WPezo PatchPilot Visual WordPress Frontend Editor

👉 Try the live demo: patchpilot.wpezo.com/wp-login.php — login demo / demo2026 — then open the homepage and click Enable PatchPilot in the floating bottom toolbar.

WPezo PatchPilot turns the WordPress frontend into a live, visual editing surface. Hover any element on your site as an admin, click to open the inspector, edit colours, text, links, images, layout, hover effects, even insert badges or buttons — then save as draft or publish.

Every change is stored as a patch: a small JSON document attached to a CSS selector, validated against a strict CSS allow-list, then compiled to a static CSS file (and an optional JSON action bundle for DOM mutations). PatchPilot never writes free-form code to your theme. It can't break Elementor data, Gutenberg post_content, or WooCommerce order logic — patches live in their own table and are 100% reversible.

Why it's different

• Stable selectors that survive redesigns. Selector engine prefers data-id, Elementor element-id, Gutenberg block class, WooCommerce class, then a structural fallback — with a 0–100 quality score. One click "stabilises" any low-quality selector by burning a permanent .wpezo-pp-{uuid} class into the post content (Gutenberg-aware).
• Safe by default. Strict CSS allow-list (~50 properties), blocked tokens (url(), @import, expression(), javascript:, raw HTML in values), prepared SQL, capability + nonce on every REST endpoint, sanitised attributes, image src restricted to the WP media library.
• Cache-aware. Detects and soft-purges WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, Autoptimize, Cache Enabler, Hummingbird whenever patches change.
• Builder-aware. Inspector badges the detected builder (Elementor / Gutenberg / WooCommerce) on the selected element so you always know what you're touching.
• Performance-conscious. Editor JS/CSS load only for users with manage_options (filterable). Frontend assets are scoped per context (page / product / shop / archive) — visitors fetch only the compiled CSS they need.
• Reversible. Draft / Published states, per-patch history (last 5 revisions with one-click rollback), one-button Safe mode that disables every patch site-wide.
• No external services. No telemetry.

Feature highlights

1. Floating frontend toolbar that opens the Shadow-DOM editor (zero CSS leakage from / to the theme)
2. Purple hover overlay tracking the cursor with element label + builder badge
3. Inspector with 8 tabs: Content / Style / Layout / Effects / Responsive / Actions / Advanced / History
4. Per-device patches (mobile / tablet / desktop) with media-query compilation
5. WP-native admin: full-width pages, postbox cards, nav-tab sub-sections, WP toggles, WP_List_Table for patches list with filters / search / bulk actions / Export JSON / Import JSON
6. Dashboard "Compatibility detected" card (Gutenberg, Elementor, WooCommerce, cache plugins, i18n plugins, multisite)
7. REST API surface: 23 endpoints (CRUD / publish / rollback / bulk / compile / safe-mode / logs / selector validate / selector stabilise / export / import / asset proxy / refresh-cache / AI suggest)
8. Logs page with level filter quick-links + retention sidebar (30 / 90 / 180 days)
9. Optional analytics events (wpezo_patchpilot_patch_applied pushed to dataLayer / gtag / Meta Pixel) — opt-in
10. One-click Safe mode (option, query string ?wpezo_patchpilot_safe=1, or PHP constant WPEZO_PATCHPILOT_DISABLED)

Quality assurance

Passes the official WordPress Plugin Check tool with 0 errors across all five categories (General, Plugin Repo, Security, Performance, Accessibility). All SQL is prepared (uses the WP 6.2 %i identifier placeholder), every output is escaped, every REST endpoint is capability-gated and nonce-checked, file operations go through WordPress helpers. Auto-migration on plugin update via a dedicated Migrator class — no manual deactivate / reactivate.

Compatibility

• WordPress 6.2 → 6.9 (latest tested), PHP 8.1 / 8.2 / 8.3
• Classic themes, block themes, Elementor, Gutenberg, WooCommerce
• WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress, Weglot, GTranslate (detected)
• WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, W3TC, WP Super Cache, Autoptimize, Cache Enabler, Hummingbird (soft-purge on save)
• Multisite-aware: per-site patches; on Network Activate, tables created on every blog automatically

Features

• ✨ Visual frontend editor in a Shadow DOM — zero CSS leakage
• 🎯 Inspector with 8 tabs: Content / Style / Layout / Effects / Responsive / Actions / Advanced / History
• 📱 Per-device patches with media-query compilation (mobile / tablet / desktop)
• 🔒 Strict CSS allow-list (~50 properties), blocked tokens, prepared SQL, nonce + capability on every endpoint
• 🔁 Reversible: draft / publish states, per-patch revision history, one-button Safe mode kill-switch
• 🧠 Stable selectors: 0–100 quality score, one-click "stabilise" burns a permanent UUID class
• 📦 Builder-aware: auto-detects Elementor / Gutenberg / WooCommerce on the selected element
• ⚡ Cache-aware: soft-purges WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, W3TC, WP Super Cache, Autoptimize, Cache Enabler, Hummingbird
• 🌐 i18n-ready (text domain wpezo-patchpilot, .pot shipped), WPML / Polylang / TranslatePress detected
• 🌐 Multisite-aware: per-site patches, Network Activate creates tables on every blog
• 📊 Patches list: WP_List_Table with sortable columns, filters, bulk actions, Export / Import JSON
• 📜 Logs page: level filters, retention (30 / 90 / 180 days), daily prune cron
• 📈 Optional analytics events pushed to dataLayer / gtag / Meta Pixel (opt-in)
• 🔑 Capability filter for fine-grained per-site access control
• 📥 Auto-migrator: schema migrations run automatically on every plugin update — no manual reactivation
• 🧹 Clean uninstall (opt-in via Settings — default OFF so buyers never lose patches by accident)

Requirements

• WordPress: 6.2 or later (tested up to 6.9)
• PHP: 8.1 or later (tested on 8.1 / 8.2 / 8.3)
• Database: MySQL 5.6+ or MariaDB 10.1+
• Browsers: Latest Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge (for the visual editor UI)
• Server: any host that runs the above (shared, VPS, managed WP)

Instructions

1. Upload wpezo-patchpilot.zip via Plugins → Add New → Upload.
2. Activate the plugin from the Plugins screen.
3. Open PatchPilot in the WordPress admin sidebar to see the Dashboard.
4. Visit your site on the frontend while logged in. Click Enable PatchPilot in the floating toolbar at the bottom of every page.
5. Hover any element → click → inspector slides in on the right.
6. Edit content / style / layout / effects in the relevant tab → Save draft or Publish.
7. Need to undo a publish? Re-click the element → History tab → restore any previous revision.
8. Site behaving oddly? Toggle Safe mode in Settings, or append ?wpezo_patchpilot_safe=1 to any URL while logged in as admin.

Full documentation is included in the ZIP (readme.txt).