M7tawa Impact Monitor

Description

M7tawa Impact Monitor is a lightweight, event-based diagnostic tool for WordPress administrators and developers.

Version 2.8.3 remains read-only for site and extension data. It does not delete tables, remove options, disable assets, or change WordPress settings.

Version 2 adds detailed before/after evidence instead of summary counts alone.

Features:

  • Create a manual baseline of the current site.
  • Record measurable changes after extension installation, activation, deactivation, updates, and successful deletion.
  • Show a per-extension Lifecycle Timeline with event filtering, version transitions, and first/last monitored dates.
  • Show exact names of added and removed database tables, cron hooks, post types, taxonomies, and REST routes.
  • Index option metadata without copying option values: option name, autoload state, and byte size only.
  • Skip detailed option indexing automatically on sites with more than 20,000 options to keep scans conservative; autoload total remains available.
  • Show added, removed, and size/autoload-changed options after a version 2 baseline.
  • Show role and capability changes.
  • Show version transitions for monitored updates when available.
  • Provide an impact profile for every installed extension, while clearly marking extensions that only exist in the baseline.
  • Preserve v1.x history during upgrade.
  • Require explicit confirmation before clearing the monitor’s own history.
  • Load no frontend CSS or JavaScript.
  • Keep only the latest 100 monitoring events.
  • Calculate a transparent 0–100 Impact Score from attributable observed evidence only.
  • Show Low, Moderate, High, or Very High technical impact without labeling extensions as good, bad, safe, or unsafe.
  • Break the score into Database, Runtime, WordPress Integration, and Footprint Breadth components.
  • Label partial scores when activation was not observed and leave baseline-only extensions unscored.
  • Show Impact Score before/after observed events and version updates.
  • Distinguish Current Impact Score from Peak Impact Score and show signed Event Impact Delta.
  • Keep a compact observed score history with Rising, Falling, Stable, or New history trend labels.
  • Show the top score contributors and conservative Attention Flags that explain what may deserve manual review.
  • Show a dedicated before/after score comparison for monitored updates and highlight notable score shifts of 10 points or more.
  • Show Observed or Partial confidence directly beside scored extension profiles.
  • Filter and sort extension profiles by impact level or score.
  • Use cron recurrence metadata when available so high-frequency schedules contribute more than infrequent schedules.
  • Never take automatic action based on a score.
  • After a successful extension deletion, run a read-only Residue Monitor check for remaining tables, options, transients, cron hooks, roles, post meta keys, and user meta keys.
  • Separate Observed residue from lower-confidence Likely related naming evidence instead of claiming uncertain ownership.
  • Recheck a stored residue report manually without deleting or modifying any site data.
  • Build a per-extension Dependency Map from the WordPress Requires Plugins header, reverse dependents, observed shared-resource evidence, and monitored footprint evidence.
  • Keep declared dependency metadata separate from observed integration evidence so shared resources are never presented as proof of dependency.

The monitor uses on-demand and event-based scans. It does not run heavy diagnostic scans on ordinary frontend page loads.

Screenshots

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin to /wp-content/plugins/m7tawa-impact-monitor/ or install the ZIP from WordPress admin.
  2. Activate the plugin.
  3. Go to Tools > Impact Monitor.
  4. Create a version 2 baseline when prompted.
  5. Future install, activation, deactivation, update, and deletion events will include lifecycle history and detailed before/after information.

FAQ

What does Impact Score mean?

Impact Score is a technical footprint indicator from 0 to 100. It is based on attributable observed evidence such as tables, option metadata, autoload growth, cron hooks and recurrence, REST routes, content types, taxonomies, roles, and capabilities. A higher score does not mean an extension is bad or unsafe; feature-rich extensions can naturally have a larger footprint.

Why is a score marked Partial?

The monitor observed some attributable changes but did not observe the extension from activation, so it cannot claim a complete footprint. Baseline-only extensions remain unscored.

Does it delete anything?

No. Version 2.8.3 is read-only for site and extension data.

Does it store option values?

No. It stores only option names, autoload state, and byte size so it can compare metadata without duplicating option contents.

Does Residue Monitor delete leftovers?

No. Residue Monitor only detects, attributes, explains, and rechecks what remains after an extension is removed. Observed residue means the item was introduced during a monitored event and still exists after removal. Likely related means the current item matches extension-specific naming evidence, but ownership is not claimed as certain.

How does Dependency Map decide that extensions are related?

Declared dependencies come directly from the WordPress Requires Plugins header. The monitor can also show exact resource names observed with more than one extension, but those are labeled as shared-resource evidence only and are never treated as proof that one extension depends on another.

Does it add scripts to the frontend?

No. Admin assets load only on the monitor screen.

Why do some extensions say Baseline only?

Those extensions were already present when the baseline was created and no activation, deactivation, or update event has been observed for them yet. The monitor does not guess ownership.

What is Observed?

Observed means the monitor was present when the event occurred and could compare site state around that event.

What happens to my version 1 history?

It is preserved. Run a new version 2 baseline once to enable detailed option and role comparison for future events.

Reviews

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Contributors & Developers

“M7tawa Impact Monitor” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“M7tawa Impact Monitor” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

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Interested in development?

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Changelog

2.8.3

  • Exclude known WordPress updater process transients, the cron storage option, and updater cleanup cron noise from extension attribution and Impact Score.
  • Show excluded WordPress update process changes separately for transparency.
  • Force left-to-right version flows so Before After is displayed correctly in RTL dashboards.
  • Harden Update Watch across more WordPress update flows.
  • Capture pre-update state from both pre-download and pre-install upgrader hooks when available.
  • Add a read-only admin fallback that detects missed plugin version changes on the next admin request and records an Updated event automatically.
  • Preserve explicit attribution limits for batch or fallback-detected updates.

2.8.0

  • Added Dependency Map with declared Requires Plugins relationships, reverse dependents, observed shared-resource evidence, and per-extension footprint evidence.
  • Dependency relationships are separated by confidence: declared metadata is authoritative; shared resources are integration evidence only.