PushPull

Description

PushPull stores selected WordPress content in a Git repository using a canonical JSON representation instead of raw database dumps.

This project is also documented through a DevOps-focused article series that explains how to efficiently manage a WordPress stack with Bedrock and PushPull, starting here: https://creativemoods.pt/devops-with-wordpress/

Beta notice

This is a beta plugin. It is still under active development, has limited functionality, and currently supports only a narrow subset of the intended PushPull feature set.

The current release supports these managed domains:

1. Primary domains:
   generateblocks_global_styles
   generateblocks_conditions
   wordpress_block_patterns
   wordpress_categories
   wordpress_comments
   wordpress_menus
   wordpress_pages
   wordpress_posts
   wordpress_tags
   wordpress_custom_css
   generatepress_elements
   wordpress_attachments (explicit opt-in only)
   generic discovered custom post types and taxonomies
2. Config domains:
   wordpress_core_configuration
   wpml_configuration
3. Overlay domains:
   translation_management (WPML-backed)
   media_organization (Real Media Library-backed)

PushPull keeps a local Git-like repository inside WordPress database tables and supports the following workflow directly from WordPress admin:

1. Test the remote GitHub or GitLab connection
2. Commit live managed content into the local repository
3. Initialize an empty remote repository
4. Fetch remote commits into a local tracking ref
5. Diff live, local, and remote states
6. Pull remote changes through fetch + merge
7. Merge remote changes into the local branch
8. Resolve conflicts when needed
9. Apply repository content back into WordPress
10. Push local commits to GitHub or GitLab

The plugin also includes:

1. An audit log screen
2. Local repository reset tooling
3. Remote branch reset tooling that creates one commit removing all tracked files from the branch
4. A dedicated Domains screen that separates WordPress core, installed plugin integrations, and discovered custom content
5. Global and per-domain managed-content views in the admin UI
6. A high-level PushPull status dropdown in the WordPress admin bar
7. Menu structure export and apply with hierarchy and theme location assignment
8. A scheduled lightweight remote-head check that highlights when Fetch likely has updates available
9. Bulk Commit + Push All and Pull + Apply All workflows for whole-site bootstrap and deploy flows
10. A wp pushpull WP-CLI command surface for status, configuration, domains, and sync operations

Current scope

This is an early, focused release. At the moment, PushPull is intentionally limited to:

1. GitHub and GitLab as implemented remote providers
2. Managed domains across three families:
   generateblocks/global-styles/
   generateblocks/conditions/
   wordpress/block-patterns/
   wordpress/categories/
   wordpress/comments/
   wordpress/menus/
   wordpress/pages/
   wordpress/posts/
   wordpress/tags/
   wordpress/custom-css/
   wordpress/attachments/
   wordpress/configuration/
   wpml/configuration/
   wordpress/generatepress-elements/
   wordpress/custom-post-types//
   wordpress/custom-taxonomies//
   translations/management/
   media/organization/
3. Canonical JSON storage with one file per managed item for manifest-backed sets, plus directory-backed storage for attachments using attachment.json and the binary file
4. Explicit opt-in attachment sync through a media-library checkbox
5. Overlay domains that scope themselves to enabled compatible base domains rather than exporting every backend row blindly
6. A cached remote-head availability signal for Fetch, driven by a configurable recurring check instead of a live provider probe on every page load

It does not yet manage forms, users, arbitrary wp_options, or arbitrary plugin data.

How PushPull represents content

PushPull does not use WordPress post IDs as repository identity.

For the currently supported managed sets it stores:

1. One canonical JSON file per managed item
2. One separate manifest.json file for manifest-backed sets that preserves logical ordering
3. One directory per attachment for the attachments set, containing attachment.json and the binary file
4. Stable logical keys instead of environment-specific database IDs
5. Canonical logical-key references for cross-domain relationships such as reading settings, translation groups, media folders, GeneratePress condition targets, and menu object references
6. Recursive placeholder normalization for current-site absolute URLs in post-type-backed content

Configuration

PushPull currently supports GitHub and GitLab repositories.

