WP-CLI commands

For headless, scripted, or automated migrations, the Migrator provides a wp ve-migrate command-line interface. Useful for:

Running migrations from a deploy script
Scheduled imports from a staging to production environment
Integration with CI / CD pipelines
Large imports where you want to bypass the browser entirely

Import

Dry run (always do this first)

wp ve-migrate import --source=tec --dry-run

Full import

wp ve-migrate import --source=tec

Import specific entities only

wp ve-migrate import --source=tec --entities=event,occurrence

All common options

wp ve-migrate import \
  --source=tec \
  --batch-size=200 \
  --skip-existing \
  --create-default-tickets

Flag	Description
`--source`	Source system (`tec` for The Events Calendar)
`--dry-run`	Validate without writing to the database
`--entities`	Comma-separated entity types to import (default: all)
`--batch-size`	Records per batch (default: 50)
`--skip-existing`	Skip records that already exist (default: on)
`--create-default-tickets`	Create “General Admission” tickets for events without ticket types

Export

Export all data to JSON

wp ve-migrate export

Export to a specific file

wp ve-migrate export --file=/tmp/events.json --pretty

Export specific entities

wp ve-migrate export --entities=event,occurrence

Export files are saved to wp-content/uploads/ve-migrator-exports/ by default.

Status

List recent imports

wp ve-migrate status

Details for a specific import

wp ve-migrate status imp_20260412_abc123

JSON output (for scripts)

wp ve-migrate status --format=json

Rollback

Roll back a specific import

wp ve-migrate rollback imp_20260412_abc123

Skip confirmation prompt

wp ve-migrate rollback imp_20260412_abc123 --yes

Rollback deletes all records created by the named import in reverse dependency order (attendees first, then tickets, then events, then categories/tags). Other data is untouched.

Typical workflow

# 1. Back up
wp db export pre-import-backup.sql

# 2. Dry run
wp ve-migrate import --source=tec --dry-run

# 3. Review output for warnings/errors
# (manual step)

# 4. Real import
wp ve-migrate import --source=tec

# 5. Verify
wp ve-migrate status

# 6. If something's wrong, roll back
wp ve-migrate rollback imp_20260412_abc123

Tips

Redirect output to a file for large imports: wp ve-migrate import --source=tec > import.log 2>&1
Use the JSON status output to integrate with monitoring or dashboards: wp ve-migrate status --format=json | jq
The ID mapping is stored per-import, so you can run multiple imports and roll back individual ones without affecting others