Using Recess

Using Recess

• Library: create, rename, reopen, duplicate, and delete sites.
• Starting points: visual cards for a fresh start, trying a theme, testing your plugin, learning WordPress, starting a blog, and making a block theme. PHP/WordPress versions, networking, and raw Blueprint URLs are under Advanced options.
• Preview / WordPress Admin: navigate the same running WordPress instance.
• Files: browse sandbox directories, read/edit files, and install plugin/theme ZIPs.
• Console: run PHP, supported WP-CLI commands, and inspect PHP debug logs. WP-CLI is not an operating-system terminal.
• Blueprint: validate, save, export, and launch setup recipes. Bundle exports retain their original resources.
• Checkpoints: save named checkpoints, download them, or restore into a new site. Recess creates an automatic checkpoint before its ZIP installation and checkpoint restoration actions. If saving the checkpoint fails, that action stops. Installations performed directly inside WordPress Admin and arbitrary console code are not intercepted.
• Backups: explicitly upload an exported site ZIP into OpenStation's desktop file storage, subject to its ownership and size limits.
• Try in Recess: use OpenStation’s Open with menu on a plugin or theme ZIP to start a fresh sandbox and activate that package. JSON Blueprints, Blueprint bundles, and full-site ZIPs are also recognized.

Export theme or plugin: select an installed package and download an installable ZIP containing only its files. Theme changes stored only in the Site Editor database are not included; use a full-site ZIP for those changes.

Instant sessions: with no configured runtime, Recess uses WordPress’s public Playground. These sessions are temporary. Save creates a browser checkpoint for an instant session. The library retains their checkpoints; reopening an ended session offers checkpoint recovery or an explicit fresh start, rather than silently recreating the site.

WordPress/PHP version choices are installation inputs. Use fresh sites to compare WordPress versions. A site's original Blueprint is never rerun just because it is reopened.