For GitHub, grant:

1. Repository metadata read access
2. Repository contents read and write access

For GitLab fine-grained personal access tokens, grant:

1. Project: Read
2. Branch: Read
3. Commit: Read
4. Commit: Create
5. Repository: Read

In PushPull > Settings:

1. Select GitHub or GitLab as the provider
2. Enter the repository owner and repository name
3. Enter the target branch
4. Enter the API token
5. Optionally set the remote fetch check interval in minutes
6. Click Test connection
7. Save the settings

Domain selection

In PushPull > Domains:

1. Enable one or more managed domains
2. Review WordPress core, installed plugin integrations, and discovered custom content separately
3. Opt into generic discovered custom post types and taxonomies when you want them managed

Workflow

The normal workflow is:

1. Commit to snapshot the current live managed-set content into the local repository
2. Fetch to import the current remote branch into refs/remotes/origin/<branch>
3. Inspect the live/local and local/remote diff views if needed
4. Pull for the common fetch + merge flow, or Merge manually after fetch when you want review first
5. Apply repo to WordPress when you want the local branch state written back into WordPress
6. Push when you want local commits published to GitHub or GitLab

PushPull also performs a lightweight recurring remote-head check and visually highlights Fetch when the latest scheduled check suggests the remote branch has advanced since the last fetch.

For whole-site bootstrap flows, PushPull also supports:

1. Commit + Push All to snapshot and publish all enabled domains
2. Pull + Apply All to import and apply all enabled domains on a bare target site

If both local and remote changed, PushPull can persist conflicts, let you resolve them in the admin UI, and then finalize a merge commit.

When pushing to GitLab, PushPull currently linearizes local merge results into a normal commit on the remote branch instead of preserving merge topology. The merged tree content is preserved; only the remote Git history shape is flattened.

WP-CLI

PushPull also exposes a wp pushpull command.

Examples:

1. wp pushpull status
2. wp pushpull domains
3. wp pushpull config list
4. wp pushpull config set branch main
5. wp pushpull config enable-domain wordpress_pages
6. wp pushpull commit wordpress_pages
7. wp pushpull push
8. wp pushpull commit-push-all
9. wp pushpull pull-apply-all

Empty repositories

If the configured GitHub or GitLab repository exists but has no commits yet, Test connection will report that the repository is reachable but empty.

In that case, click Initialize remote repository. PushPull will:

1. create the first commit on the configured branch
2. fetch that initial commit into the local remote-tracking ref
3. make the repository ready for normal commit, fetch, merge, apply, and push workflows

You do not need to create the first commit manually on the provider before using PushPull.

TODO

1. Cache the admin-bar PushPull status summary so the high-level live/local and local/remote aggregation is not recomputed on every page view.
2. Move chunked async provider resumability fully into the provider layer so AsyncBranchOperationRunner no longer needs provider-specific GitLab staging rehydration logic.
3. Improve push progress and recap reporting to distinguish newly uploaded objects from objects reused from the remote history.
4. Surface unresolved logical-reference mapping issues, such as GeneratePress condition IDs that could not be converted to logical placeholders, instead of silently leaving mixed raw IDs and canonical refs.

External services

PushPull connects to the GitHub or GitLab API for the repository you configure in the plugin settings.

The plugin uses the provider REST API to:

1. Read repository metadata and the default branch
2. Read and update branch refs
3. Read and create Git objects or provider-equivalent commit actions
4. Test repository access before sync operations

PushPull sends the following information to the configured provider over HTTPS:

1. The repository owner, repository name, branch, and API base URL
2. Your configured API token in the provider-specific authentication header
3. Canonical JSON representations of the managed content you choose to commit and push
4. Commit metadata such as commit messages and, if configured, author name and email

In the current release, the managed content sent to the provider is limited to the enabled supported domains: GenerateBlocks Global Styles, GenerateBlocks Conditions, WordPress Block Patterns, WordPress Categories, WordPress Comments, WordPress Menus, WordPress Pages, WordPress Posts, WordPress Tags, WordPress Custom CSS, GeneratePress Elements, explicitly opted-in WordPress Attachments, WordPress core configuration, WPML configuration, generic discovered custom post types and taxonomies, WPML-backed translation management, and Real Media Library-backed media organization.

PushPull does not send your whole WordPress database to the provider. It only sends the managed content represented by the enabled adapters.

GitHub terms of service: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service
GitHub privacy statement: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-general-privacy-statement
GitLab terms: https://about.gitlab.com/terms/
GitLab privacy statement: https://about.gitlab.com/privacy/