WP Manifestindependent plugin directory
manifest / utilities / wp-monitor-key

WP Monitor Key

WordPress Plugin for use with monitoring applications like Uptime Robot. It as a unique key to the footer source code as a HTML comment which can be added to monitoring software to monitor instead of standard HTTP codes as HTTP codes can often be incorrect.

by Zac Dreyer · github.com/zacdreyer/wp-monitor-key · website

★ 0stars
0forks

Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/zacdreyer/wp-monitor-key/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

Readme

WP Monitor Key

WP Monitor Key Logo

WP Monitor Key is a WordPress plugin that injects a unique 25-character marker key into frontend HTML as a footer comment. Monitoring platforms can check page source for that marker to verify full render behavior, rather than relying only on HTTP status codes.

Quick Facts

  • Option name: wpm_monitor_key
  • Key format: 25 alphanumeric characters
  • Marker format: ``
  • Settings location: Tools > Monitor Key
  • Target: WordPress 6.x

Features

  • Auto-generate key on activation if missing
  • Editable key in admin UI
  • One-click key regeneration
  • Frontend footer comment injection
  • Key change log (action, user, old/new key, timestamp)
  • Automated unit tests for core plugin logic

Documentation Index

Core documentation:

Agent guidance:

Implementation files:

Test and tooling files:

Installation

  1. Clone or copy this directory into WordPress plugins:
/wp-content/plugins/wp-monitor-key/
  1. Activate WP Monitor Key from WordPress Admin > Plugins.
  2. Go to WordPress Admin > Tools > Monitor Key.

Usage

  1. Open Tools > Monitor Key.
  2. Copy current key, edit it manually, or generate a new one.
  3. Add a page-source check in your monitoring tool.

Regex example:

<!-- WP Monitor Key: [a-z0-9]{25} -->

Exact-match example:

<!-- WP Monitor Key: abcde12345fghij67890klmno -->

How It Works

  1. On activation, plugin creates a key if one is not present.
  2. Plugin injects marker comment into frontend output via wp_footer.
  3. Monitoring system checks source for the marker.
  4. Admin actions for edit/regenerate are logged.

Security and Behavior Notes

  • This is not an authentication key and is intentionally visible in source.
  • Admin writes require manage_options capability.
  • Admin writes require valid nonce.
  • Inputs are sanitized and outputs are escaped.

Testing

Automated tests use PHPUnit + Brain Monkey.

Run locally:

composer install
composer test

If composer is not installed on your machine, install Composer first, then rerun the commands above.

Detailed testing instructions are in TESTING.md.

Troubleshooting

Marker not present:

  1. Verify plugin is active.
  2. Verify key exists in Tools > Monitor Key.
  3. Check frontend page source (not admin pages).
  4. Search source for WP Monitor Key.

Monitoring does not match marker:

  1. Confirm monitor is checking full HTML response body.
  2. Confirm regex pattern is correct.
  3. Confirm URL being checked is the intended frontend route.

Support

Issues and feature requests:

License

GPL v2 or later.

Read the full README on GitHub →