📅 Day 2 of 30 · Week 1: Get the Stack · ⏱ 15 minutes
🔓 Can’t install apps? Do this instead. If you can’t install the Studio desktop app (locked-down work laptop, etc.), use WordPress Playground — full WordPress in your browser, nothing to install — for every site exercise in this course. You give up a persistent local site, but nothing else.
Why a Local Site?
Yesterday you built a site in the browser with Playground — great for quick experiments, but it resets when you close the tab. Real work needs a persistent local site: one that keeps your content between sessions, runs the WordPress and PHP versions you choose, and gives you a safe place to test AI tools before you touch anything live. That’s WordPress Studio — and the easiest way in is the desktop app.
🔧 Tool: WordPress Studio (Desktop) — Automattic’s free desktop app for local WordPress development. Create sites with a click, and use Studio Code (the built-in AI assistant) right inside it — no terminal required. Download: developer.wordpress.com/studio. Prefer the terminal? A Studio CLI exists too — it’s optional, covered at the end.
Step 1: Install Studio (Desktop)
- Mac: Go to developer.wordpress.com/studio and download the build for your Mac (Apple Silicon or Intel). Open the file, drag Studio into your Applications folder, then double-click to launch.
- Windows: Install Studio from the Microsoft Store (recommended), then launch it from the Start menu. (Or download the
.exeinstaller from the same page.)
Step 2: Create Your First Site
In Studio, name your first site and click Continue. That’s it — Studio spins up a complete local WordPress in seconds. No Docker, no MAMP, no Apache config. It picks sensible WordPress and PHP versions for you, and you can change them per site later.
Step 3: Open Your Site and wp-admin
Studio lists your new site with one-click buttons to open the site and its WordPress admin. The admin username and password are shown right in Studio — copy them to log in. This is your sandbox: install plugins, create posts, and break things safely, knowing nothing here touches a live site.
Step 4: Log in with WordPress.com (unlocks the AI assistant)
Click WordPress.com Log in in the top-right of Studio. This unlocks sync, shareable previews, and — importantly — Studio Code, the built-in AI assistant. Studio Code generates its AI responses using WordPress.com infrastructure, so you don’t need your own API key to get started. We’ll use it for performance and taxonomy audits in Week 3.
⌨️ Prefer the terminal? (optional) Studio also ships a CLI for scripting and automation — you don’t need it for this course, but it’s there if you like the command line. Enable “Studio CLI for terminal” in Studio’s Settings, or install via npm:
npm install -g wp-studio
# create a site and run WP-CLI against it
studio site create --name "my-site" --path ~/Studio/my-site --wp 7.0 --php 8.5
studio wp --path ~/Studio/my-site plugin listPlayground vs Studio — When to Use Which
- Playground (Day 1) — quick throwaway experiments, browser-based demos, sharing via URL. No install required, resets on close.
- Studio (today) — a persistent local site with the WordPress/PHP versions you choose, Studio Code’s AI built in, and a safe place to test everything in this course.
✅ Key Takeaway: The Studio desktop app is your home base for the rest of the program — a real local WordPress you create with a click, with Studio Code’s AI built in and no API key needed to start. The terminal (Studio CLI) is there if you want it, but you never have to touch it.
← Day 1: WordPress Playground · Day 3: Build a Block with Telex →