eighteen73/nebula

WordPress boilerplate with Composer, easier configuration, and an improved folder structure

dev-main 2025-10-31 15:27 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.3
• composer/installers: ^2.2.0
• eighteen73/nebula-tools: ^v2.0.0
• eighteen73/orbit: ^2.3.1
• johnbillion/extended-cpts: ^5.1
• roots/wordpress: ^6.8.3
• roots/wp-config: 1.0.0
• vlucas/phpdotenv: ^5.5
• wpackagist-theme/twentytwentyfive: ^1.3

Requires (Dev)

• eighteen73/wordpress-coding-standards: ^2.0
• roave/security-advisories: dev-latest
• squizlabs/php_codesniffer: ^3.13.0

MIT

• Ed Jeavons
• Brett Mason

• composer
• wordpress
• wp
• wp-config
• nebula
• eighteen73

README

Overview

Nebula is a modern WordPress stack that helps you get started with the best development tools and project structure.

Much of the philosophy behind Nebula is inspired by the Twelve-Factor App methodology including the WordPress specific version.

Nebula is heavily based on Bedrock by Roots with an eighteen73 flavour.

Features

• Better folder structure
• Dependency management with Composer
• Easy WordPress configuration with environment specific files
• Environment variables with Dotenv
• Autoloader for mu-plugins (use regular plugins as mu-plugins)
• Enhanced security (separated web root and more secure password algorithm)

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.2
• Node 20

It is assumed you also have Composer and NPM installed.

Installation

1. Create a new project:

   $ composer create-project eighteen73/nebula

2. Update environment variables in the .env file. Wrap values that may contain non-alphanumeric characters with quotes, or they may be incorrectly parsed.

• Database variables
  • DB_NAME - Database name
  • DB_USER - Database user
  • DB_PASSWORD - Database password
  • DB_HOST - Database host
  • Optionally, you can define DATABASE_URL for using a DSN instead of using the variables above (e.g. mysql://user:password@127.0.0.1:3306/db_name)
• WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE - Set to environment (development, staging, production)
• WP_HOME - Full URL to WordPress home (https://example.com)
• WP_SITEURL - Full URL to WordPress including subdirectory (https://example.com/wp)
• AUTH_KEY, SECURE_AUTH_KEY, LOGGED_IN_KEY, NONCE_KEY, AUTH_SALT, SECURE_AUTH_SALT, LOGGED_IN_SALT, NONCE_SALT
  • Generate with wp-cli-dotenv-command
  • Generate with the Nebula keys generator

1. Add theme(s) in web/app/themes/ as you would for a normal WordPress site
2. Set the document root on your webserver to Nebula's web folder: /path/to/site/web/
3. Access WordPress admin at https://example.com/wp/wp-admin/