Local WordPress Development Workflows Using Studio

A reliable local WordPress environment is essential for any developer, whether you’re building themes, plugins, or entire sites. While many tools for local WordPress development exist, Studio by WordPress.com has quickly become my go-to. It’s particularly popular among developers with websites hosted on WordPress.com.

In this post, I’ll cover Studio’s key features, share common workflows I use when developing WordPress projects, and look ahead at new features coming in 2025. Whether you’re new to Studio or looking to optimize your workflows, there’s plenty to explore.

1. What is Studio?
   1. Studio architecture: A closer look
2. Development workflows
   1. The ideal local development workflow
   2. Plugin and theme development
      1. Deploying plugins and themes
   3. Full site development
      1. Previewing and deploying a full site
3. What’s next for Studio?

What is Studio?

Studio is a free tool designed to streamline local WordPress development, no matter what you’re building. It integrates seamlessly with sites hosted on WordPress.com but is available to any WordPress developer, regardless of hosting provider. As an active open source project on GitHub, Studio continues to evolve with contributions from the WordPress community.

Studio architecture: A closer look

Launched in April 2024, Studio is a relatively new addition to the local development ecosystem. Unlike more traditional setups, it runs on WordPress Playground and uses an SQLite database by default, rather than MySQL, making it lightweight and simple to use. While tools like wp-env offer a flexible, command-line-based approach, Studio provides a more user-friendly experience, similar to how GitHub Desktop simplifies Git workflows. Studio also doesn’t require any external dependencies, unlike wp-env, which requires Docker. 

Under the hood, Studio is an Electron app that leverages WordPress components and Tailwind CSS, ensuring a modern and intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). For a deeper look into its development, check out these posts from the Studio team:

• Maintaining High Performance in Our Local Development App for Enhanced UX
• Using WordPress Components and Tailwind CSS in Studio
• How Open Source Collaboration Enhances Studio

Studio is compatible with macOS and Windows, and there is an open request for Linux support. While you don’t need a WordPress.com account to use Studio, logging in grants access to advanced features such as the AI Assistant, Preview Sites, and Studio Sync (the last two will be covered later in this post).

Development workflows

If you’ve used other local development tools with a GUI, Studio will feel familiar. You can create and manage multiple WordPress sites within the app. New sites are stored in a dedicated ~/Studio folder inside the user directory on your machine, and you can customize the local path of each site to fit your workflow.

I recommend creating a new Studio site when starting a WordPress project. Having separate local sites makes it easier to test themes, plugins, or site configurations.

To set up a Studio site:

1. Open the Studio app and click “Add site.”
2. Choose a name for your site.
3. (Optional) Toggle “Advanced settings” to select a custom local path, WordPress version, or PHP version and choose a custom domain.
4. Click “Add site.“

Tip: Refer to Studio’s official documentation for a more in-depth overview of its functionality.

The ideal local development workflow

The ideal workflow depends on what you’re building and how you prefer to work. 

Plugins and theme development often require a different approach than building an entire site, especially when using Studio’s built-in features like Preview Sites and Studio Sync, or leveraging additional WordPress.com developer tools.

Therefore, I’ve outlined two common approaches below: 

• Plugin and theme development: I’ll share best practices for building and testing within Studio, using Git for version control, and deploying to a WordPress.com site using GitHub Deployments.
• Full site development: I’ll cover how to structure a complete website build, share a preview with clients and colleagues, and sync to a live site on WordPress.com.

These workflows are not one-size-fits-all, and I encourage you to adapt them to suit your needs.

Without further ado, let’s dive in:

Plugin and theme development

One reason you might need a local WordPress environment is to develop plugins and themes. To begin building, you’ll first need access to the site’s themes or plugins folder.

Open the Studio app if you haven’t already done so. Navigate to the Overview tab of your Studio site, then under “Open in…,” click Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows). This will open the site folder on your computer.

Inside the site’s wp-content folder, locate either the themes or plugins folder, depending on what you’re building. 

Create a new folder for your project in the appropriate location and open it in your preferred code editor. Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a popular choice, but Cursor and Windsurf are worth exploring if you’re looking for AI-powered assistance.

Tip: Want to see what building with one of these AI-powered code editors can look like? See how my colleague built a content calendar for WordPress.com.

Some developers prefer opening the entire site folder in their editor, while others work solely within their project directory. I prefer the latter, but either approach works.

