The setup wizard

After creating a site, its view shows the Initial setup checklist. It runs itself: when the clone finishes, the install and the build start on their own and run to the end, so a site you walked away from is ready to work on when you come back. The buttons are there for when something fails, or when you stopped the chain yourself.

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

npm install, run on the Node.js runtime bundled with the app — no system Node or npm is needed. It starts by itself when the clone ends, and the terminal says so: Setting this site up — running npm install…

If it fails, the chain stops there and 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

Compiles WordPress core and generates the files the dev server serves. This is the longest step after the clone, and it follows the install without asking.

You never run it manually unless something failed: trunk updates and applied patches rebuild on their own, and while the build watch is running your own edits under src/ are compiled as you save them.

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, and a wp-admin link beside it, appear next to the button once it is up — see Running the site.

Stopping the chain

Press Ctrl+C in the Terminal to stop setup, including a running npm install. The terminal says where you stand — Setup stopped. The remaining steps are in the checklist above — run them whenever you are ready — and the checklist buttons take over from there. The chain names its other endings too: setup complete, the install failed, or the build failed with dependencies already installed.

Step states

Each step carries a state label:

• Completed — done, marked with a green check.
• In progress — this step is running right now.
• Ready — the next step to do, waiting on you rather than working. The distinction matters: a step that said "In progress" while nothing was installing invited you to wait instead of to click.
• Pending — ready but waiting for you to reach it.
• Locked — its prerequisites are not met yet; the button is disabled.

The step to act on is also ringed in amber and scrolls itself into view, and is announced to screen readers as Next step: …. The ring carries no label of its own — the step's own status text names it. It moves when the step it points at is done, not on a timer.

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, the build watch button, and Review & submit changes. While the server is running, the site URL, wp-admin and DB inspect (Adminer) appear on a row below it.

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.