// the find
darrenjacoby/intervention
WordPress plugin to configure wp-admin and application state using a single config file.
Intervention is a WordPress plugin that lets you configure wp-admin UI and application settings from a single PHP config file instead of clicking through the admin panel. It targets developers building WordPress sites for clients who need a locked-down, version-controllable admin experience. If you've ever hidden menu items or hardcoded settings via scattered `add_action` calls, this replaces all of that.
The config-as-code approach is the real win here — application settings go under version control and become read-only in the UI, which prevents clients from breaking things you've configured. The role-based targeting (`wp-admin.editor|author`) is genuinely useful and avoids you writing per-role filter logic. The dot-notation key system is clean and the coverage is wide — menus, dashboard widgets, login page, block editor, WooCommerce — more surface area than most similar plugins. The export tool (Tools→Intervention) that dumps current DB state to a config array is a nice practical touch for migrating existing sites.
Last push was August 2024 and WordPress itself moves constantly — hooks change, Gutenberg evolves, and this kind of plugin that hooks into admin internals is fragile by nature. There's no test suite visible, so you won't know something broke until a WP update silently stops firing the hook you depended on. The `vendor/` directory is committed to the repo, which is messy for a Composer package. And the application config syncing writes to `wp_options` on every request via hooks rather than a proper migration/seed step, which means timing issues are possible if other plugins or mu-plugins read those options early in the boot sequence.