Flywheel compatibility

Flywheel locks wp-config.php and does not allow direct edits. This affects how WP Debug Toolkit (WPDT) manages debug constants, but all other features work without issues.

How Flywheel handles wp-config.php

Flywheel auto-generates wp-config.php and prevents modifications. You cannot edit it directly via SFTP or through plugins. Flywheel provides their own controls for settings that would normally go in wp-config.php.

For details on Flywheel’s policy, see Flywheel: wp-config.php file edits.

Enabling WP_DEBUG on Flywheel

WPDT cannot toggle WP_DEBUG, WP_DEBUG_LOG, or WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY on Flywheel because it cannot write to wp-config.php. Instead, use Flywheel’s built-in debug toggle:

1. Log in to your Flywheel dashboard
2. Select your site
3. Go to the Advanced tab
4. Toggle WP_DEBUG on or off

For step-by-step instructions, see Flywheel: How do I turn on WP_DEBUG?.

After enabling debug mode through Flywheel, WPDT can read the debug log and display it in the standalone viewer.

What works without issues

These WPDT features do not depend on wp-config.php write access:

• Standalone viewer — installed to the web root, independent of wp-config.php
• Error log viewing — reads debug.log, does not require config writes
• Database monitoring — query logs are written to wp-content/uploads/, not wp-config.php
• Site Monitor (email notifications) — settings stored in the WordPress database
• Crash Recovery — operates on plugin/theme directories
• Log cleanup — manages log files, not config files
• WP-CLI commands — all commands except wp dbtk debug on/off work normally

What does not work

• Toggling debug constants from WPDT — the admin dashboard toggles, the standalone viewer settings, and wp dbtk debug on/off all attempt to write to wp-config.php. On Flywheel, these fail. Use the Flywheel dashboard instead.

Permission elevation

WPDT includes automatic permission elevation for hosts with restrictive file permissions (see Permission elevation). This feature temporarily changes file permissions to make wp-config.php writable, writes the changes, and restores the original permissions.

On Flywheel, this does not work. Flywheel’s lockdown is at the platform level, not a file permission issue that can be resolved with chmod.