Connecting Hosting Platforms

wdg <project> sync pulls the database, and optionally media, from a remote hosting platform into a local project. After the import it search-replaces the live URL to your local project URL, ensures a local wdg admin account, handles multisite domain remapping, and (when you supply --prod-url) replaces a production domain and enables the nginx media-proxy fallback.

wdg my-site sync <pantheon|wpvip|wpengine|kinsta> [options]

Supported platforms

Platform	Subcommand	Setup guide
Pantheon	pantheon	Project Commands: Sync from Hosting Platforms
WP VIP	wpvip (alias vip)	Project Commands: Sync from Hosting Platforms
WP Engine	wpengine (alias wpe)	Connect and sync from WP Engine
Kinsta	kinsta	Connect and sync from Kinsta

Pantheon and WP VIP use vendor CLIs (Terminus and the VIP CLI). WP Engine and Kinsta have no vendor sync tool, so both pull over SSH. Their setup is documented in the dedicated guides above.

Common flags

These flags work across every platform:

• --media: also sync the uploads directory, not just the database.
• --prod-url=DOMAIN: an additional production domain to search-replace to the local URL (for example www.example.com). The value is stripped of protocol and trailing slash, replaced for both https:// and http://, then saved so the nginx media-proxy fallback can serve remote images. If you omit it, the sync prompts for one (press Enter to skip).

Platform-specific flags:

• Pantheon: --site=NAME, --env=ENV (dev/test/live).
• WP VIP: --app=ID, --env=ENV (production/develop).
• WP Engine: --install=NAME (alias --site), --plugins, --ssh-key=PATH. There is no --env on WP Engine; each environment is a separate install, so the install name is the environment selector.
• Kinsta: --site=NAME, --env=ENV (default live), --company=ID.

What the sync does after import

Every platform shares the same finalize sequence once the database lands locally:

1. Production-domain search-replace (when --prod-url is set or entered at the prompt).
2. Multisite network domain remap, so a synced network can bootstrap on your local host.
3. Create-or-update the local wdg administrator (password wdg), granted super-admin on multisite.
4. Optional media (and, on WP Engine, plugin) sync.
5. A summary block with the local URL and admin credentials.

Project manifest defaults

If a project has a manifest (wdg my-site manifest init), the sync reads defaults from it so you can drop the flags:

• hosting.site supplies the Pantheon/Kinsta site name or the WP Engine install name.
• hosting.environments.live.domain supplies the production domain used for --prod-url.
• hosting.company supplies the Kinsta company/workspace ID.

Flags always override manifest values.