/themes directory

Themes cannot be installed, updated, or deleted in the WordPress Admin dashboard on VIP Platform environments. Themes can only be installed, updated, or deleted via the VIP site’s git version control repository, hosted on GitHub. Install themes by adding them to the /themes directory of a VIP application’s git repository.

Code quality of a theme can be verified before adding it to a git repository by running the theme code through a PHP_Codesniffer scan. The scan will provide feedback on existing warnings and errors within the theme’s code. Feedback from the scan should be reviewed, and acted on, including the possibility of seeking out a similar theme with higher code quality in some cases.

The /themes directory is mapped to /wp-content/themes/ ; this directory works similarly to WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/themes/' in a self-hosted WordPress installation.

WordPress.org’s Theme Handbook is the best resource for answers to all theme-related questions. The Theme Handbook provides guidance for topics such as developing a custom theme, creating a child theme, and theme security best practices.

The Underscores (_s) base theme

The Underscores project is a basic starter theme intended for developing custom themes. It is a lean theme built with well-commented code, HTML5 templates, minimal CSS, and a variety of tools to help customize a theme.