Install and connect the worker
Put the WP Octo worker plugin on the site and pair it with the platform.
The worker is an ordinary WordPress plugin. It is installed like any other plugin and paired with the platform through one credential, the workspace token.
Install the plugin
Upload the WP Octo plugin zip through Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin in the site's WordPress admin, and activate it. The plugin adds an Octo Tools menu.
The zip is the current release of the worker, offered from the dashboard: open the site under Websites, choose Connect Website, and use Download Plugin. From then on the worker keeps itself up to date: the platform tells it when a release is available for its site, and the worker installs it with a rollback copy kept outside the plugin folder.
Pair it with the workspace
The site has to hold the workspace token, and there are two ways it gets there:
- The platform installs it. When the site was added to the dashboard first and the platform can reach it, WP Octo places the token on the site itself. Nothing to do on the site.
- Paste it. Open Octo Tools → Settings → General on the site and paste the workspace token from the WP Octo dashboard. Use this when the site is being set up on its own, or when the host's firewall keeps the platform from reaching the site.
The site accepts one credential, and it is this one. It is checked on every call and never written into a backup.
Check the connection
Back in the dashboard, open the site's Health page and run a health check. A connected site answers with its worker version and starts appearing with a status of active. If the platform cannot reach the site, the page names the cause — a DNS problem, a certificate, a firewall answering instead of the site, a plugin that took the credential before the worker saw it — and what to do about it. Connection problems has the list.
What the worker does on the site
From this point the platform and the site talk in both directions:
- The platform calls the site to read its inventory, run an update, take a backup, restore one, or update the worker itself. Every call carries the workspace credential.
- The site calls the platform on its own schedule — every fifteen minutes by default, sooner when there is work — to report its state and pick up instructions. This is the channel that keeps working when a host firewall blocks the platform's calls, and it is why a blocked site still shows current data.
The Worker plugin section describes the plugin in full: what it needs from the host, how it connects, how it updates itself, and how it recovers when something goes wrong.