Environment Indicator adds a prominent visual indicator to the WordPress admin bar showing the current site environment. This high-visibility indicator helps prevent accidental changes on production sites by making the environment instantly recognizable to logged-in users.

Perfect for developers, agencies, and teams managing multiple environments (development, staging, production) across different sites.

Key Features

Smart Environment Detection
* Automatically detects environment using WordPress core constants (WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE)
* Supports popular hosting providers: WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, Flywheel
* Legacy Bedrock constant support (WP_ENV)
* Subdomain-based heuristics (dev.example.com, staging.example.com)
* Manual override option for custom setups

Customization Options
* Custom Colors – Match your branding or personal preferences for each environment
* Custom Labels – Rename DEV/STAGING/LIVE to LOCAL, UAT, PRODUCTION, or anything you prefer
* Role-Based Visibility – Control which user roles can see the indicator (great for client sites)

Visual Enhancements
* Admin bar label (always visible)
* Full admin bar background coloring (high-visibility option)
* Top border in wp-admin screens
* Admin footer watermark
* Dashboard widget showing environment status and system information

Export/Import
* Export settings as JSON to deploy across multiple sites
* Import settings from JSON file
* Perfect for agencies managing client sites with consistent configurations

Multisite Compatible
* Full support for WordPress multisite installations
* Network-wide settings when network-activated
* Per-site settings when activated on individual sites

How It Works

Detection runs in this order:

1. WordPress core constant: WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE
2. Legacy constant: WP_ENV
3. Hosting provider constants (WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, Flywheel)
4. Subdomain patterns (dev, staging, test, qa)
5. Default to LIVE if no detection

You can always override automatic detection and manually select the environment.

Perfect For

• Developers – Never accidentally deploy to the wrong environment
• Agencies – Manage multiple client sites with consistent environment indicators
• Teams – Everyone instantly knows which environment they’re working in
• Managed Hosting – Works out-of-the-box with WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, and Flywheel

Zero Impact on Visitors

The indicator only displays for logged-in users. Public visitors see no performance impact or visual changes.

Development

Development of this plugin happens on GitHub: https://github.com/BSolveIT/environment-indicator

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome!