Bonsai Digital Core Customisations WP Registry grade A. No security issues foundWP RegistryNo security issues foundOpen the reportA
A lightweight WordPress plugin that applies branded admin customisations and adds quick support access for clients.
Install
This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.
Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:
wp plugin install https://github.com/bonsai-systems/bonsai-core/archive/refs/heads/main.zipA lightweight WordPress plugin that applies branded admin customisations and adds quick support access for clients.
Description
This plugin ensures a consistent Bonsai Digital Collective experience across WordPress by providing:
-
Custom Admin Colour Scheme
- Applies Bonsai’s brand colours (#000000, #ffffff, #ee4367) to the WordPress dashboard
- Forces all users to use the branded scheme
-
Admin Bar Support Menu
- Adds a persistent link to the support desk in the WordPress admin bar
- Opens in a new tab for quick access to support
-
Dashboard Support Widget
- Displays a branded support banner
- Links to the Help Centre
- Provides direct access to submit support requests
- Includes friendly messaging for clients and site managers
Installation
- Download the plugin
.zipor clone the repo. - Upload to
/wp-content/plugins/directory or install via the WordPress admin Plugins → Add New → Upload. - Activate Bonsai Digital Core Customisations from the WordPress Plugins screen.
- The custom colour scheme, admin bar link, and dashboard widget will load automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can users switch back to another colour scheme?
A: No — the plugin forces all users to use the Bonsai branded scheme.
Q: Who can see the support widget and menu?
A: By default, all users with Dashboard/Admin access. To restrict, add a capability check (e.g. current_user_can('manage_options')).
Q: Can I customise the banner or support links?
A: Yes — edit the $banner, $hc, and $req variables inside the plugin, or override them with filters.
Updates
Ships with YahnisElsts/plugin-update-checker (installed via Composer, vendor/ committed), loaded via vendor/autoload.php and pointed at github.com/Bonsai-Systems/bonsai-core — the same pattern used by bonsai-code-injector and bonsai-maintenance. Sites with the plugin installed see updates on the Plugins screen in wp-admin.
This is a private repo, so the update checker needs a GitHub token to read releases:
- Create a fine-grained personal access token scoped to
Bonsai-Systems/bonsai-corewith Contents: read-only. - Define it in
wp-config.phpon each site:define( 'BONSAI_PUC_GITHUB_TOKEN', 'github_pat_...' ); - Never commit the token itself.
To ship a new version:
- Bump the
Version:header inbonsai-core.phpand add aCHANGELOG.mdentry. - Commit and push to
main. - Publish a GitHub Release tagged with the new version (release-assets mode is enabled, so attach a zip of the plugin folder — plain source-archive tags won't be picked up).
Sites check for updates every 6 hours ($checkPeriod argument to buildUpdateChecker()), or immediately if an admin clicks "Check again" on the Plugins screen.
Changelog
See CHANGELOG.md for the full release history.
Development Notes
- Built to be lightweight and DRY
- Follows WordPress coding standards and escaping best practices
- Inline styles are minimal; enqueue a custom admin stylesheet if needed
Author
Developed by Ben Ervine / The Bonsai Digital Collective
Releases
2 releases.
These releases are tags only. The author does not attach a packaged zip, so there are no download counts to report.