Version Info

Color-coded environment badges that prevent accidental changes on production sites by making the current environment instantly visible.

Environment Indicators

The Environment Indicators feature adds high-visibility, color-coded badges to your WordPress admin so you always know whether you're working on a Production, Staging, or Development site. This is the "never edit the wrong site again" feature.

Why It Matters

One of the most common and costly mistakes in WordPress development is accidentally making changes on a live production site when you intended to work on staging or development. Environment Indicators eliminate this risk by providing an unmistakable visual cue everywhere in the admin.

What It Displays

A color-coded badge appears based on the detected environment:

Environment Badge Color When Detected
Production Red Live/production sites
Staging Orange Staging or pre-production environments
Development Green Local development or dev servers
Local Green Local development environments (e.g., LocalWP)

Detection Sources

Version Info automatically detects the environment from multiple sources, checking them in order of priority:

  1. WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE - WordPress core constant (since WP 5.5)
  2. WP_ENV - Used by Bedrock and Trellis setups
  3. Kinsta - KINSTA_ENV_TYPE constant
  4. WP Engine - WPE_ENVIRONMENT and IS_WPE_SNAPSHOT constants
  5. Pantheon - PANTHEON_ENVIRONMENT constant
  6. Flywheel - FLYWHEEL_CONFIG_DIR constant detection

If no environment constant is detected, the site defaults to Production (red badge) as a safety measure. This ensures you're always aware when working on a potentially live site.

Settings

The Environment Indicators feature has two configurable options under Settings > Version Info > Environment:

Setting Description
Show Environment Badge Displays the color-coded badge in the admin bar
Admin Bar Highlight Adds a colored top border to the entire admin bar matching the environment color

Admin Bar Highlight

When the Admin Bar Highlight option is enabled, the entire top of the admin bar receives a 3px colored border:

  • Red border - Production environment
  • Orange border - Staging environment
  • Green border - Development or Local environment

This provides an even more prominent visual indicator that is visible on every admin page.

Setting the Environment Type

If your hosting provider doesn't set an environment constant automatically, you can define one in your wp-config.php file:

// WordPress core method (recommended)
define( 'WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE', 'staging' );

// Or using the Bedrock convention
define( 'WP_ENV', 'development' );

Accepted values for WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE are: local, development, staging, and production.