The setup wizard

After creating a site, its view shows the Initial setup checklist. Complete each step to prepare the site for development. The steps run in order — each one unlocks the next.

The four steps

1. Download WordPress development version

The clone of wordpress-develop that started when you created the site. It runs on its own; while it is in progress the checklist reads "Cloning the WordPress develop repository… the next step unlocks when it finishes." and every later step stays locked.

2. Install npm dependencies

Click Install npm dependencies to run npm install using the Node.js runtime bundled with the app — no system Node or npm is needed. If the install fails, the button changes to Retry npm install; a leftover node_modules folder from a failed run does not count as completed.

Once installed, the button reads Dependencies installed and stays disabled. If you later add a dependency to package.json, run npm install yourself in the Terminal.

3. Run full build

Click Run full build to compile WordPress core and generate the dist files the dev server serves. This is the longest step after the clone.

You only run it manually once: trunk updates and applied patches rebuild on their own. If you edit files in src/ by hand, run npm run build in the Terminal so the site picks them up.

4. Start dev server & finish wizard

Click Start dev server and finish the wizard to launch the WordPress dev server for the first time. This completes the checklist and permanently replaces it with the compact action bar described below. The server URL appears next to the button once it is up — see Running the site.

Step states

Each step carries a state label:

• Completed — done, marked with a green check.
• In progress — the step to do next; its button is enabled.
• Pending — ready but waiting for you to reach it.
• Locked — its prerequisites are not met yet; the button is disabled.

Steps also lock temporarily while a trunk update is running, since the update owns the working tree during that time.

Skipping the wizard

Below the checklist is a Skip initialization wizard link. Clicking it hides the checklist for this site, for good, and shows the compact action bar instead: the dev server start/stop button, Review & submit changes, and — while the server is running — Open Adminer.

Skipping does not run any of the steps for you. If the dependencies were never installed or the build never ran, the dev server will not have anything to serve, so only skip on a site you know is already set up (for example, a wordpress-develop checkout you prepared outside the app). For everything else, finishing step 4 gets you to the same action bar with the work actually done.