Opening the site in your editor

The app is not an editor. To change WordPress code you open the site's directory in whatever editor you already use, and the site header gives you one control for that.

The Open directory in menu

Under the site's path in the header, click Open directory in. The menu contains:

• The system file manager — Finder on macOS, File Explorer on Windows, File manager on Linux.
• Any editors the app detected on your machine, by name — for example Visual Studio Code, Cursor, PhpStorm, Sublime Text, or Zed.
• Other application… — a picker for choosing any application yourself.

Choosing an entry opens the site's directory in that application.

How detection works

Detection checks the standard install locations for a short list of common editors: VS Code, Cursor, PhpStorm, Sublime Text, and Zed. It runs each time you open the menu — while it is checking, the menu shows Looking for applications… — so an editor you install while the app is running appears the next time you open the menu.

The list is a shortcut, not a limit. Detection deliberately checks fixed filesystem paths rather than your shell's PATH (a packaged desktop app does not inherit it), so it can miss editors installed somewhere unusual — JetBrains standalone installers with version-numbered directories, for instance, or most Linux packaging variants. An editor the list misses is not one the app refuses to use: that is what Other application… is for, and it is always in the menu, not only as a fallback.

Other application…

Other application… opens your system's application picker. Choose any application and the site directory is handed to it. This works for any editor, detected or not, and is the reliable path when detection comes up empty.

Copy path and the file manager

Two related controls sit nearby:

• The copy icon next to the path in the header copies the site's full path to the clipboard (it briefly shows Copied!). Use it to open the directory from an editor's own Open Folder dialog or from a terminal.
• The ☰ More menu also offers Copy path and Show in Finder / Show in Explorer (Show in file manager on Linux), which reveals the directory in the system file manager.

When an open fails

If an application fails to open the directory — it was uninstalled, or the launch was refused — an inline notice appears directly under the Open directory in menu explaining what went wrong. When it makes sense, the notice carries a Choose application… button that opens the same picker as Other application…, so you can point at a working application without hunting for the menu again.

What to edit

WordPress source lives under src/ in the site directory. While the dev server is running, a watcher rebuilds your edits into build/ automatically — see Running the site. When your change is ready, see Submitting changes.