WP Lifeline

Overview

WP Lifeline gives you a private break-glass recovery path for WordPress. When wp-admin is broken by a plugin conflict, theme failure, or a bad deployment, WP Lifeline keeps a protected recovery dashboard available through a must-use loader.

Core Workflow

1. Activate the plugin.
2. Open Tools > WP Lifeline.
3. Copy the recovery URL and store it securely.
4. Test the recovery URL while the site is healthy.
5. If the site breaks later, open the recovery URL and authenticate with the token.

Admin Screen

The admin screen includes:

Section	What it does
Recovery URL	Shows the private dashboard URL and lets you copy or regenerate it.
Readiness Score	Scores how prepared the site is for an incident.
Readiness Checklist	Highlights weak points such as a missing snapshot or loader issue.
Recovery Package	Downloads a JSON package you can share with a trusted support engineer.
Health Snapshot	Shows the saved baseline state of the site.
Recovery Access Log	Shows recent authenticated and failed access attempts.

Recovery Dashboard

The recovery dashboard is designed for urgent use. After authentication, it gives you:

Plugin Recovery

Disable all plugins except WP Lifeline, then re-enable them one at a time.

Theme Recovery

Switch to a default WordPress theme to rule out theme-level failures.

Admin Access

Reset an administrator password or create a temporary emergency administrator.

Safe Mode

Temporarily run the site with a default theme and only WP Lifeline active.

Diagnostics

Review system info, recent logs, and the difference between the current site state and the saved snapshot.

Recovery Package

Download a support-ready JSON package with:

• Readiness report
• Recovery runbook
• Current system information
• Snapshot details and current diff
• Recent access history
• Recovery URL and token when exported directly from the authenticated recovery dashboard

Security Notes

• The recovery dashboard is protected by a token.
• Failed token attempts are rate-limited by IP.
• Recovery sessions expire automatically after 30 minutes.
• Emergency administrator accounts are automatically removed after about 24 hours.
• Admin exports do not include the plain recovery token.

Uninstall Behavior

When the plugin is uninstalled, it removes:

• Plugin options
• Recovery token fallback file
• Snapshot file
• Must-use recovery loader
• WP Lifeline emergency administrator accounts

Developers

WP Lifeline includes one developer hook for updater bootstrapping.

wp_lifeline_updater_boot

Runs when the plugin loads its updater bootstrap file. This allows an external updater integration to attach itself without editing the main plugin file.

Example:

add_action(
    'wp_lifeline_updater_boot',
    function( $context ) {
        if ( empty( $context['plugin_file'] ) ) {
            return;
        }

        // Example: pass plugin context into your own updater bootstrap.
        error_log( 'WP Lifeline updater booted for ' . $context['plugin_slug'] );
    }
);