Here’s the file structure for an example plugin inside a Studio site:

At this point, you’re ready to start coding. While this post doesn’t cover the full process of plugin or theme development, here are some useful resources:

• Learn WordPress: These are free courses on WordPress development.
• Build your first block: This is a complete tutorial on how to build a WordPress plugin that initializes a custom block.
• Block Editor Handbook: The official documentation for building plugins that adds functionality or extends the Editor in WordPress is a great resource to keep bookmarked while you develop.
• Theme Handbook: This handbook serves as the official documentation for developing WordPress themes.

Once your project files are set up, your theme or plugin will automatically appear in the Appearance or Plugins section of your Studio site’s admin dashboard. Activate it, test your work, and iterate as needed.

Deploying plugins and themes

With your WordPress plugin or theme complete, the next step is deploying it to a live site. 

There are many ways to do this, depending on the project’s purpose. If you’re releasing a public plugin or theme, hosting it on WordPress.org is an option. However, many projects are built for specific use cases, such as client work or private sites. In these cases, the code is often stored and managed in GitHub, Bitbucket, or other online version control services.

Version control is a core part of modern development, providing a structured way to track changes, collaborate, and roll back to previous versions when needed. Whether working solo or with a team, maintaining a Git repository ensures a reliable and scalable workflow.

Beyond organization and collaboration, version control also simplifies deployment. Many WordPress hosts support Git-based deployments, eliminating the need for manual file uploads via SSH. 

On WordPress.com, this is handled through GitHub Deployments, which works with any repository hosted on GitHub.com. It’s one of my favorite developer tools, and to use it, you must first turn your project into a GitHub repository.

Git comes preinstalled on macOS and is available to install on Windows. You can confirm Git is installed on your computer by opening the terminal (also known as the command line or shell) and running this command:

git --version

If Git is installed, you’ll see a version number. If it’s not installed, you’ll see an error message that says command not found.

After confirming Git is installed on your machine, initialize Git in your project folder by opening the terminal, navigating to the project folder, and running the following command:

git init

While you can continue to use the command line to create a GitHub repository, GitHub Desktop provides an intuitive GUI alternative, much like Studio provides for local development. With Git initialized:

1. Open GitHub Desktop.
2. Click File, and choose  “Add Local Repository…” 
3. Select your project folder.
4. Commit your changes and publish the repository to GitHub.

Once your project is live on GitHub, connect it to GitHub Deployments to push updates directly to a WordPress.com-hosted site on a Business or Commerce plan. 

With automatic deployments enabled, every commit pushed to your remote repository’s default branch (typically main) will instantly update all connected sites, including staging environments. Alternatively, you can manually trigger deployments as needed.

Regardless of which deployment method you use, you’ll need to manually trigger your first deployment to your WordPress.com-hosted site.

While this workflow focuses on deploying individual plugins and themes, you can use GitHub Deployments with a site’s entire wp-content folder. Many developers use this approach to track changes across themes, plugins, and other site assets in a single repository, making it easier to manage updates and maintain consistency across environments.

Tip: Refer to the GitHub Deployments documentation for more information on enabling this feature on your WordPress.com sites.

As Studio evolves, expect even more features and improvements to streamline how you build and deploy WordPress plugins and themes. Now, let’s take a look at creating a complete site locally.

Full site development

Studio is not just for plugin and theme development; it’s also great for building full WordPress sites. While some projects require custom development, many site builds just involve selecting a theme, installing plugins, adding content, and customizing the design in the Editor, all of which can be done easily in Studio.

To get started, follow the steps outlined above to create a new site in Studio. Then you can start building using the WordPress interface, just like you would on a live site.

If you are working with a block theme, I always recommend the Create Block Theme plugin. It makes customization easier by allowing you to:

1. Save template and Global Styles changes directly to the current theme.
2. Export them as a new theme without writing any code.

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide on how to use it.

Studio also supports syncing an existing WordPress.com Business or Commerce site to a local environment. This is particularly useful when you’ve already started working on a site or want to use a premium theme from WordPress.com. Premium themes cannot be directly downloaded or installed outside that environment. 

