wp user get

Overview

Inspect a single WordPress user account and retrieve any field — ID, email, role, registration date, and more. Essential for verification scripts, auditing, and extracting data before bulk operations.

What It Does

wp user get fetches a single user record from WordPress and displays all or selected fields. You can target the user by ID, login slug, or email.

Syntax

wp user get <user> [OPTIONS]

Arguments & Options

Flag	Description
--field=FIELD	Return only one field value (for scripting)
--fields=FIELDS	Comma-separated list of fields
--format=FORMAT	Output format: table, json, yaml, csv

Available Fields

Field	Description
ID	User ID
user_login	Username
user_email	Email address
display_name	Public display name
user_registered	Registration datetime
user_url	User website
roles	Assigned roles
user_status	Status (0 = active)

Basic Usage

Get all user details

wp user get john

Output:

+------------------+------------------------------+
| Field            | Value                        |
+------------------+------------------------------+
| ID               | 14                           |
| user_login       | john                         |
| user_email       | john@example.com             |
| display_name     | John Smith                   |
| user_registered  | 2024-01-15 09:32:11          |
| roles            | editor                       |
+------------------+------------------------------+

Get a single field (for scripting)

wp user get john --field=user_email

Get as JSON

wp user get 14 --format=json

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Check a user's current role before reassigning

ROLE=$(wp user get 14 --field=roles)
echo "Current role: $ROLE"
if [[ "$ROLE" == "subscriber" ]]; then
  wp user set-role 14 editor
fi

Scenario 2: Verify a user exists before deletion

if wp user get old-author &>/dev/null; then
  wp user delete old-author --reassign=1
else
  echo "User not found — skipping"
fi

Scenario 3: Capture registration date for audit log

REG=$(wp user get editor1 --field=user_registered)
echo "editor1 registered on: $REG"

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Error: Invalid user ID, login or email	Wrong identifier	Use wp user list to find the exact value
Field returns empty	Field does not exist	Check valid field names with --format=json

Quick Reference

wp user get <user>                         # Full info table
wp user get <user> --field=user_email      # Single field
wp user get <user> --format=json           # JSON output
wp user get <user> --fields=ID,user_login,roles

Next Steps

• wp user update — modify user fields.
• wp user list — list all users.
• wp user meta — access custom user meta data.