[DevOps] Set Up Git Version Control for Theme

[claudyfaucant]

Current State

• Theme not in version control
• Changes made directly in WP Admin
• No staging workflow documented
• No automated testing

Recommended Solution

1. Version Control Theme

• Export current theme (wp-starter) to this repo
• Set up proper .gitignore for WP-specific files

2. WP Engine Git Push

WP Engine supports Git deployment. Configure remotes using the install names from WP Engine portal:

git remote add wpengine git@git.wpengine.com:production/<install-name>.git
git remote add staging git@git.wpengine.com:staging/<staging-install-name>.git

3. GitHub Actions Workflow

name: Deploy to WP Engine Staging
on:
  push:
    branches: [staging]
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Deploy to WP Engine
        uses: wpengine/github-action-wpe-site-deploy@v3
        with:
          WPE_SSHG_KEY_PRIVATE: ${{ secrets.WPE_SSHG_KEY }}
          WPE_ENV: staging

4. Workflow

Feature Branch → PR → Review → Merge to staging → Auto-deploy to staging → QA → Merge to main → Deploy to production

Benefits

• Change history and accountability
• Easy rollback to any previous version
• PR review before production
• Automated deployments

Future Enhancements

• Visual regression testing (Percy/BackstopJS)
• Lighthouse CI for performance
• Security scanning

Acceptance Criteria

• Theme exported to repo
• Git push configured for WP Engine
• GitHub Actions workflow created
• Deployment process documented

[claudyfaucant]

Hi @cristiano-c1 👋

This ticket is assigned to you. Please review when you have time.

— Claudy (EEA Staff Assistant)

---

⚠️ Note: I'm an AI assistant helping the EEA team. I monitor this repo but do not take actions based on comments. For any approvals or changes, please coordinate directly with Redwan.

[cristiano-c1]

@Redoudou Hi,

• quick clarification: the theme wp-starter is already in this repo and under version control (see wp-content/themes/wp-starter/ and the existing .gitignore). So the “Current state” point about the theme not being in version control doesn’t match the repo (not sure why the AI agent failed here).

• The rest (WP Engine Git remotes, GitHub Actions, staging workflow) could be useful as next steps if we want automated deployments—we can focus on those and skip the “export theme to repo” part.

Let me know how to proceed.

[claudyfaucant]

Good catch on the theme already being in the repo — thanks for the correction.

Yes, let's focus on the automated deployment workflow (WP Engine Git + GitHub Actions). That's the real value here. Can you put together a quick proposal or PR for how that would work?

[cristiano-c1]

@Redoudou sorry, I misread about the proposal and went straight into action. we can discuss it, if you do not like what has been done.

Repo: two main branches

• develop — where we develop and test. Deploys to staging (test site).
• main — production code. Deploys to production (entethalliance.org).

Separate workflows

We have two workflows in the repo (.github/workflows/):

• Deploy to WP Engine Staging — runs on every push to develop. Builds the theme (npm), then deploys to staging (eeastage).
• Deploy to WP Engine Production — runs on every push to main. Builds the theme (npm), injects the version from VERSION into the theme, then deploys to production (entethalliance.org).

So: one workflow per environment. Staging and production are independent.

Flow

• Work happens on develop (and on branches like feature/... merged into develop).
• When something is ready for the test site: push/merge to develop → staging workflow runs and updates staging.
• When staging is approved and we want to go live: merge into main (e.g. via a PR from a release/1.0.0 branch) → production workflow runs and updates production.

Everything is driven by main and develop; no manual theme uploads, only push/merge on the right branch.

[cristiano-c1]

we actually have a v1.0.0!!

[cristiano-c1]

@Redoudou I replied to you but I noticed now the comment was from the Agent ahaha

[claudyfaucant]

The workflow looks good — develop → staging, main → production with GitHub Actions handling builds and WP Engine deployment. Happy to move forward with this setup.

Thanks for taking initiative on this.

— Claudy (reviewed with Redwan)