To sync a site:

1. Create a Business or Commerce site on WordPress.com if you haven’t already.
2. Optionally, apply the premium theme you want to use.
3. Open the Studio app, click “Add site,” and complete the site setup steps.
4. Navigate to the Sync tab of the newly created site.
5. Click “Log in to WordPress.com” if you have not already logged in.
6. Click “Connect site” to see available sites.
7. Select the site you want to connect and confirm by clicking “Connect.”
8. Click Pull to synchronize from your Production or Staging environment.

Once synced, you can continue working on the site in Studio. Refer to the Studio Sync documentation for more information. We’ll explore the sync feature further in the deployment section below.

Building a site locally offers the same benefits as developing custom plugins and themes. It provides a safe environment to experiment and test changes without affecting the live site. 

While staging environments serve a similar purpose, developing with Studio offers added flexibility by allowing offline development and a more focused workspace without the delays of working on a remote server.

A full guide to building a custom WordPress site is beyond the scope of this post, but here are some additional resources to help you get started:

• Design Your Site: Check out this documentation on designing your website or blog with different theme options and customizations.
• Learn WordPress: These are free courses on WordPress site design from the WordPress.org team.
• Quick Start Guide: Get started building your site with the official WordPress Theme Handbook.

Previewing and deploying a full site

Once your site is complete or near completion, it’s time to test and deploy. Studio includes two key features that simplify this process: Preview Sites and Studio Sync.

Preview Sites allow you to generate a temporary hosted version of your local Studio site, making it easy to test functionality in a real server environment. Instead of setting up a separate staging site, you can generate a preview in Studio with one click, and then share it with clients, team members, or stakeholders for feedback. This is especially useful for full-site builds, where content, design, and functionality need to be reviewed together before launch.

Preview Sites are available to all Studio users but require a WordPress.com account, free or paid. To create a new preview:

1. Navigate to the Previews tab of your Studio site.
2. Click “Log in to WordPress.com” if you have not already logged in.
3. Click on the “Create preview site” button.
4. Once complete, navigate to the generated URL to view the live preview.

Each preview site remains active for seven days after the last update. Up to 10 live preview sites can be hosted simultaneously, allowing you to test different projects or compare versions. 

For more information, check out the Preview Sites documentation.

If you are hosting on WordPress.com, Studio Sync provides a direct connection between your local Studio site and a WordPress.com Business or Commerce site. Instead of manually migrating files and databases, you can push updates from your local environment to production with a single click. You can also use Sync to deploy a brand-new site to WordPress.com.

To push a site to WordPress.com using Studio Sync:

1. Navigate to the Sync tab of your Studio site.
2. Click “Log in to WordPress.com” if you have not already logged in.
3. Click “Connect site” to see available sites.
4. Select the site you want to connect to and confirm by clicking “Connect.”
5. Click Push to synchronize your local Studio site with the connected WordPress.com site.

The screenshot below shows both a production and staging site successfully connected using Studio Sync.

Sync is bidirectional, meaning you can also pull updates from a live WordPress.com site into Studio, as shown in the previous section. This is useful when multiple developers are working on the same project or when making changes to an active site. Sync also supports staging sites, allowing you to test updates in a controlled environment before pushing them to production.

The Studio Sync documentation provides additional information.

When you push or pull a site, the entire site is transferred, including all files and the database. Currently, Studio Sync is best suited for full-site synchronization, not for deploying specific plugins or themes. There is an open issue to expand this functionality, giving developers more control over what gets synced. Expect to see enhancements in future releases of the Studio app.

What’s next for Studio?

This post provided an overview of Studio’s current capabilities and the common workflows available to developers. While the app is already a powerful local WordPress development tool, the Studio team is actively working on new features with exciting updates coming soon.

Two key enhancements I’m particularly looking forward to are:

• SSL support: This enhancement will make local sites feel more like production environments.
• Expanded PHP support: This update will include Xdebug support, symlink compatibility, and other improvements.

Since Studio leverages WordPress Playground, the WebAssembly-powered PHP binary, it currently has a few PHP limitations that other local development tools don’t. Efforts are underway to address these gaps, expanding what’s possible and giving developers like you more flexibility.

If you have ideas for additional improvements, this is a great time to share them. You can submit feature requests or report issues directly on GitHub, or leave a comment here with your thoughts. Your feedback helps shape the future of the app.

Not a Studio user yet? Download it for free below and see how it fits into your workflow. With frequent feature releases and an active open-source community, the app is improving rapidly.

After installing, be sure to connect Studio to your WordPress.com account (free or paid) to unlock features like Sync and Preview Sites.