Description
EnvBeacon is a lightweight WordPress plugin designed for development teams managing multiple WordPress environments (local, staging, production). It displays a color-coded notice bar in the WordPress admin bar, making it instantly clear which environment you’re working on.
Perfect for preventing:
– Accidentally modifying content on live sites
– Publishing changes to staging instead of live
– Confusion when switching between environments
Features
- 🎨 Color-coded environment indicators (Red for Live, Blue for Staging, Green for Local)
- ⚙️ Easy-to-use settings page for URL pattern configuration
- 🔄 Automatic environment detection based on site URL
- 📋 Flexible URL patterns (simple strings, wildcards, regex alternation)
- 🏠 Built-in defaults for local, staging, and live environments
- 💾 Lightweight – no database overhead
- 🚀 Universal – works with any WordPress site
Quick Start
To set up the plugin:
- In WordPress admin, go to Settings EnvBeacon
- Enter your Live environment URL (e.g.,
example.com) - Staging patterns come pre-filled with common defaults:
stg|staging|stage|qa|dev-staging - Local patterns come pre-filled with common defaults:
localhost|127.0.0.1|.local|.test - Customize patterns and colors as needed
- Click Save Changes
Default Patterns:
- Staging:
stg|staging|stage|qa|dev-staging - Local:
localhost|127.0.0.1|.local|.test
Custom Pattern Examples:
example.com– Simple string match*.example.com– Wildcard (matches staging.example.com, qa.example.com, etc.)staging|stage|qa– Regex alternation (matches any of these words)
Usage
Once activated and configured, the EnvBeacon will:
- Check your site’s URL on each page load
- Match it against your configured patterns
- Display a colored indicator in the WordPress admin bar
- Show the environment name (Live, Staging, or Local)
No further configuration needed!
Support
For support, questions, or feature requests, please visit the plugin support forum or check the documentation in the settings page.
The plugin includes detailed URL pattern syntax help in the settings page to guide you through configuration.
License
This plugin is licensed under the GPL v2 or later.
Credits
Built for development teams who need clear environment indication.
Screenshots
EnvBeacon settings page 
Red indicator on live site
Installation
- Search for “EnvBeacon” in the WordPress plugin directory
- Click “Install Now”
- Activate the plugin
- Go to Settings EnvBeacon to configure your environments
- Enter your Live and Staging URL patterns
- Save changes
FAQ
-
Q: Will this affect my site’s performance?
-
A: No, the detection is very lightweight (just a URL comparison) and only runs once per page load.
-
Q: What if I don’t configure it?
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A: All traffic will show as “Local” by default, which is safe.
-
Q: Can I use regex patterns?
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A: Yes! Advanced users can use full regex patterns. Just enter your regex directly in the URL field.
-
Q: Does this work on the frontend?
-
A: Only when the WordPress admin bar is visible (when
show_admin_bar()is true). It won’t appear for logged-out users. -
Q: Can I customize the colors?
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A: Yes, each environment has a customizable color in the settings page.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“EnvBeacon” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “EnvBeacon” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.2.0
- Added Local environment URL pattern field
- Added intelligent default patterns for Staging (
stg|staging|stage|qa|dev-staging) - Added intelligent default patterns for Local (
localhost|127.0.0.1|.local|.test) - Improved URL matching with automatic regex alternation support
- Local environment now checks patterns before defaulting
1.1.0
- Added admin settings page for easy configuration
- Made URL patterns fully configurable via the settings UI
- Added support for wildcard and regex URL patterns
- Added color customization per environment
- Made plugin universal for WordPress plugin directory distribution
1.0.0
- Initial release