This workflow assumes you have Docker running and npm installed.

If wp-env is not installed globally, the command npm install will install it locally and provide a wp-env script for running wp-env.

This setup maps wp-content/themes to a separate working directory outside this environment. This enables working on themes outside this root directory, which is my preferred development workflow.

• Block editor currently requires the Gutenberg plugin
• Theme Unit Test, a WordPress export (WXR) file that you can import into a WordPress installation to test your theme

• .wp-env.json that maps theme development directory outside this root environment
• .htaccess file for adjusting site (eg., "pretty permalinks")
• WordPress Importer plugin for importing default content (such as Theme Unit Test).
• Theme Check plugin for testing theme against the latest WordPress theme standards and practices

• clone this repo to a directory (eg., wp-env-site-root/) and cd into it
• run command: npm install or npm i
• edit .wp-env.json to add your dev theme directory as described below
• run command: npm run wp-env start (or simply wp-env start if you already have wp-env installed globally)
• visit your new site at http://localhost:8888/
• login to the Dashboard
  • default username: admin
  • default password: password
• activate development theme via Dashboard->Appearance->Themes

Your working environment directory setup should look like this after build:

wp-env-site-root/
  |---.wp-env.json
  |---.htaccess
  |---mu-plugins/
  |---plugins/
    |---theme-check/
    |---wordpress-importer/
  |---mu-plugins/
  |---themes/ # any themes pulled in via git in .wp-env.json. Not dev theme.
dev-theme-dir/
  |--[dev theme directory location set up in .wp-env.json]

Edit the "mappings":"wp-content/themes": value in .wp-env.json to point to your theme development directory. Your theme will be loaded but not activated in the site's dashboard.

If you were working on a plugin you could add an additional key for "wp-content/plugins": to the "mappings": array to point to a development plugin directory.