Every WordPress launch has the same forgotten details: “Discourage search engines” still ticked, WP_DEBUG on, a Hello World post, lorem ipsum in a footer, the admin email pointing at the developer. Launchmender runs those checks for you, fixes the safe ones with one click, keeps the manual checklist next to them, and leaves the client with documentation inside their own dashboard.

44 automated checks

Visibility & SEO – search engines discouraged, HTTPS and mixed content, plain permalinks, default tagline, missing site icon, missing default social image, unreachable sitemap, robots.txt blocking, home page noindex.
Content hygiene – Hello World post, Sample Page, placeholder text (lorem ipsum, “your text here”…), menu links to “#” or staging hosts, images without alt text, menus pointing at empty categories, authors exposing their username, comments open on pages, “Uncategorized”, stale drafts.
Configuration – WP_DEBUG, displayed errors, an “admin” user, developer admin email, UTC timezone, US date format on non-US sites, file editor enabled, XML-RPC, open registration with an elevated role, front page showing posts, staging strings in URLs or title.
Maintenance & security basics – pending updates, inactive plugins and themes, plugins abandoned by their author for two years, no backup plugin, no caching, public debug.log, public readme.html.
Email & forms – form plugin without an SMTP plugin, pending admin email change, test email delivery, missing privacy policy.
Performance – images over 1 MB, native lazy loading disabled.

One-click fixes

Enable indexing, set pretty permalinks, trash the sample content, set the timezone from your browser, close comments on pages, rename the default category, disable the file editor and XML-RPC (via a generated must-use plugin, never by editing wp-config.php), set the default role, delete unused themes, trash stale drafts, send a test email. Every fix asks first and is logged in the report.

Manual checklist

Twenty sensible defaults (redirect map imported, analytics verified, forms tested to inbox, licences transferred, 2FA on…) with assignee, due date and notes. Save your own list as the template, export it as JSON and reuse it on every site. Three profiles: Pre-launch, Post-launch and Site takeover.

Client handoff

Turn on Handoff mode and the client gets:

A welcome panel on the Dashboard with your name, logo, launch date, quick actions and support contact.
A Help menu with your documentation, written in the block editor, hierarchical, searchable, printable. Imports your existing WP Help documents.
Contextual tips in the editor sidebar and on list screens (“The homepage hero is edited in the Hero pattern”).
An optional simplified admin menu for the client role. Administrators are never affected.

Handoff report

A printable pass/fail report with timestamps, who fixed what, the manual checklist status, site facts and plugin inventory. Print it to PDF or create a 7-day share link for the client.

WP-CLI

wp launchmender check run --format=json exits non-zero on failures, so agencies can gate deployments. Also `wp launchmender check list`, `wp launchmender check fix <id>`, `wp launchmender report --out=report.html`, `wp launchmender manual export`, `wp launchmender docs import-wphelp`.

Developer hooks

launchmender_checks (add your own check classes), `launchmender_check_result`, `launchmender_fix_applied`, `launchmender_profiles`, `launchmender_manual_template`, `launchmender_placeholder_phrases`, `launchmender_report_sections`, `launchmender_client_role_menus`, `launchmender_capability`.

External services

This plugin connects to the WordPress.org Plugin API (https://api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.2/) to look up the last update date of active plugins for the “abandoned plugins” check. It sends only plugin slugs. Results are cached for seven days. See the WordPress.org privacy policy.

Launchmender – Go-Live Checklist & Client Handoff