Increase Playground runtime PHP memory_limit to 512M

[gcsecsey]

Related issues

• Related to Fatal errors after cloning sites from Dotcom #3766
• Related to STU-1821

This PR addresses "Problem 2 (fatal errors / memory exhaustion)" from that report.

How AI was used in this PR

Used Claude Code to reproduce the wp-admin OOM locally, trace it to the Playground runtime's memory cap, and verify the fix against a heavy plugin stack.

Proposed Changes

The reported issue is that when a site with numerous plugins is cloned into Studio, and then run with the Playground runtime, the front-end loads but wp-admin dies with Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (256 MB).

The PHP-WASM HTTP server serves every request with a hard-coded PHP memory_limit of 256 MB. A realistic production plugin stack (WooCommerce, WooPayments, Jetpack, Jetpack Boost, Jetpack CRM, MailPoet, Site Kit, etc.) already peaks at ~224 MB on an empty database, so wp-admin tips over 256 MB when the site's plugins and data load.

This PR raises the Playground serving memory_limit to 512 MB, matching the native runtime, so the two behave consistently, and heavier sites can open wp-admin.

trunk	this branch

Testing Instructions

• Visual review should be enough

Pre-merge Checklist

• Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors? (npm run typecheck passes; eslint clean on the changed file.)

[gavande1]

Thanks, Gergely. The code changes look good. I am curious: Do we really need to increase memory? 256 MB should be enough.

I am approving the PR to unblock you.

[gcsecsey]

Thanks, Gergely. The code changes look good. I am curious: Do we really need to increase memory? 256 MB should be enough.

I am approving the PR to unblock you.

Thanks! Yes, I think the setup I used was pretty reasonable. A normal Woo site would also have this many plugins and might hit local memory limits. The original reporter also hit the memory limit when cloning their site to Studio. Also, just as a side note, raising the limit to 512M for Playground is matching the limit we already have in place for native PHP.