Case study · operating and modernizing WordPress Multisite

WordPress Modernization & AI Operations

I operate and modernize a production WordPress Multisite platform with checksum-gated changes, custom OIDC identity, focused MU plugins, and offline AI content validation. Fourteen tests check claims, dates, and affiliate markup before editorial review.

Verified production operations WordPress · PHP · Python

Evidence and current limits

Production multisite network operating across multiple public domains with checksum validation, automated rollback runbooks, custom SSO identity hub, and zero unverified database mutations.

01 / Problem

Legacy multisite maintenance risked breaking custom plugins and search rankings.

A legacy WordPress Multisite running custom child themes and varied plugins needed modernization without downtime or regression of search traffic.

Established strict change control: checksum gating, isolated MU plugins, automated staging tests, and AI-assisted content validation before publishing.

02 / Evolution

What changed as the project grew.

01 Audit and baseline
Comprehensive inventory of core, themes, plugins, and database schemas with rollback checkpoints.
02 MU plugin isolation
Extracted bespoke functionality into focused, testable must-use plugins.
03 OIDC authentication
Integrated custom Google SSO hub for network-wide administrator access.
04 AI content validation
Offline test suite validates facts, dates, links, and disclosure standards.

03 / What I built

Modernized multisite architecture with rigorous operational gates.

SSO Hub MU-plugin Centralized Google OAuth OIDC bridge for multisite admin authentication.
Content preflight suite 14 automated Python tests checking editorial claims and affiliate compliance.
Security and comment control Deterministic comment suppression and Cloudflare Turnstile bot gating.
Automated deployment runbooks Verified shell and WP-CLI automation with database pre-checks.

04 / Architecture

Controlled operational lifecycle from code change to live serving.

Verified production operations

Source Control GitHub main branch

Preflight Checks Checksum + DB schema test

AI Content Gate Fact and claim validation

Deployment WP-CLI isolated rollouts

Serving Apache / PHP 8.1 Multisite

WordPress modernization deployment and content governance lifecycle.

05 / System Boundary

Deterministic infrastructure gates; AI evaluates content accuracy.

Deterministic tasks

Core checksum verification
Database migration rollback checkpoints
SSO token validation and role mapping
Turnstile bot challenge handling

Model reasoning

Editorial claim consistency check
Affiliate disclosure tone analysis
Broken link context analysis

Human decisions

Theme and layout approvals
Editorial publishing sign-off
Infrastructure upgrade authorization

06 / Reliability

Every change is bounded by rollback scripts and verified backups.

All updates require verified database dumps and file checksums before mutation.

Production secrets are never stored in version control or world-readable files.

07 / Outcomes

Stable multisite modernization with zero production outages.

Modernized Core

Safely updated to WordPress 7.1 with MariaDB schema alignment across all subsites.

Simplified Maintenance

Replaced heavy monolithic plugins with lightweight, dedicated MU plugins.

Governance Baseline

Established repeatable runbooks and testing gates for ongoing fleet modernization.