Block Theme Ops

Find the Site Editor changes that override your theme files, see what a theme deploy left behind, then reset them or send them to Git.

When someone edits a template, template part or the global styles in the Site Editor, WordPress saves a copy in the database and the site ignores the theme file from then on. Deploy a new version of the theme and nothing tells you the site still shows the old one. Block Theme Ops lists every one of those copies, tells you which ones now hide a newer theme file, and resets them or sends them to the theme's Git repository.

[!NOTE] Free and open source under the GPL. No pro version, no upsells, no ads in wp-admin, no tracking. And it stays that way.

Features

• Every Site Editor change of the active theme (and its parent): templates, template parts and global styles, with the theme file, who saved it and when
• Drift status: theme changed (the file changed after the edit, so the site ignores it), customized, database only, identical
• Three-way view: the theme file at the time of the edit, the theme file now and the database copy, as diffs
• Reset to theme file with a backup, and Undo for 30 days. Keep hides an item until its file changes again. Identical copies reset in bulk
• After a theme update, and once a day for Git or SFTP deploys: an admin notice, a Site Health check and an optional email
• Export a zip laid out like the theme, or open a GitHub pull request with the changes as one commit
• WP-CLI for every action, with wp block-theme-ops check exiting 1 for CI and deploy scripts, and abilities for AI agents on WordPress 6.9+

Install

1. Download block-theme-ops.zip from the latest release.
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin, choose the zip and activate it.

Or with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/aryanjasala/block-theme-ops/releases/latest/download/block-theme-ops.zip --activate

Needs WordPress 6.6+ and PHP 7.4+. To try it first, the Try in WordPress Playground badge opens a throwaway WordPress in your browser with the plugin and some demo content.

Quick look

Stop a deploy, or fail CI, when Site Editor changes hide the new theme files:

wp block-theme-ops check || wp block-theme-ops status --status=theme-changed
wp block-theme-ops diff parts/header --against=theme
wp block-theme-ops export --pr

Put the GitHub token in wp-config.php, not the database:

define( 'BLOCK_THEME_OPS_GITHUB_TOKEN', 'github_pat_...' );

Screenshots

Theme Drift: counts per status and every Site Editor change of the active theme"> Appearance > Theme Drift: counts per status and every Site Editor change of the active theme	One template part: the database copy against the theme file now, and what the theme changed since the edit
A pull request opened on GitHub with the selected Site Editor changes	The notice after a theme update leaves a Site Editor change behind

Documentation

Project structure

block-theme-ops.php        plugin header and PSR-4 autoloader
uninstall.php              removes settings, snapshots and backups
src/
├── Plugin.php             creates the services
├── Themes.php             finds and reads theme files, child then parent
├── Drift.php              inventory and drift status
├── Snapshots.php          snapshot of the theme file on every save
├── Markup.php             compares and pretty-prints block markup
├── StylesJson.php         the global styles layer on top of theme.json
├── Operations.php         reset, undo and keep
├── Backups.php            backups behind Undo
├── Alerts.php             items waiting for review
├── Checker.php            checks after theme updates and once a day, email
├── Exporter.php           theme files, zip and pull request
├── Git/                   Provider interface and GitHub
├── Diff.php               unified diffs for WP-CLI and abilities
├── Abilities.php          abilities for AI agents (WordPress 6.9+)
├── Privacy.php            policy text, export and erase
├── Admin/                 Appearance > Theme Drift and the admin notice
├── Health/SiteHealth.php  Site Health test
└── Cli/Command.php        wp block-theme-ops
assets/                    admin.css, admin.js
tests/
├── Unit/                  PHPUnit
└── e2e/                   Playwright specs, a small test theme and a GitHub stand-in
.wordpress-org/            screenshots, icon and banner
docs/                      reference, development, contributing, releasing

More free plugins

Small plugins that each fill one gap in WordPress, all free with no pro version:

	Plugin	What it does
	Page Template Usage	See which template every page uses, and fix the pages on a missing template
	Staging Guard	Stops staging copies from emailing real people or getting indexed
	Category & Tag Trash	A trash for categories, tags and custom terms, with undo and full restore
	Site Read-Only Mode	Read-only mode for WordPress during migrations and deploys
	Restore Blocks from Revisions	Restore a single block from an old revision, not the whole post
	Activity Log with Undo	An activity log where every change you can reverse has an Undo button
	Agent Governance	Hold risky AI agent calls for approval, preview what they change, and roll back a session
	Block Doctor	Scan the whole site for invalid and broken blocks and fix them in bulk, with undo
	Role Right-Sizer	Recommends the smallest role each user needs, from what they actually do
	Update Rehearsal	Try plugin, theme, core and PHP updates on a disposable copy of your site in WordPress Playground first
	User Session Manager	See every device signed in, sign out one, and limit sessions per role

License

Copyright Aryan Jasala. Licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later.