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wp theme activate

Overview

Instantly switch the site's active theme. This is the command-line equivalent of clicking "Activate" in the Appearance dashboard. It handles both parent and child themes seamlessly.

What It Does​

wp theme activate modifies the template and stylesheet options in the database to point to the new theme's directory. It also triggers theme activation hooks.

Syntax​

wp theme activate <theme-slug>

Basic Usage​

Activate a core theme​

wp theme activate twentytwentyfour

Activate a child theme​

wp theme activate my-child-theme

Real-World Scenarios​

Scenario 1: Emergency theme rollback​

# If a new theme update breaks the site
wp theme activate twentytwentythree
wp cache flush

Scenario 2: Environment-specific themes​

# In a CI/CD pipeline, activate a maintenance theme during migrations
wp theme activate maintenance-theme
# ... run migrations ...
wp theme activate main-theme

Best Practices​

  1. Verify existence with wp theme list before activating.
  2. Flush the cache after activation to ensure the new styles and templates are served.
  3. If switching to a child theme, ensure the parent is also installed.

Troubleshooting​

ProblemCauseFix
Error: Theme not foundTypo in slugRun wp theme list to find correct slug
White screen after activationTheme PHP errorDeactivate via wp theme activate twentytwentyfour (restore)

Quick Reference​

wp theme activate <slug>               # Activate theme
wp theme list --status=active          # Verify active theme
wp cache flush                         # Flush after activation

Next Steps​