Using WP-CLI on WordPress inside a Docker container

A bit nervous setting this up, but thank you, Claude Sonnet 3.7.

What it will do:

• Persistent wp-content folder, easy for migrating. We can just take the wp-content from old server and put it in the new server. Save this wp-content in the main host (e.g. /root/yourdomain.com/wp-content). Then, we will set up a Docker volume and link that to /var/www/html/wp-content inside the WordPress container

• WP-CLI inside the WordPress container

In coolify, I use the WordPress image and set the docker-compose.yml like this:

version: '3.3'
services:
  wordpress:
    image: 'wordpress:latest'
    volumes:
      - 'wordpress-files:/var/www/html'
      - '/root/yourdomain.com/wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content'
    environment:
      - SERVICE_FQDN_WORDPRESS
      - WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=mariadb
      - WORDPRESS_DB_USER=$SERVICE_USER_WORDPRESS
      - WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=$SERVICE_PASSWORD_WORDPRESS
      - WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress
      - WORDPRESS_TABLE_PREFIX=wp_
      - WORDPRESS_DEBUG=0
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - curl
        - '-f'
        - 'http://127.0.0.1'
      interval: 2s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 10
  wordpress-cli:
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
      - wordpress
    image: 'wordpress:cli'
    command: 'sleep infinity'
    user: '33'
    volumes:
      - 'wordpress-files:/var/www/html'
      - '/root/yourdomain.com/wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content'
    environment:
      - WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=mariadb
      - WORDPRESS_DB_USER=$SERVICE_USER_WORDPRESS
      - WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=$SERVICE_PASSWORD_WORDPRESS
      - WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress
      - ADMIN_PASSWORD=$WP_ADMIN_PASSWORD
      - ADMIN_EMAIL=$WP_ADMIN_EMAIL
      - WORDPRESS_DEBUG=0
  mariadb:
    image: 'mariadb:11'
    volumes:
      - 'mariadb-data:/var/lib/mysql'
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=$SERVICE_PASSWORD_ROOT
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress
      - MYSQL_USER=$SERVICE_USER_WORDPRESS
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=$SERVICE_PASSWORD_WORDPRESS
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - healthcheck.sh
        - '--connect'
        - '--innodb_initialized'
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 20s
      retries: 10
volumes:
  wordpress-files:
  mariadb-data:

The configuration is based on Coolify's default docker-compose.yml, combined by Claude Sonnet 3.7 with Stefan Vetsch's (vstm) answer on StackOverflow.

Let's discuss some of the notable configuration.

wordpress container

    volumes:
      - 'wordpress-files:/var/www/html'
      - '/root/yourdomain.com/wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content'

It uses the volume wordpress-files that will be located in /var/www/html inside the WordPress container. This is where we have wp-admin, wp-content, wp-config.php, etc, i.e. your standard WordPress installation files. Running this docker-compose, will install a clean WordPress installation.

As you may infer, you may don't need - '/root/yourdomain.com/wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content'. In case you're not familiar with docker, /root/yourdomain.com/wp-content will be located in your machine while /var/www/html/wp-content is inside the container. Whatever you do to your wp-content folder in your machine will be reflected in the container. If we want the WordPress container be able to modify the wp-content folder, set the ownership/access to the user/group 33 (www-data).

wordpress-cli container

  wordpress-cli:
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
      - wordpress
    image: 'wordpress:cli'
    command: 'sleep infinity'
    user: '33'
    volumes:
      - 'wordpress-files:/var/www/html'
      - '/root/yourdomain.com/wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content'

Ah, I love wp-cli. Why sleep infinity? I raised the question to Claude, since "infinity" sounds heavy. Claude says it's a usual command to keep it always running and don't worry about it. Why user: '33'? That is the www-data user that is used by the wordpress container to maintain the file. It is just so wp-cli can modify the same files. Then, we set the volumes as the same as the WordPress container. To use wp-cli, access the wordpress-cli container, not the wordpress container.

mariadb container

For the mariadb configuration, I follow coolify's configuration blindly. In the context of migrating, after running this docker, like the wordpress files, mariadb will start a wordpress database clean. Import your database using wp-cli or a WP backup/restore plugin.