WordPress Playground now connects with the internet by default – DocsWP

Have you ever tried to install a plugin in WordPress Playground, only to discover it couldn’t connect to an external API? That “gotcha” moment happened because networking was disabled by default. A recent update changes this, giving WordPress network access by default, making your Playground instance behave much more like a typical WordPress environment.

Why was networking disabled by default?

Previously, networking was turned off by default as a performance optimization. While this helped the environment load quickly, it often created a frustrating experience for users when they expected their plugins and themes to connect to the outside world.

WordPress Add plugin page with the default settings previously displaying a message to enable the network access before adding plugin from the repo — Previous Add Plugin page with the default Playground settings

Now you can jump straight into a new Playground and install your favorite plugins from the directory, or preview plugins that are requesting data from external APIs, without extra configuration.

WordPress Add plugin page with the default settings loading the plugins from WordPress plugin repository — “Add Plugin” page with the default Playground settings

Keeping the first load fast

A fresh WordPress site makes about five separate requests to api.wordpress.org on the first visit to the admin dashboard (/wp-admin) to check for updates. In a browser-based environment like Playground, these sequential requests could make the dashboard feel slow to load.

To solve this, Playground implemented a pre-fetching mechanism and now initiates these update checks in the background, parallel to the environment’s booting up. By the time the user navigates to /wp-admin. The necessary data is ready, and the dashboard loads quickly.

How to manage network access

While networking is on by default for a more intuitive experience, you still have complete control. You can disable it at any time in a few different ways.

URL Parameters: For quick access, you can use the ?networking=no query parameter to the URL.
Blueprints: When using Blueprints, you can specify your preference with {"features": { "networking": false }}.
Settings UI: You can easily toggle network access on and off using the checkbox in the Playground settings.

Playground Setting panel displaying the option to allow network access checked — Playground Settings Panel

For more technical details, see the pull requests:

Share Your Feedback

This change makes Playground more intuitive and closer to a regular WordPress experience. Please share your feedback with us on the Making WordPress Slack or report any issues you find on GitHub.

Props to @zieladam for review.