Start your first company site

This page is the map for building a real company website on CoreX. It links the detailed pages in order; read it top to bottom the first time. Throughout, a neutral placeholder stands in for your real client:

Placeholder	Value
Company name	Acme Company
Site title	Acme Website
Local URL	`http://acme.local`
Database	`acme` (prefix `acme_wp_`)
Generated site slug	`acme-site`

Use your own client’s name only inside the generated client site you create with make:site — never in the CoreX framework repo, its docs, or examples.

Three things that are easy to confuse

CoreX has three distinct layers. Keeping them straight prevents most early mistakes:

The CoreX framework repo — this checkout (theme/, plugins/*, addons/*). You rarely edit it for a single client.
The local WordPress install — a throwaway WordPress in ./wp (git-ignored) that runs the framework so you can see it. Its URL/DB/title are just local dev values.
The generated client site — a site plugin + site theme created by wp corex make:site under sites/<client>/ (e.g. sites/acme/acme-site + sites/acme/acme-theme), with its own namespace and prefixes. It is not a WordPress install — it is the client plugin + theme that the local WordPress in ./wp loads. This is where your client’s brand, structure, pages, and content live.

The path

1. Install CoreX locally

Pick one local stack — you do not need both:

WAMP / XAMPP (Windows) — a normal local Apache/MySQL/PHP stack. → WAMP / Apache + WP-CLI
Docker / wp-env — containerised, useful for CI-like isolation and team consistency, but optional. → wp-env / Docker

Docker is optional. If WAMP/XAMPP is working, you can build, run, and deploy a company site without Docker. Reach for wp-env when you want an isolated, reproducible environment (e.g. CI parity).

2. Use a named local URL and database for the company site

The setup script’s defaults create a generic CoreX dev install (http://corex.local, DB corex, title Corex). corex is only a default example name, not a required one. For a real client, create a named local site so it reads like the project:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\setup-wordpress.ps1 `
  -SiteUrl http://acme.local `
  -Title "Acme Website" `
  -DbName acme `
  -DbPrefix acme_wp_

Add the host and point your WAMP vhost DocumentRoot at the WordPress directory:

# hosts file
127.0.0.1 acme.local

# Apache vhost DocumentRoot
C:\wamp64\www\corex\wp

The full named-site walkthrough (including a safe reset if you already ran the default corex setup) is in WAMP / Apache + WP-CLI → Creating a named local company site.

3. Verify CoreX boots

wp --path=wp corex doctor

A green readiness report means the framework booted. If it does not, fix that before generating a site.

4. Understand the required foundation

Four plugins are the always-on framework foundation. They are not optional add-ons and do not appear on the Add-ons screen:

corex-core · corex-blocks · corex-config · corex-forms

5. Understand the optional add-ons

Everything else is an add-on you enable by need — see the full tiering in Required, recommended & optional add-ons. In short:

Recommended for a normal company site: corex-ui, corex-kit-company, corex-media
Optional by need: corex-email, corex-newsletter, corex-captcha, corex-careers, corex-bookings
Only with WooCommerce: corex-kit-woo

You do not need to enable every add-on to start a site. The Add-ons screen (Corex → Add-ons) badges each one with its tier and links to its documentation.

6. Generate the company site

wp corex make:site Acme --dir=sites/acme --starter

This scaffolds a client plugin + client theme under sites/acme/ — sites/acme/acme-site/ (app code, AcmeSite\ namespace) and sites/acme/acme-theme/ (presentation) — plus team/agent governance files. It does not install WordPress: the throwaway WordPress in ./wp loads this plugin + theme. --dir is the site root (default: the current directory + the slug) and --starter adds a runnable example slice + the starter-theme SCSS/JS/image build. Details: Build a client site.

7. Apply the Company Site Kit (where appropriate)

The Company Kit composes CoreX UI patterns into starter company pages and a front page. Apply it, then adopt and edit the result in the client theme. Details: Company Site Kit v1.

8. Customize the client theme — not CoreX internals

This is the rule that keeps your work upgrade-safe:

Brand restyling (colours, fonts, spacing) → client theme.json tokens / a style variation. No framework edits needed.
Structural header/footer or layout changes → override the template parts in the client theme (sites/acme/acme-theme/parts/, sites/acme/acme-theme/templates/).
Do not edit CoreX framework internals for one client. See CoreX UI, Company Kit & client ownership for exactly which layer owns what, and where client header/footer overrides belong.

9. Fonts

Final approved client brand fonts should be source-controlled in the client theme and registered through its theme.json / a style variation — reproducible across environments. WordPress 7’s Appearance → Fonts (Font Library) is fine for temporary testing and editor-managed additions, but don’t rely on manually uploaded fonts for production brand identity unless the migration is documented. Only commit/upload fonts you are licensed to use. See Typography & fonts.

10. Build, package, and deploy

The local ./wp is a dev runtime — it contains symlinks/junctions and dev artifacts and is not a deployment artifact, so never deploy ./wp directly. Instead build the generated dist artifact (npm run build:dist, verified with verify:dist) — a clean WordPress tree with real files instead of symlinks — and deploy that. See Deploy & distribute.

Optional: the documentation site

The CoreX docs-app (this site) is optional — it is a searchable team docs site, not required to run CoreX or to start a company site. You can read the docs three ways:

No docs app — read README.md, docs/en/**, and the docs-app Markdown sources directly in the repo or on GitHub.
Dev server — cd docs-app && npm install && npm run dev → http://localhost:4321.
Static WAMP vhost — cd docs-app && npm install && npm run build, then point an Apache vhost docs.corex.local at docs-app/dist (add 127.0.0.1 docs.corex.local to your hosts file) → http://docs.corex.local.

If you host the docs, tell the CoreX admin where they live so the Add-ons → Documentation links point at your docs site instead of the GitHub source: set the docs.base_url config key (e.g. http://docs.corex.local) or filter corex_docs_base_url. With no base configured, those links safely open the docs source on GitHub — they never resolve against the client site’s own domain.