Description
Balaeno Webmaster keeps your WordPress site healthy without drowning you in
technical jargon. It continuously checks your site, explains problems in plain
language, and — depending on the automation level you choose — fixes them safely
or asks for your approval first.
Its defining feature is the Safe Fix Engine: it doesn’t just report problems,
it turns them into controlled, described, reversible, policy-gated fixes.
What it does
- Command Center — one plain-language answer to “is my website okay?”, with a
health score and at-a-glance module status. - Health monitoring — homepage availability, cron health, HTTPS, REST API and
SSL certificate expiry. - Updates — surfaces available plugin, theme and core updates, and inactive
plugins, as clear issues. - Security hardening checks — exposed debug logs, error display, the built-in
file editor, username exposure, default table prefix and an “admin” account. - Performance signals — autoloaded-options bloat, missing persistent object
cache and a low PHP memory limit. - Database cleanup — post revisions, spam and trashed comments, and orphaned
metadata, cleaned only after a verified backup. - Backups — a verified, gzipped database backup behind a pluggable destination.
- Email delivery — notices when email fails, plus a one-click test.
- Maintenance mode, on-demand tests, and printable reports.
Automation levels
- Monitor only — detect and report, change nothing.
- Safe automation (recommended) — apply low-risk, reversible fixes automatically.
- Approval required — every fix waits for your explicit approval.
- Managed — approved maintenance rules run automatically with rollback protection.
Lean by design
The plugin is a light orchestrator. Heavy or external work — real uptime
monitoring, visual/page testing, vulnerability data, malware scanning, offsite
backups, SMS/WhatsApp alerts — is handled by the optional Balaeno Pro service, so
your server stays fast even on managed and shared hosting. Those features are
clearly marked “Pro” in the dashboard and are never faked.
Development
The admin dashboard is a React application. The readable source lives in this plugin
under assets/src/ (JSX and SCSS) and is compiled to assets/build/ with WordPress’s
official build tooling. To rebuild from source:
npm install then `npm run build` (uses @wordpress/scripts / webpack).
Installation
- Upload the
balaeno-webmasterfolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install the
zip via Plugins Add New Upload Plugin. - Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen.
- Open Webmaster in the admin menu to see your Command Center.
- (Optional) Under Settings, choose an automation level and enable backups.
FAQ
-
Will this slow down my site?
-
No. The plugin runs small scheduled checks and stores a minimal amount of state.
Heavy work is designed to run off-server. -
Does it change my site without asking?
-
Only if you allow it. The default “Safe automation” level performs only low-risk,
reversible housekeeping. You can choose “Monitor only” or “Approval required” at
any time under Settings. -
Are backups safe to rely on?
-
The plugin creates a verified database backup and will not let a risky fix run
until one exists. For production sites we recommend an offsite destination; local
storage is for development only. -
Who can use the dashboard?
-
Administrators only (the
manage_optionscapability is required for all screens
and actions).
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Balaeno Webmaster” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Balaeno Webmaster” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.1
- Reports are now built as data and rendered (and printed) by the dashboard, so the
plugin no longer outputs any inline styles or scripts. - Admin menu moved to a lower, non-competing position.
- “Approval required” now always waits for you — it never applies a fix on its own.
- The updater no longer changes any plugin’s activation state.
1.0.0
- First public release.
- Command Center with a plain-language health score and module status.
- Health, Updates, Security, Performance, Database and Email modules.
- Safe Fix Engine with Monitor / Safe / Approval / Managed automation levels,
backup-gated and reversible fixes, and a full audit log. - Verified database backups behind a pluggable destination.
- Maintenance mode, on-demand tests, monitoring, and printable reports.