Building Modern WordPress Themes with WP Rig & AI

Custom plugins, custom themes, headless, custom blocks, you name it.

• Monolithic functions.php with procedural spaghetti code
• Outdated or complete absence of build systems
• Zero built-in quality gates for accessibility, standards, or PHP quality
• Lack of direction, convention, automations, or QOL features.
• Little to no configurability – one model

• Hard to build custom interactive features without heavy JavaScript
• Fragile site-editor layouts dependent on third-party plugins
• Lack of strict architectural patterns for enterprise custom builds

A dynamic Model Context Protocol server providing AI agents real-time, zero-latency access to WP Rig documentation, theme configuration, and architectural rules.

Version-controlled instructions for Architecture, Feature Specs (SPEC.md), and Scaffolding—preventing context rot across multi-step dev sessions.

Lightning-fast TypeScript and CSS transpilation delivering optimized, minified assets instantly. Custom build scripts provide QOL enhancements like hot module reloading, custom media breakpoints (variable-based breakpoints) and dynamic theme asset referencing in CSS.

Clean, modular PHP architecture where every theme feature is a self-contained, namespaced PHP component with strict single responsibility.

• Located in inc/Components/
• Explicit KDoc contracts for every class and method
• Clean dependency injection and zero global scope pollution

• wprig_critical_cached cookie mechanism
• Inlines critical styles on first page load for sub-100ms FCP
• Seamlessly switches to cached stylesheet link on repeat visits

• Element selector and prompt builder
• A11y violation detection and remediation including light/dark mode toggling.
• Template usage breakdown

• Extracts computed DOM layout metrics & template paths
• One-click “Copy Agent Prompt” for instant AI chat context
• Generates precise CSS fix snippets directly from browser state

npm run ai:check

• PHPCS (WordPress Coding Standards)
• PHPStan (Static Analysis)
• ESLint (JavaScript Standards)
• Stylelint (CSS Rules)

• Authoring SPEC.md before writing code prevents scope drift
• Pre-written Playwright E2E tests provide automated criteria
• AI agents autonomously run, verify, and self-correct in a loop

• Design system consistency matching strict Figma branding
• Fast multi-developer build execution
• Strict pre-flight CI/CD quality gates

Single source of truth for build settings, theme metadata, OKLCH color pipelines, and component toggles across team developers.

• Customizable PHPCS sniffs in phpcs.xml.dist for agency standards
• Version-controlled agent skills in .ai/skills/ committed to Git

Discover, pull/inject, publish, and share modular, DRY theme components across multiple theme projects without code duplication. For agencies, a private component registry can be easily configured.

• Shadow DOM React Developer Toolbar (dev-toolbar.js)
• One-click front-end AJAX cache purging via wp_ajax_wprig_purge_cache

• Alt / Option key shortcut locks mobile navigation open during CSS styling
• CSS WP Rig comes with a rigorous navigation testing system to help you iterate on your navigation, as this is one of the most important parts of a WP theme.

• Playwright E2E mobile navigation suite
• Lighthouse CI performance budgets (npm run test:perf)
• Pixel-match visual regression snapshots (npm run test:e2e:screenshot)

• 100% WordPress Core standards compliance
• Zero third-party runtime JavaScript bloat
• Accessibility out of the box

• Global color palettes, typography scales, & spacing in theme.json
• Multi-scheme styles/*.json variations (e.g. dark mode & typography presets)
• Full Site Editing template parts in templates/

• Solving nested block card layouts with @container queries
• Fluid typography & spacing with responsive clamp() rules
• Zero media query clutter for individual block cards

• Scaffold custom blocks: npm run block:new
• Auto-registration via inc/Blocks/Component.php
• Promote block to standalone plugin: npm run block:promote-plugin

npm run block-based

Automatically prunes classic PHP template hooks and aligns existing theme structures with Full Site Editing standards in a single command.

• Integrated @axe-core/playwright test suite
• Catches color contrast and ARIA errors during npm run ai:check
• Documentation guide available in docs/accessibility-testing.md

• Real-time color contrast ratio scoring (WCAG AA/AAA)
• Touch-target size validation (44x44px min threshold)
• Interactive remediation controls directly inside Dev Toolbar

• Non-destructive customizations
• Preserving parent theme update paths
• Fast AI-assisted prototyping & vibe coding

Converts WP Rig into a lean, production-ready child theme targeting Ollie, Twenty Twenty-Five, or classic parent themes in a single command.

Choice of Node or ultra-fast Bun execution delivering instant asset compilation and zero-config child theme builds.

• Automated PHP upgrades via Rector (composer fix)
• Hybrid OOP component architecture safely overrides classic or block parent themes

• Vibe code new child components with zero risk to parent files
• Copy DOM metrics & template paths from Dev Toolbar into AI chats
• Instant hot-reload feedback loop reflects AI edits immediately

• 100% GPL Licensed: Completely free open-source framework
• Zero SaaS Lock-in: No proprietary plugins, subscriptions, or paywalls
• Complete Ownership: You own 100% of your source code

• Completely authored in Gutenberg
• Presentation features: A custom slide deck feature powered by Reveal.js and other custom JS.
• Dogfooding WP Rig: This theme was built 3 weeks ago in about 3 hours containing this feature as a spec.