Site Doctor

What It Does

Site Doctor runs a set of health checks only when you click "Run scan" — never on a normal page load. It verifies that OPcache is enabled and healthy (hit rate, OOM restarts, key table), that an object-cache drop-in is actually engaged (a drop-in pointing at a dead Redis backend is flagged critical), that your homepage is served from a page cache (via a loopback HTTP probe), whether LiteSpeed Cache is active, and whether any enabled WooCommerce payment gateway is stuck in test/sandbox mode. Each finding gets a severity (ok/info/warn/critical) and a guided fix with the exact values to set. Everything runs locally on your server.

Features

• Five checks per scan: OPcache health, object-cache drop-in status, page cache (loopback probe), LiteSpeed Cache detection, and WooCommerce payment gateway test-mode detection
• Read-only by design — the scan never changes anything; every fix is guided remediation you apply yourself
• Never runs on page load — only on an explicit "Run scan" click or via WP-CLI (wp multitool doctor)
• OPcache analysis: distinguishes genuinely disabled OPcache from hosts that restrict the status API (Kinsta/WP Engine style opcache.restrict_api), checks hit rate, OOM restarts, and key table saturation
• Flags object-cache.php present but not engaged (dead Redis backend) as critical — the failure that page-load checks never surface
• Vendor detection for the object-cache drop-in (Redis Object Cache, Memcached) from its file signature
• Loopback cache probe reads real cache headers (x-litespeed-cache, cf-cache-status, x-cache, Age, x-varnish, x-kinsta-cache) and distinguishes HIT, MISS, and origin-rendered responses
• Probe falls back to localhost with a Host header for split-horizon DNS and Docker environments; reports "probe not possible" instead of guessing
• WooCommerce gateway check covers Stripe, PayPal, Przelewy24, PayU, Mollie, Square, Braintree, Authorize.net, and more — flags enabled gateways still in test/sandbox mode where real customers cannot pay
• Non-production host detection (.loc, .test, staging.* subdomains, localhost) automatically downgrades severities — a dev clone without a page cache is normal, not critical
• Guided fixes include exact php.ini values, computed for your server (e.g. suggested opcache.memory_consumption and max_accelerated_files)
• Scan result cached for 5 minutes in a transient — the loopback probe only runs during a scan
• Severity summary pills (critical/warning/info/ok) at the top of the results

How to Use

1. Open Site Doctor

   Go to WP Multitool > Site Doctor. The page shows the last cached scan if one exists — it never triggers a scan just by loading.

2. Run a scan

   Click "Run scan". The module runs all five checks, including a loopback HTTP probe of your homepage, and streams the results back. This takes a few seconds.

3. Review the findings

   Each check renders as a card with a severity badge, an explanation of why it matters, and the raw data (hit rates, cache headers, gateway names). Focus on critical and warning items first.

4. Apply the guided fixes

   Each non-ok finding includes a concrete fix — often exact php.ini directives or the specific WooCommerce settings screen to visit. Site Doctor never applies changes itself.

5. Re-scan to verify

   After fixing, click "Run scan" again (the button always forces a fresh scan, bypassing the 5-minute cache) to confirm the finding turned green.

FAQ

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