Developer utilities

Six-tab page for advanced WordPress introspection, testing, and low-level site operations. Added in v2.9.0.

Developer utilities is a six-tab page designed for developers who need deep visibility into their WordPress installation. It provides tools ranging from hook inspection and REST API testing to object cache browsing and database prefix changes.

Developer utilities was added in v2.9.0.

Tabs overview

Hook Explorer

The Hook Explorer reads directly from $wp_filter — WordPress’s global hook registry — and displays every registered add_action and add_filter callback.

Each row in the results table shows:

Column	Description
Hook	The hook name (e.g. init, the_content)
Priority	The numeric priority the callback was registered with
Callback	The function or method name
File : Line	Source file path and line number resolved via PHP Reflection

Searching hooks

Two filters are available:

• Search hook name or callback — matches against the hook name and callback function name.
• Filter by file path — matches against the source file path, useful for isolating hooks from a specific plugin or theme.

Both filters use a 400 ms debounce. Click Search Hooks to run the query. Results are capped at 2,000 entries; a warning badge appears when the cap is reached so you can refine your search.

Leave the search field empty and click Search Hooks to load all hooks registered at the time the page was opened.

REST API Tester

The REST API Tester is a built-in Postman-style client pre-authenticated with a WordPress nonce — no manual authentication header is needed.

Route browser

The left panel lists all registered REST routes grouped by namespace. Each route shows its supported HTTP methods with colour-coded badges (green for GET, blue for POST, amber for PUT, purple for PATCH, red for DELETE). Clicking a route populates the Request Builder with its path and method.

Request builder

Field	Description
Method	HTTP method: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE
Path	The REST route path, e.g. /wp/v2/posts
Body (JSON)	Request body as a JSON object (shown only for non-GET requests)
Headers	Optional custom headers as key/value pairs

Response panel

After clicking Send Request, the response panel shows:

• HTTP status code with a colour-coded badge
• Response duration in milliseconds
• Formatted JSON body

Dummy Data Generator

The Dummy Data Generator creates realistic test content so you can populate a development site without manually entering data.

Supported types

• Post — standard WordPress post
• Page — WordPress page
• User — WordPress user account
• WooCommerce Product — available only when WooCommerce is active

Generating content

Select the content type, enter a count (1–50), then click Generate. Generated item IDs are shown immediately after creation.

All generated items are tagged with the _wmp_dummy_data post meta key (or user meta for users). This tag makes bulk cleanup safe and precise — clicking Delete All Dummy Data removes only tagged items without touching real content.

Delete All Dummy Data permanently removes every item tagged with _wmp_dummy_data. This includes posts, pages, products, and users created by the generator.

Rewrite Rules Tester

The Rewrite Rules Tester lets you check how WordPress resolves a URL path against its rewrite rules without making an actual HTTP request.

Testing a URL

Enter a URL path (e.g. 2024/01/my-post-slug/) and click Test URL. The result shows:

• A Matched or No Match badge
• The matched rewrite rule (regex pattern)
• The redirect query string the rule maps to
• Resolved $query_vars as key/value badges
• Capture groups from the regex match

Full rules table

Click Load All Rules to fetch the complete rewrite rules table. The table is collapsible and shows each rule’s regex pattern and its redirect target. The total rule count is shown in a badge.

Object Cache Browser

The Object Cache Browser gives you direct visibility into your site’s object cache backend.

Supported backends

Badge	Backend
Redis	Redis via a persistent cache plugin
WP Internal	WordPress’s built-in runtime cache

If no persistent cache is detected, an informational alert is shown.

Browsing keys

Enter an optional prefix to filter keys, then click Browse Keys. The key list shows:

• Key name
• Type (string, list, set, hash, zset for Redis; mixed for WP internal)
• TTL in seconds (∞ for persistent keys, expired for stale keys)

Click any row to load its value in the detail panel on the right. Click the trash icon on a row to delete that individual key.

Database Prefix Changer

The Database Prefix Changer renames all database tables from the current prefix to a new one and updates wp-config.php automatically.

This operation is irreversible. Back up your database before proceeding. A failed prefix change can leave your site in a broken state.

How it works

1. The tool reads the current prefix and lists all affected tables with their row counts.
2. Enter a new prefix and click Preview Changes to run a dry-run. The preview table shows old and new names side by side.
3. Click Rename Prefix to open the confirmation dialog.
4. In the confirmation dialog, tick the acknowledgement checkbox and type the exact new prefix to unlock the Rename Prefix button.

What the operation does

• RENAME TABLE for every table matching the current prefix
• Updates option_name rows in wp_options that start with the old prefix
• Updates meta_key rows in wp_usermeta that start with the old prefix
• Rewrites the $table_prefix variable in wp-config.php

A page reload is required after the change completes.