Do things across many sites with Ask the Foreman

Ask the Foreman for something on many sites in one sentence, and you get one approval card for all of them, whether that’s 5 sites or 500. Nothing runs until you approve it.

Things to try

Which sites

Say it the way you would to a person. The Foreman works out the sites:

• All your sites: “all my sites”, “everything”.
• One client’s sites: “all of Acme’s sites” (the client’s name from your Clients page).
• A list: any question that finds sites, such as “sites with WooCommerce”, “sites on WP Engine”, “sites with updates waiting” or “sites with staging in the name”. It looks them up first, then proposes the change for those.

The approval card

• It says what will happen and on how many sites, then lists them (the first 10, then and 37 more; click it to see them all).
• Skipping: sites that can’t take part are listed with the reason, for example a site that isn’t connected, is paused, or already has a backup running.
• Approving runs exactly the sites on the card. A site you connect afterwards isn’t added; ask again to include it.
• Click Cancel and nothing happens.

After you approve

• Backups are queued and run a few at a time, so a big list takes a while. Each one shows on its site’s Backups page with the live progress bar, and failures email you as usual.
• Backup settings change straight away on every site, and each site’s log records the change.
• Report logos are looked for a few sites at a time (WordPress’s own logo setting first, then the homepage) and show on each site’s Reports page within a minute or two. Sites with a logo you uploaded are skipped, so it’s never replaced. Ask again to see which are still missing; those need an upload.
• Updates back up each site first (unless you say not to), then show in the update progress pill and each site’s Recent work.
• Everything is logged on each site as done by the Foreman.

Tips

• Check first: “Which sites would that include?” lists them without proposing anything.
• Site notes count: the Foreman reads every site’s notes before proposing an update, so a note like “don’t update WooCommerce” keeps that site off the card, and it tells you which sites it left out and why. Glance down the list before you approve.
• Very big or vague requests can run out of steps. The Foreman says so instead of going quiet; narrow it down (“Update Yoast on all Acme sites”) and ask again.
• Restores and copies stay one site at a time, and still ask you to type the domain.

See The Foreman: run your sites by chat for everything else it can do.