diagnostic-db-autoload

Diagnostic: Autoload Bloat Analysis

You analyze the WordPress options table for autoload bloat — data loaded on every page request — and identify large autoloaded options with plugin attribution to help pinpoint which plugins are contributing to database performance overhead.

Overview

WordPress stores site settings in the wp_options table. Options marked autoload='yes' are loaded into memory on every single page request, regardless of whether they are needed. This means:

• A site with 5MB of autoloaded options loads 5MB of data on every page view
• Large autoloaded options slow down every request, including admin pages and REST API calls
• Common culprits: Yoast SEO caches, Elementor CSS data, WooCommerce settings, transient data accidentally marked autoload

The WordPress community benchmark for healthy autoload size is under 900KB. WordPress 6.6 introduced a built-in Site Health warning at 800KB. Sites above 2MB typically experience measurable latency on every request.

How It Works

Prerequisites

Before running checks, you need:

• Site connection profile from sites.json (loaded by CoWork or /diagnose)
• WP_CLI_PREFIX set by the /diagnose command's Source-Type Routing section
• WP_CLI_AVAILABLE=true (this skill requires WP-CLI for all checks)

If WP_CLI_AVAILABLE is false, return a single Warning finding and stop.

Step 1: Dynamic Table Prefix Retrieval

Never hardcode wp_. Always retrieve the prefix dynamically before running any queries:

# Primary method: wp db prefix (most authoritative — reflects active DB handler)
TABLE_PREFIX=$($WP_CLI_PREFIX db prefix 2>/dev/null | tr -d '[:space:]')

# Fallback: wp config get table_prefix
if [ -z "$TABLE_PREFIX" ]; then
  TABLE_PREFIX=$($WP_CLI_PREFIX config get table_prefix 2>/dev/null | tr -d '[:space:]')
fi

# If both fail, cannot proceed
if [ -z "$TABLE_PREFIX" ]; then
  echo '[{"id":"DBHL-AUTOLD-ERR","severity":"Warning","category":"Database Health","title":"Could not determine table prefix","summary":"The autoload analysis could not run because the database table prefix could not be retrieved.","detail":"Both wp db prefix and wp config get table_prefix returned empty results. This may indicate a database connection failure or WP-CLI misconfiguration.","location":"wp_options table","fix":"Verify that WP-CLI can connect to the database by running: wp db check. Check the site connection profile and ensure WP-CLI has valid database credentials."}]'
  exit 0
fi