Add WP_DEBUG_LOG and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY toggles by bcotrim · Pull Request #2553 · Automattic/studio

bcotrim · 2026-02-08T12:14:33Z

Related issues

Fixes STU-4 #23

Proposed Changes

Add WP_DEBUG_LOG and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY toggles in a new "Developer" tab within the Edit Site modal
Xdebug control moved to Developer tab alongside new debug toggles
WP_DEBUG automatically enabled when either WP_DEBUG_LOG or WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY is toggled on
Developer settings grouped in read-only Settings view
Full CLI support: studio site set --debug-log --debug-display with --no- variants
Server restart triggered when debug settings change

Testing Instructions

Open WordPress Studio and select a site
Click "Edit site" → Developer tab
Toggle "Enable debug log" and "Show errors in browser"
Save and verify the site restarts
Check that wp-content/debug.log is created
Via CLI: studio site set --path /path/to/site --debug-log --debug-display

Pre-merge Checklist

Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

Add toggles for enabling WP_DEBUG_LOG and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY in Site Settings. - New Developer tab in Edit Site modal with Xdebug, debug log, and debug display toggles - Grouped controls update appdata, trigger server restart, and inject Blueprint constants - WP_DEBUG auto-enabled when either debug setting is on - Full CLI support via 'studio site set --debug-log --debug-display'

wpmobilebot · 2026-02-08T12:28:37Z

📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing 3ae0fcc vs trunk

site-editor

Metric	trunk	`3ae0fcc`	Diff	Change
load	1458.00 ms	1403.00 ms	-55.00 ms	🟢 -3.8%

site-startup

Metric	trunk	`3ae0fcc`	Diff	Change
siteCreation	7069.00 ms	7075.00 ms	+6.00 ms	⚪ 0.0%
siteStartup	3943.00 ms	3939.00 ms	-4.00 ms	⚪ 0.0%

Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change (<50ms diff)

ivan-ottinger

This will be a nice improvement! Great work!

Despite disabling the logging settings, the debug.log file is still being created on a fresh site.

From what I have seen so far, this is likely related to Playground's default PHP error logging that is overriding our settings.

Another, but minor design thing I noticed is that the tabs line does not stretch to the sides in a way we have on other existing modal in the app:

Settings:

Edit site:

Apart from the above, the UI looks clean to me and CLI commands run well too. 🙂

wojtekn · 2026-02-19T11:00:05Z

From what I have seen so far, this is likely related to Playground's default PHP error logging that is overriding our settings.

There was a discussion with the Playground team on reverting those to the default state. I removed those under WordPress/wordpress-playground#3131, which was closed, but @adamziel mentioned it was solved in another way.

katinthehatsite · 2026-02-19T11:10:00Z

Despite disabling the logging settings, the debug.log file is still being created on a fresh site.

I am not sure why but I did not see this issue when testing: I tried with the new site and enabled and disabled it multiple times and the setting was reflected correctly 🤔

katinthehatsite · 2026-02-19T11:11:36Z

@@ -138,9 +138,20 @@ export function ContentTabSettings( { selectedSite }: ContentTabSettingsProps )
 							<span className="line-clamp-1 break-all">{ selectedSite.phpVersion }</span>
 						</div>
 					</SettingsRow>
+					<tr>
+						<th colSpan={ 2 } className="pb-4 ltr:text-left rtl:text-right">
+							<h3 className="text-black text-sm font-semibold mt-4">{ __( 'Developer' ) }</h3>


I think we might want to remove the padding of 1rem for the General tab to make sure that the tab looks more aligned.

# Conflicts: # apps/studio/src/modules/site-settings/edit-site-details.tsx

bcotrim · 2026-02-19T19:27:15Z

@ivan-ottinger nice catch!

The debug.log being created with settings off was caused by Playground’s 0-playground.php which unconditionally sets error_log to wp-content/debug.log and has log_errors=1 in its default php.ini. Any PHP warning would create the file.

Fixed by adding a Studio mu-plugin (0-configure-error-logging.php) that sets ini_set('log_errors', '0') when WP_DEBUG_LOG is disabled. This runs after Playground’s setup but before any warnings get triggered.

The site behavior should now match the selected options. Let me know what you think.

wojtekn · 2026-02-19T19:39:41Z

@bcotrim, can we check this with the Playground team? It seems like something that should be fixed on the Playground side.

ivan-ottinger

The debug.log being created with settings off was caused by Playground’s 0-playground.php which unconditionally sets error_log to wp-content/debug.log and has log_errors=1 in its default php.ini. Any PHP warning would create the file.

