Getting started

WellTend Snapshots keeps a readable, restorable copy of your WordPress settings. It is a settings manager, not a backup. In about five minutes you can take a snapshot, change something, see exactly what changed, put it back, and undo that too.

You need WordPress 6.4 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer. You also need an administrator account: every screen, REST route and command requires the manage_options capability.

Install#

1. In your dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin and choose the plugin zip. (Once the plugin is listed on WordPress.org you can search for "WellTend Snapshots" instead.)
2. Click Activate.

Activation creates one database table, {prefix}awc_scm_snapshots, and a small settings option. Nothing else about your site changes. The plugin only reads, compares and restores settings; it never changes how your site behaves on its own.

A new AllWPCare menu appears in the admin sidebar, with a WellTend Snapshots page inside it (admin.php?page=awc-settings-snapshots). It has three tabs: Snapshots, Export / Import and Settings. The AllWPCare menu itself is shared by every plugin in the family, so the dashboard page lists the other plugins too.

Take your first snapshot#

1. Open AllWPCare → WellTend Snapshots → Snapshots.
2. Type an optional label, for example Before launch tweaks.
3. Click Create snapshot.

The snapshot now appears in the list, marked Manual. It holds your WordPress settings (General, Writing, Reading, Discussion, Media, Permalinks, Privacy), your active theme's Customizer settings, the settings of the supported plugins that are active, and the settings of WellTend Site and Admin Toolkit when it is installed. Passwords and API keys are replaced with a marker and never stored. See Secrets and redaction.

Prefer the terminal?

wp awc config snapshot create --label="Before launch tweaks"

Change something, then compare#

Change a setting the normal way. For example, edit the site title under Settings → General.

Back on AllWPCare → WellTend Snapshots → Snapshots, pick your snapshot and compare it with Current site. You see every difference in plain language, grouped by area:

Site title changed from 'testplugins' to 'Harbor Bakery'.

A Raw JSON changes view shows the same differences with exact paths and values, for developers. Secrets are listed as Redacted and never compared.

From the terminal, the same comparison is:

wp awc config diff 24

General settings (core.general)  - Site title changed from 'testplugins' to 'Harbor Bakery'.Reading settings (core.reading)  - Blog pages show at most changed from 10 to 12.7 secret values are redacted and were not compared.

The command exits with status 1 when settings differ and 0 when they match, so a script or CI job can act on it. See the WP-CLI reference.

Restore#

1. Choose your snapshot and click Restore.
2. Review the preview. Every change is listed, and you can untick whole areas (for example, leave Reading settings alone).
3. Confirm.

Before anything is written, the plugin takes a safety copy of your current settings. That is your undo point. After the restore it tells you what was applied and what was skipped, and why.

wp awc config restore 24 --dry-run   # preview onlywp awc config restore 24 --yes       # apply

Success: Applied 2 changes. Undo with: wp awc config restore 26

Undo#

The safety copy appears in the list as Safety copy (origin pre-restore). The result message names it, and the screen offers an Undo button. Restoring that copy returns your settings to how they were just before the restore, including removing options that the restore had created.

wp awc config restore 26 --yes

The newest safety copy is never removed by the retention limit, so there is always one undo available.