Dev Playgrounds

Q: Why should we use Pete Panel in a development environment?

Because the upper hand in the agentic era is an environment your AI agent can safely own. Pete gives Claude an isolated, disposable dev environment with real WP-CLI, files, and database — so it can rebuild a theme, migrate off a page builder, or ship a feature on a full copy of your site, while the original never feels a thing. Work entirely in the local dev environment, or point Pete at a site running on any WordPress cloud — clone it in, hand it to the agent, and deploy when it's right.

Q: Do I need Docker or VirtualBox?

Docker Desktop, yes — the playground runs on Docker for consistency between your Mac and production. VirtualBox is not required. On Apple silicon, Docker Desktop's dmg installs in one drag.

Q: Which Macs are supported?

Apple silicon only — M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5. Intel Macs, Ubuntu, and Windows are not supported for the dev playground.

Q: Can I migrate my existing WordPress site into the playground?

Yes — with the Pete Converter Plugin you can export your live site and bring it into Pete Panel in minutes. The same path works in reverse when you ship to production.

Q: Where are the Docker configuration commands?

In the Docker engine-room cheat-sheet below — it lists every command to shell into the php, apache, and mysql containers, run WP-CLI, rebuild images, restart Apache, and enter MySQL, all from ~/Sites/pete-panel.

Your AI agent’s home field. Free on Apple silicon.

Run WordPress on your Mac — M1 through M5 — in an isolated Docker environment where Claude gets real WP-CLI, files, and database. Build locally, deploy to production in one click. Free forever.

Why Pete Panel for development?

Because the upper hand in the agentic era isn’t a faster localhost — it’s an environment your AI agent can safely own.

Built for AI agents

Real WP-CLI, real files, real database, real logs — inside an isolated Docker container. Claude works on a full copy of your site; production never feels a thing.

Field-tested agentic workflows

One-line commands like /retheme and /reblock run entire gated migrations inside the playground — recipes learned on real projects, encoded so they never bite twice.

Disposable by design

An agent run went sideways? Delete the playground, clone again, retry. Experiments are free when environments are.

From playground to production

Export in Pete format and deploy to any cloud in one click — with phpMyAdmin, multi-PHP, and VS Code Dev Containers along the way.

The agent needs a sandbox before it needs a server. See the agentic workflows →

Mac Silicon

Apple silicon · M1 / M2 / M3 / M4 / M5 · macOS · Docker Desktop

The dev playground runs natively on Apple silicon — six steps from a clean Mac to WordPress’s setup screen. This is the supported platform for local development: Intel Macs, Ubuntu, and Windows are not supported.

$ git clone https://github.com/peterconsuegra/wp-pete-docker.git && cd wp-pete-docker && cp .env.example.development .env && docker compose up –build

Apple silicon native Docker Desktop WordPress-ready Free forever

Docker Desktop
Git
Clone
.env
Build & launch
Code

The steps, start to finish

Install Docker Desktop — download the Apple Silicon dmg from docker.com/products/docker-desktop, drag Docker Desktop.app into Applications, launch it once, and wait for the whale icon to turn solid — “Docker Desktop is running”.
Install Git — open Terminal and run xcode-select --install (Apple’s Command-Line Tools include Git). Verify with git --version → git 2.x or newer. Prefer Homebrew? brew install git works too.
Clone the Pete Panel Docker project — mkdir -p ~/Sites && cd ~/Sites, then git clone https://github.com/peterconsuegra/wp-pete-docker.git and cd wp-pete-docker.
Create your environment file — cp .env.example.development .env.
Build & start the stack — docker compose up --build. Wait until the command finishes and all containers are healthy; the prompt returns when they are.
Launch Pete in your browser — open http://pete.petelocal.net/ over HTTP (not HTTPS) — you should see WordPress’s setup screen.
Code inside the container (optional, recommended) — install VS Code, add the Dev Containers extension (⇧⌘X → “Dev Containers” → Install), then click the green >< status button → Attach to Running Container… → pick the PHP container and open /var/www/html — the shared volume with all your WordPress projects.

Frequently asked questions

Why should we use Pete Panel in a development environment?

Because the upper hand in the agentic era is an environment your AI agent can safely own. Pete gives Claude an isolated, disposable dev environment with real WP-CLI, files, and database — so it can rebuild a theme, migrate off a page builder, or ship a feature on a full copy of your site, while the original never feels a thing. Work entirely in the local dev environment, or point Pete at a site running on any WordPress cloud — clone it in, hand it to the agent, and deploy when it’s right.

Do I need Docker or VirtualBox?

Docker Desktop, yes — the playground runs on Docker for consistency between your Mac and production. VirtualBox is not required. On Apple silicon, Docker Desktop’s dmg installs in one drag.

Which Macs are supported?

Apple silicon only — M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5. Intel Macs, Ubuntu, and Windows are not supported for the dev playground.

Can I migrate my existing WordPress site into the playground?

Yes — with the Pete Converter Plugin you can export your live site and bring it into Pete Panel in minutes. The same path works in reverse when you ship to production.

Where are the Docker configuration commands?

In the Docker engine-room cheat-sheet below — it lists every command to shell into the php, apache, and mysql containers, run WP-CLI, rebuild images, restart Apache, and enter MySQL, all from ~/Sites/pete-panel.

Advanced: the Docker engine room

The playground lives where you cloned it — ~/Sites/pete-panel. Shell into the containers for WP-CLI, logs, and one-off queries.

Task	Command (from the project folder)	When / why
Go to the project	`cd ~/Sites/pete-panel`	The whole stack lives here — every command below runs from this folder.
Start or rebuild the stack	`docker compose up --build`	Builds images if they changed and launches every service in the foreground. Hit Ctrl+C to stop.
Open a shell in a container	`docker compose exec php bash` `docker compose exec apache bash` `docker compose exec mysql bash`	Inspect logs, run WP-CLI, edit files quickly.
Rebuild after a Dockerfile edit	`docker compose build --no-cache apache` `docker compose build --no-cache php` `docker compose build --no-cache mysql`	Forces a clean image rebuild for the service you changed.
Reset phpMyAdmin	`docker compose down` `docker volume rm pete-panel_pma_data`	Drops the `pma_data` volume so phpMyAdmin is regenerated on the next `up`.
Restart Apache in place	`docker compose exec apache apache2ctl restart`	Applies v-host changes without recreating the whole stack.
Where Apache keeps v-hosts	`/etc/apache2/sites-available` `/etc/apache2/sites-enabled`	Edit in sites-available (staging), symlinked live in sites-enabled; then `apache2ctl graceful` inside the container.
Enter MySQL as root	`docker compose exec mysql mysql -u root -p`	Password = `MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD` in `.env`. Handy for one-off queries or importing .sql dumps.
Graceful Apache reload from PHP / CI	`curl -sf -H "X-Reload-Secret: $APACHE_RELOAD_SECRET" http://apache/internal-reload`	Lets a deploy script tell Apache to reload configs without restarting the container.
Delete all volumes	`docker compose down -v`	Irreversible. Stops containers and removes every volume — databases included. Nuke-and-pave only.

Ready to hand Claude the keys?

Spin up the playground on your Mac, run a workflow, and watch a migration happen in an afternoon. When it’s right — deploy.

See the Workflows

Deploy to Production