Running WordPress Locally with WP-CLI

Running WordPress Locally with WP-CLI

• Quick reference for setting up a local WordPress instance and importing a database dump using WP-CLI.

• Create a Site in Local

  • Click + → name your site → “Preferred” setup → set credentials → Create Site

  • Local provisions WordPress automatically

• Import a Database Dump

  • Right-click the site → Open Site Shell

  • Reset the database first (fresh installs already have tables):

    • wp db reset --yes
      

  • Then import:

    • wp db import /path/to/your-dump.sql
      

  • Drag the .sql file into the terminal to paste its full path instead of typing it

  • 💡 Don’t use Adminer for large dumps (>100 MB) — PHP memory limit will choke. WP-CLI handles them fine.

• Fix URLs After Import

  • The dump contains the production domain; you need to search-replace it:

    • wp search-replace 'https://old-domain.com' 'http://yoursite.local' --all-tables
      

  • --all-tables catches serialised data in custom tables

  • Then force the core options:

    • wp option update siteurl 'http://yoursite.local'
      wp option update home 'http://yoursite.local'
      

  • Verify:

    • wp option get siteurl
      wp option get home
      

• Still Redirecting to Production?

  • The browser caches 301 redirects — the database is probably fine

  • Test in a private/incognito window first

  • If it works there, clear browser cache for that domain

• Common Gotchas

  • Table already exists error → old database, you forgot wp db reset --yes first

  • DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT already defined warning → harmless, ignore it

  • Large dumps fail in Adminer or phpMyAdmin→ use WP-CLI instead