Title: Bundling WordPress for the browser
Published: July 15, 2026
Last modified: July 16, 2026

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# Bundling WordPress for the browser

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/playground/developers/architecture/browser-wordpress/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

The [web bundler Dockerfile](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-playground/blob/trunk/src/wordpress-playground/wordpress/Dockerfile)
turns a vanilla WordPress into a browser-optimized one:

 * Makes WordPress run on SQLite using the [official drop-in plugin](https://github.com/WordPress/sqlite-database-integration)
   as MySQL is unsupported in the browser.
 * Reduces the WordPress website size from about 70MB to about 10MB, or 5MB compressed.
 * Runs the WordPress installation wizard.
 * Bundles WordPress as a minified zip file.

Build a new bundle with `nx bundle-wordpress playground-wordpress-builds --wp-version
=<version>`, e.g.:

    ```
    nx bundle-wordpress playground-wordpress-builds --wp-version=6.1
    ```

The bundler outputs:

 * `packages/playground/wordpress-builds/public/wp-6.1.zip` – zipped WordPress files
 * `packages/playground/wordpress-builds/public/wp-6.1/` – a directory with static
   assets for the specified WordPress versions

Consult [the web bundler Dockerfile](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-playground/blob/trunk/src/wordpress-playground/wordpress/Dockerfile)
for more details (like the list of supported WordPress versions) and modify it to
customize the default WordPress installation.

First published

July 15, 2026

Last updated

July 16, 2026

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Changelog

[ See list of changes: Bundling WordPress for the browser ](https://developer.wordpress.org/playground/developers/architecture/browser-wordpress/?output_format=md#)

[  Previous: How does it work?](https://developer.wordpress.org/playground/developers/architecture/wordpress-database/)

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