WP Migrate

End-to-end migration workflow. Owns dryrun, apply, backup, restore, clone. The HARDEST safety surface in the toolkit — every step is destructive at production scale. Walks a plan → backup → apply → verify → rollback ladder.

Iron Rule

When to use

• "Move dev to staging"
• "Sync the latest plugin set from dev to prod"
• "Clone walnut.local to a new sandbox site"
• "Back this up before I install a risky plugin"
• "Roll back last week's migration"

Skip when:

• The change is content-only (a few posts) → wp-content REST CRUD.
• The change is a single plugin's config → wp-edit-plugin.

Boundary

Owns:

• rolepod_wp_migrate_dryrun — compute the plan without applying.
• rolepod_wp_migrate_data — apply a scoped migration. scope=plugin_versions (match plugin set) or scope=options (copy named wp_options keys, serialized-safe; URL/identity keys refused). users/posts scopes are unsupported (lossy).
• rolepod_wp_migrate_site — REST↔REST host-to-host full-site migration (companion-driven: backup dest → snapshot source → transfer → restore with URL rewrite).
• rolepod_wp_backup_create — pre-apply backup of destination.
• rolepod_wp_backup_restore — rollback path.
• rolepod_wp_clone — full-site copy over SHELL targets (db + wp-content + URL rewrite). For REST↔REST use rolepod_wp_migrate_site.

Does not own:

• DNS / SSL / domain switch — those are hosting-panel tasks, out of MCP scope.
• Content-level edits → wp-content.
• Pre-migration security audit → wp-diagnose.

Return / hand off:

• Plan reveals incompatible PHP version on destination → STOP, hand off to user with the version mismatch.
• Apply fails partway → backup_restore + surface the failure.
• After successful apply → wp-health-check + wp-diagnose to confirm.

Inputs to gather

• source_target_id + dest_target_id.
• Scope: full site / db only / wp-content only / specific tables / specific posts.
• For prod destinations: confirm_production: true + the user re-typing the destination hostname.

Workflow

1. Pre-flight on BOTH targets

• wp-health-check source.
• wp-health-check destination.
• wp-diagnose destination (any HIGH findings = STOP, fix first).

2. Dry-run

rolepod_wp_migrate_dryrun { source_target_id, dest_target_id, scope }. Output: per templates/migrate-plan.md. Surfaces row counts, file counts, table conflicts, URL rewrites required.

3. Confirm with user

Show the plan, ask for explicit OK. If destination is production-matched:

• Ask user to type back the destination hostname literally.
• Match must be exact, case-sensitive.
• Refuse to proceed otherwise.

4. Backup destination

rolepod_wp_backup_create { target_id: dest_target_id }. Surface the backup file path. The user keeps this; if anything goes wrong, rollback uses this.

5. Apply

rolepod_wp_migrate_data { source_target_id, dest_target_id, scope, allow_destructive: true, confirm: true }. There is no plan_id — nothing ties the apply to the dryrun, so re-run the dryrun yourself and read it before applying. scope accepts plugin_versions and nothing else: this tool installs/upgrades plugins on the destination to match the source. It does not move posts, media, or tables.

6. Verify

• wp-health-check destination → all green.
• wp-diagnose destination → no NEW critical findings vs the pre-migration report.
• Spot-check 3 user-visible URLs (homepage, a known post, login page).

7. Surface result

State: rows migrated, files copied, URLs rewritten, backup file path, verification result.

8. Rollback (only if needed)

If verification fails: rolepod_wp_backup_restore { target_id: dest_target_id, artifact_dir: <from step 4> }. Surface restored state.

REST↔REST host-to-host migration (companion)

When BOTH targets are rest with the rolepod-wp companion (no shell), rolepod_wp_migrate_site runs the whole full-site move server-side:

rolepod_wp_migrate_site { source_target_id, dest_target_id, allow_destructive: true, confirm: true }

Ordering is enforced and destructive-safe: (0) it backs up the DEST first and returns dest_rollback_backup_id; (1) snapshots the source; (2) pulls the archive to this host; (3) pushes it into the dest; (4) restores it there with a serialized-safe URL rewrite (source host → dest host). A production dest without confirm: true → PRODUCTION_BLOCKED. A shell target → MIGRATE_UNSUPPORTED_TARGET (use rolepod_wp_clone instead). If any stage fails, the error carries dest_rollback_backup_id — restore it with rolepod_wp_site_restore.

Copying specific options between environments

rolepod_wp_migrate_data { scope: "options", options: ["blogdescription", ...], allow_destructive: true } copies named wp_options keys source → dest (read + written as JSON, so serialized arrays survive). URL/identity keys (siteurl, home, blogname) are refused → OPTION_MIGRATE_URL_REFUSED; move the whole site with rolepod_wp_migrate_site if you need those.

If a matching Rolepod agent is available

• rolepod:rolepod-builder for the full ship gate.
• rolepod:rolepod-reviewer with lens: security for the pre-flight + post-flight audit pass.

If no matching agent is available

1. Pre-flight both.
2. Dryrun.
3. Confirm with user (prod = type-back hostname).
4. Backup destination.
5. Apply.
6. Verify.
7. Surface OR rollback.

Output

Migration plan — templates/migrate-plan.md. Persists per run at ./.rolepod-wplab/artifacts/<run_id>/migrate-plan.md.

Examples

Read before EVERY production-destination migration — the type-back hostname pattern is in here:

• examples/migrate-examples.md — good vs bad confirm flow for prod destination; good vs bad scope picking for a partial migration.

References

Inline only. The plan format is the template. The backup file format is companion-side (gzipped SQL + wp-content tar).

Hard stops

• Destination is production-matched AND user did not type back the hostname → STOP, do not apply.
• Dryrun reveals table-shape mismatch (source has table X, destination missing it) → STOP, surface, ask user.
• backup_create fails → STOP, do not apply without backup.
• Post-apply verification fails → AUTO-ROLLBACK via backup_restore, do not ask first; then surface what happened.
• More than 5 minutes between dryrun and apply → re-run dryrun.

Full Rolepod enhancement

Full Rolepod adds multi-environment graphs (dev → staging → prod chained migrations, with rollback to any prior known-good checkpoint). Standalone, the user runs the sequence by hand.

Next phase

• Success → wp-health-check periodically + wp-diagnose weekly.
• Rollback ran → wp-diagnose to identify why apply failed.
• Apply for prod → tell user to verify DNS / SSL / cache layer (hosting-panel scope, not MCP).