?

The Hosting Team meets in the WordPress Slack #hosting channel on Wednesdays. Check the WordPress Meeting calendar for the current schedule.

Contributing

How can I contribute if I’m not technical?

You do not need to be a developer or systems administrator to help. Many contributions are documentation-focused:

• Improve or expand Hosting Handbook pages
• Help with the Advanced Admin Handbook in collaboration with the Documentation Team
• If you don’t code or know how to use GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. you can still contribute. Folks are welcome to draft content in Google Docs or another format you are comfortable with — any Hosting team member can help turn it into a Pull Request.
• Take meeting notes (see Get Involved)

If you create a written draft but don’t know how to use Git, please share it in the ticket comments, and ask in the #hosting Slack channel for help getting your content into GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can 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 be the repository owner..

What projects can I work on?

See Team Projects for the current list. The main areas are:

• Hosting Handbook — hosting best-practice documentation (this repository)
• Automated Hosting Tests — PHPUnit test runner and reporter
• Advanced Admin Handbook — advanced system administration documentation

At Contributor Days, look for issues labeled for the event (for example, Contributor Day or WCUS26) in the relevant repositories. For flagship WordCamps, the team publishes a post ahead of Contributor Day with information and instructions for contributors.

Where do I find tasks to pick up?

• Hosting Handbook issues
• PHPUnit test runner issues
• PHPUnit test reporter issues
• Advanced Admin Handbook issues

If you want to work on a ticket, folks who are members of the WordPress organization in Github can self-assign on the upper right of the ticket. If you can’t self-assign, please comment on the issue to say you are working on it. If you are unsure which issue to choose, ask a table lead or post in #hosting.

Issues marked as good first issue or tagged with ContributorDay are good places to start.

What accounts do I need?

Link your GitHub username on your WordPress.org profile so GitHub contributions appear on your WordPress profile.

Full setup steps are on the Contributor Day page.

How does the Pull Request process work?

1. Find or open an issue describing the change
2. Fork the repository and create a branch for your work named with the ticket number and your username (i.e. WCUS26-393-jazzs3quence). Make sure to keep your Main branch up to date, and always checkout from Main.
3. Make your edits in a code editor on the clean branch labeled with the ticket number and your name, for example 345-amy. Commit, push and open a Pull Request (PR) from your local and your fork.
4. Reviews from Hosting Team members can be requested in the upper right of your PR. If no review requests are made, your PR will still be reviewed by Hosting team members.
5. PRs require approval from two Hosting Team members before merge

See Contributing in this repository for technical details.

How do I earn a Hosting contributor badge?

Contributions that can earn a badge include accepted PRs, documentation improvements, configuring and troubleshooting distributed host tests, taking meeting notes, regular meeting participation, and helping at Contributor Days. See Team Badges on the Get Involved page.

If you have contributed and do not yet have a badge, submit a member request for one here with details about your work.

Git and GitHub basics

Many Hosting Team projects use Git and GitHub. You do not need to be an expert, but knowing the basics saves time at Contributor Days.

Install Git

• Windows: Git for Windows
• macOS: Git is included with Xcode Command Line Tools, or install via Homebrew (brew install git)
• Linux: Use your distribution package manager (for example, sudo apt install git)

Verify the install:

git --version

Fork and clone a repository

1. Sign in to GitHub and open the repository (for example, hosting-handbook)
2. Click Fork to copy the repository to your GitHub account
3. Clone your fork locally:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/hosting-handbook.git
cd hosting-handbook

Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your GitHub username.

Create a branch

Always work on a branch, not directly on main, but make sure:

• your fork is up to date
• you pull in any updates to your local
• you always checkout from main
• main is fully up to date with all recent changes

git checkout main
git pull
git checkout -b <ticket-number>-<your-username> # (example: git checkout -b faq-407-amy)

Keep the branch name short and descriptive, and related to your change.

Make a commit

After editing files:

git status
git add faq.md
git commit -m "Add Hosting Team FAQ page for Contributor Day onboarding"

Write a simple and clear commit message that describes what changed and why.

Push and open a Pull Request

git push -u origin faq-407-amy

Then on GitHub:

1. Open your fork
2. Click Compare & pull request
3. Add a description of your change and link the related issue (for example, Fixes #407)
4. Request review from Hosting Team members

Keep your fork up to date

Before starting new work, sync with the upstream repository:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/WordPress/hosting-handbook.git
git fetch upstream
git checkout main
git merge upstream/main

You only need to add the upstream remote once per clone.

Alternatively, GitHub provides a Sync Fork button on your forked copy to pull any changes from the upstream repository into your copy.
If you’re using the Sync Fork button, you don’t need to worry about adding the new remote and merging the changes manually with git.

Edit a file on GitHub without a local setup

For small documentation changes, you can use GitHub’s web editor:

1. Open the file in the repository on GitHub
2. Click the pencil (Edit) icon
3. Make your change and use GitHub’s flow to propose a Pull Request

This works well for quick fixes at Contributor Days when Git is not yet installed locally.

Contributor Day quick reference

I’m at a Contributor Day table — where do I start?

1. Make sure you have a WordPress.org account
2. Join #hosting on Slack
3. Read this FAQ and ask the table lead which issues need help
4. Pick an issue, comment that you are working on it, and ask for a walkthrough if you need one

Past Contributor Day summaries are linked from Get Involved.

Who do I ask for help?

• At a camp: Your table lead or any Hosting Team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.
• Online: #hosting on Slack
• GitHub: Comment on the issue or PR you are working on

No question is too basic. Asking early helps you contribute sooner.