Fixed by adding a Studio mu-plugin (0-configure-error-logging.php) that sets ini_set('log_errors', '0') when WP_DEBUG_LOG is disabled. This runs after Playground’s setup but before any warnings get triggered.

The site behavior should now match the selected options. Let me know what you think.

Thank you for the updates, Bernardo! The changes look good to me and work well. I did not observe any further major issues, just a tiny naming thing (please see the inline comment below) and a different styling for disabled elements when when saving:

CleanShot.2026-02-20.at.12.33.47.mp4

(xdebug checkbox is disabled differently)

I am aware of Wojtek's comment on fixing the override on the Playground side. I am approving this PR in case we decide to move forward with the current approach.

ivan-ottinger · 2026-02-20T11:27:38Z

+							className="w-full [&>[role=tabpanel]]:h-64 [&>[role=tabpanel]]:overflow-auto"
+							tabs={ [
+								{ name: 'general', title: __( 'General' ) },
+								{ name: 'developer', title: __( 'Debugging' ) },


I think we could change the name here (and in related references) as well (to debugging).

xdebug checkbox is disabled differently

I noted this as well while reviewing this PR, I think it looks better now with recent changes

bcotrim · 2026-02-20T15:17:53Z

@bcotrim, can we check this with the Playground team? It seems like something that should be fixed on the Playground side.

Shared: p1771600191281759-slack-C09GMMV3T6J

Meanwhile should we merge this PR or hold on to Playground and design feedback?

katinthehatsite

I think this looks good, I tested this on my end once again and checked the code and did not see any regressions. 👍

wojtekn · 2026-02-23T10:59:37Z

Meanwhile should we merge this PR or hold on to Playground and design feedback?

UI looks solid, so I think we should be good to merge.

We could consider changing the MU plugin to an NPM patch for the Playground package, so it will be easier to notice when the fix arrives in the Playground core and to clean up our hotfix.

wojtekn · 2026-02-23T11:01:35Z

@bcotrim one more thing - looking at labels, it may be unclear for some users what happens behind those new controls. Would it make sense to update descriptions and say "[...] by setting WP_DEBUG constant"?

# Conflicts: # apps/studio/src/ipc-types.d.ts # apps/studio/src/storage/user-data.ts

bcotrim · 2026-02-23T15:42:06Z

@wojtekn done in 0ddde2a

wojtekn · 2026-02-24T08:32:14Z

We've added settings that allow enabling the logs:

The feature will be included in the incoming 1.7.5 release.

bcotrim self-assigned this Feb 8, 2026

bcotrim marked this pull request as draft February 8, 2026 12:14

bcotrim added 2 commits February 18, 2026 12:31

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into add/enable-debug-log

69f7d21

Add debug log/display toggles to Edit Site modal with tabbed layout

615387c

bcotrim requested a review from a team February 18, 2026 16:10

bcotrim marked this pull request as ready for review February 18, 2026 16:10

trigger CI

df74aa2

ivan-ottinger reviewed Feb 19, 2026

View reviewed changes

katinthehatsite reviewed Feb 19, 2026

View reviewed changes

bcotrim added 5 commits February 19, 2026 11:20

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into add/enable-debug-log

507da0d

# Conflicts: # apps/studio/src/modules/site-settings/edit-site-details.tsx

Fix Edit Site modal tab alignment to match Settings modal

e55ede4

Explicitly set WP_DEBUG constants to false when disabled

8ffc231

Disable PHP error logging when WP_DEBUG_LOG is off

5c49a27

Rename Developer tab to Debugging

0653b91

bcotrim requested review from ivan-ottinger and katinthehatsite February 19, 2026 19:27

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into add/enable-debug-log

31c9f47

ivan-ottinger approved these changes Feb 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

Rename developer tab ID and match disabled styling for debug toggles

172a085

katinthehatsite approved these changes Feb 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into add/enable-debug-log

a4eb699

# Conflicts: # apps/studio/src/ipc-types.d.ts # apps/studio/src/storage/user-data.ts

Patch Playground to respect WP_DEBUG_LOG and update toggle descriptions

0ddde2a

Merge branch 'trunk' into add/enable-debug-log

3ae0fcc

bcotrim merged commit 658e68e into trunk Feb 23, 2026
9 checks passed

bcotrim deleted the add/enable-debug-log branch February 23, 2026 16:08

ryanwelcher mentioned this pull request Jul 24, 2026

Add SCRIPT_DEBUG and WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE toggles to site debug settings #4333

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Add WP_DEBUG_LOG and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY toggles - #2553

Add WP_DEBUG_LOG and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY toggles#2553
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