Remove PHP-WASM dependencies from Studio

[bcotrim]

Related issues

• Fixes STU-960

Proposed Changes

Remove PHP-WASM packages (~1.1 GB) from the desktop app's ASAR bundle. The desktop app now uses CLI for all WordPress operations, making these dependencies redundant.

• Create local type definitions (common/types/php-versions.ts) to replace @php-wasm/universal imports
• Remove WordPress provider abstraction layer (src/lib/wordpress-provider/)
• Remove child process entry points from desktop build
• Remove getProviderConstants IPC/Redux layer - components import directly from common/constants
• Move download utilities from wp-now to src/lib/download-utils.ts
• Remove vendor/wp-now/ directory
• Move PHP-WASM packages from dependencies to devDependencies (for type checking only)
• Keep forge.config.ts ignore patterns to exclude PHP-WASM from bundle

Size reduction:

Component	Before	After	Reduction
app.asar	1.4 GB	295 MB	~1.1 GB
Total App	~3 GB	1.8 GB	~1.2 GB

Testing Instructions

1. npm install
2. npm start
3. Create a new site - verify it works
4. Start/stop sites - verify server operations work
5. Import/export a site - verify backup/restore works
6. Run tests: npm test
7. Build installer: npm run package - verify app.asar is ~295 MB

Pre-merge Checklist

• Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

[fredrikekelund]

Let's remove the unzipper dependency from package.json as part of this PR. #2348 removed it from scripts/download-wp-server-files.ts, and the only remaining place it was used was in vendor/wp-now (which we'll remove with this PR).

[epeicher]

Thanks @bcotrim for this huge reduction in size 🙌

I have done some initial testing, and I have identified that creating a site does not start it for me. Also, when deleting it, an error is displayed, although the deletion completes. Please see a video below.

CleanShot.2026-01-08.at.17.08.23.mp4

Please let me know if you need the logs.

[bcotrim]

@epeicher
I couldn't replicate the issue, do you see anything in the Studio logs?
Can you share a bit more detail about your test? (npm start or bundled Studio from npm run package, etc)
Thanks testing and sharing the results!

[epeicher]

@epeicher I couldn't replicate the issue, do you see anything in the Studio logs? Can you share a bit more detail about your test? (npm start or bundled Studio from npm run package, etc) Thanks testing and sharing the results!

@bcotrim, I have been investigating more, and I have done the following that fix my issues:

1. Delete node_modules and cli/node_modules, I have also deleted the dist folder
2. Run npm install on the root folder to install npm packages
3. Run cd cli && npm install to install npm packages on the cli folder
4. On the root folder, run npm start

That fixes all the issues I was having, I am going to do some additional testing, but this looks good so far 🥳

[epeicher]

Thanks again @bcotrim for these massive changes. I have done a round of testing, and these are my findings.

1. Create a new site - verify it works - ✅
   This works fine, I have identified a minor issue that I am not able to reproduce in trunk but it is not a blocker, and it could be tackled as a follow-up if required. When creating a site, there is a moment where the list of sites displays the new one duplicated, please see screenshot:
2. Start/stop sites - verify server operations work - ✅
3. Export a site - verify backup works - ✅
4. Import a site - verify restore works - ❌
   Importing a recently exported backup fails with the error Database import failed - Please find error logs here 3a0e9-pb
5. Run tests: npm test - ✅
6. Build installer: npm run package - verify app.asar is ~295 MB - ✅ - 294M Jan 9 13:15 app.asar (in trunk it occupies 1.4G 🤯 )

I have measured the time it takes to create a site (approximately), and I have observed that on my Mac, it takes around 16 seconds on trunk (using npm startand having a few sites) and it takes around 8 seconds on this branch, so this is a great improvement 🙌

All in all, I would like to have another pair of eyes to review the changes, but this is looking great, amazing work.