Sync WordPress to GitLab

Version control your WordPress theme and plugins with GitLab, with optional CI/CD deployment.

Category: WordPress

Initialize a Git Repo in Your Theme

cd /var/www/html/wp-content/themes/your-theme
git init
git remote add origin git@gitlab.com:youruser/your-theme.git

Create a .gitignore

# .gitignore
node_modules/
*.log
.DS_Store
wp-config.php
wp-content/uploads/

Push Initial Commit

git add .
git commit -m "Initial theme commit"
git push -u origin main

GitLab CI/CD Pipeline (.gitlab-ci.yml)

stages:
  - deploy

deploy-production:
  stage: deploy
  only:
    - main
  script:
    - which rsync || apt-get install -y rsync
    - rsync -avz --exclude='.git' ./ user@yourserver:/var/www/html/wp-content/themes/your-theme/
    - ssh user@yourserver "sudo systemctl reload nginx"

Set Up SSH Key in GitLab

• Generate a deploy key: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/gitlab-deploy
• Add the public key to GitLab: Project → Settings → Repository → Deploy Keys
• Add the private key as a CI variable: Settings → CI/CD → Variables → SSH_PRIVATE_KEY