Overview
WOW! runs a 6-step pipeline automatically when you run /wow. No configuration is required for the first run. Each step is logged in real time so you can follow along.
| # | Step | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Audit | Measure current performance and inventory the site |
| 2 | Plan | Build a prioritized change plan — no changes yet |
| 3 | Backup | Full site snapshot before any change is applied |
| 4 | Execute | Specialist agents apply changes in dependency order |
| 5 | Verify | Visual regression detection and Lighthouse re-run |
| 6 | Report | Before/after metrics and full change log |
Step 1 — Audit
The Audit agent performs a comprehensive baseline scan before any changes are made:
- Runs a Lighthouse scan against your site's front page and key URLs
- Captures Core Web Vitals baseline: LCP, CLS, FID/INP, and TTFB
- Inventories installed plugins, active theme, PHP version, and server configuration
- Identifies quick wins (high-impact, low-risk changes) vs. longer-term improvements
Audit results are stored and referenced throughout the rest of the pipeline. No changes are made during this step.
Step 2 — Plan
The Planner agent reviews audit findings and builds a prioritized change plan:
- Scores each finding by estimated impact and implementation risk
- Sequences agent tasks to respect dependencies
- Flags any changes that require manual confirmation (rare)
The plan is printed to the console so you can review it before execution. In --dry-run mode, WOW! stops here and outputs the full plan without making any changes.
Step 3 — Backup
The Backup agent creates a complete, timestamped snapshot of your site:
- Full WordPress database export (
.sql.gz) - Complete
wp-content/file archive (.tar.gz) - Snapshot stored in
/tmp/.wow/backups/ - Optionally offloaded to remote storage (configurable in
wow.config.json)
This snapshot is the rollback point for the current run. WOW! will not proceed to execution if the backup fails.
Step 4 — Execute
Specialist agents apply the planned changes in dependency order. Each change is isolated and logged individually:
- Plugin agent — audits and optimizes plugin configuration and load order
- Provider agent — applies server-side and hosting-tier optimizations (auto-detects Hostinger via hostinger-agent)
- Custom agent — applies custom code-level optimizations
- Theme Analysis agent — resolves theme-level performance issues identified in the audit
The specific optimizations applied depend on the audit findings from the Audit phase. Not all agents run on every site — only those with applicable findings are activated.
Any agent can be skipped with --skip-<agent> (e.g., /wow --skip-plugin, /wow --skip-provider, /wow --skip-custom).
Step 5 — Verify
The Visual Regression agent verifies that all changes are safe:
- Compares screenshots taken before and after execution (visual regression detection)
- If a regression is detected, the Visual Regression agent flags the run and records the regression in the report. You can restore the pre-run backup with
/wow rollback. - Runs a second Lighthouse scan to confirm performance improvements
- Logs a before/after comparison of all Core Web Vitals
Screenshots are saved alongside the report so you can inspect them directly.
Step 6 — Report
WOW! generates a detailed report at the end of every run:
- Before/after Core Web Vitals — LCP, CLS, INP, TTFB with delta
- Complete change log — every action taken by every agent
- Skipped items — changes that were planned but not applied, with reasons
- Output in HTML and JSON (configurable)
To view the last report without re-running:
/wow --report