gow

README

gow

WordPress on OpenLiteSpeed, simplified.

A single-command CLI tool for managing WordPress (and plain PHP/HTML) sites on OpenLiteSpeed web server. Handles the entire server stack lifecycle — from installation to site creation, SSL, backups, and monitoring.

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Features

• Full Stack Installation — OpenLiteSpeed, LSPHP, MariaDB, Redis, WP-CLI, Composer, Certbot
• Site Lifecycle Management — Create, update, delete, clone, backup, and restore WordPress sites
• Automatic SSL/TLS — Let's Encrypt integration with HTTP-01 and DNS-01 (wildcard) support
• Smart Resource Allocation — Auto-sizes PHP worker pools based on server RAM and CPU
• Per-Site Isolation — Dedicated system users for multi-tenant security
• Built-in Caching — LSCache page cache + Redis object cache wired automatically
• Live Metrics — Disk, database, Redis, and OLS request monitoring
• Backup Scheduling — Automated daily/weekly backups with retention policies
• WP-CLI Passthrough — Run wp commands scoped to any site

Requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Ubuntu 22.04 / Debian 12	Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12
Architecture	amd64 (x86_64)	amd64
RAM	1 GB	2 GB+
Disk	10 GB	20 GB+
Access	root	root

gow must run as root. It manages system packages, writes to /usr/local/lsws, /var/www, /etc, and creates system users.

Stack installed by gow stack install:

Component	Purpose
OpenLiteSpeed	Web server
LSPHP 8.1–8.5	PHP processor
MariaDB	Database
Redis	Object cache
WP-CLI	WordPress management
Composer	PHP dependency management
Certbot	SSL certificates (Let's Encrypt)

Install

wget -qO gow https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aprakasa/gow/main/install.sh && sudo bash gow

Or download directly from releases:

curl -SL https://github.com/aprakasa/gow/releases/latest/download/gow -o /usr/local/bin/gow
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gow

Uninstall:

sudo install.sh --purge

Usage

Provision the server and create a WordPress site:

sudo gow stack install
sudo gow site create example.com --type wp --tune blog --php 83

Need SSL?

sudo gow site ssl example.com --email admin@example.com

Running a WooCommerce store?

sudo gow site create shop.example.com --type wp --tune woocommerce

WordPress multisite?

sudo gow site create network.example.com --type wp --multisite subdirectory

Want daily backups?

sudo gow site backup-schedule example.com              # daily, keep 7
sudo gow site backup-schedule example.com --schedule weekly --retain 14

Clone a site for staging?

sudo gow site clone example.com staging.example.com

Check server health?

gow status
gow metrics

Full command reference: docs/gow.md

Tuning Presets

Preset	PHP Memory	Workers	Use Case
lite	128 MB	64 MB	Small static sites
standard	256 MB	128 MB	Typical blog
business	384 MB	192 MB	High-traffic site
woocommerce	512 MB	256 MB	WooCommerce store
heavy	768 MB	384 MB	Large multisite
custom	user-defined	user-defined	Full control

Workers are auto-sized from server RAM and CPU. Override defaults with /etc/gow/policy.yaml.

Development

make build       # build binary
make test        # run tests (race detector on)
make vet         # go vet
make lint        # golangci-lint
make coverage    # test coverage report
make cross-build # linux/amd64 cross-compile

CI runs on every push and PR: build, vet, test, golangci-lint, govulncheck, and smoke tests.

Releases are cut by pushing a v* tag — GoReleaser builds the binary and publishes a GitHub release.

License

MIT