Title: Display Environment Type
Author: Stoil Dobreff
Published: <strong>August 21, 2020</strong>
Last modified: December 19, 2025

---

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![](https://ps.w.org/display-environment-type/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2366333)

# Display Environment Type

 By [Stoil Dobreff](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sdobreff/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/display-environment-type.1.6.0.zip)

[Live Preview](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/?preview=1)

 * [Details](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/#installation)
 * [Development](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/)

## Description

WordPress 5.5 introduced a way to differentiate between environment types (development,
staging, production). This plugin shows your site’s environment type in the admin
bar and the dashboard “At a Glance” widget.

[More info about the feature](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/07/24/new-wp_get_environment_type-function-in-wordpress-5-5/)

To gain additional control — for example, setting the environment or other values
from the WP admin (when `wp-config.php` is writable) — consider installing our other
plugin **[0 Day Analytics](https://wordpress.org/plugins/0-day-analytics/)**.

### Recommended Plugins

 * [0 Day Analytics](https://wordpress.org/plugins/0-day-analytics/) — a powerful
   plugin for sites that need more insight into errors and runtime behavior. It 
   includes a Cron manager, a Transient manager (database-backed), DB manager, Snippet
   manager, Mail manager, Plugin Version Switcher available from the Plugins page
   and many more.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Admin bar display (production).
 * [[
 * Admin bar display (staging).
 * [[
 * Admin bar display (development).
 * [[
 * Admin bar display (custom).
 * [[
 * The “At a Glance” widget.

## Installation

 1. Install and activate the plugin from the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

## FAQ

### Can I set a custom color for my environment types?

Colors are intentionally fixed to avoid confusion. If colors were configurable, 
they’d need to be identical across all related servers to remain consistent.

### What happens if I define custom environment types?

Custom environment types were briefly supported in WordPress 5.5 but were removed
in 5.5.1. This plugin does not support custom types.

### Why don’t non-administrators see the environment type on the front end?

By default, the environment type is shown only to users with administrative capabilities.
This avoids exposing a prominent colored indicator to regular subscribers and other
non-admin users.

For additional control, use the `det_display_environment_type` filter hook. Example:

    ```
    function rt_det_display_filter( $display ) {
        // Disable the environment type display for user ID 2.
        return ( get_current_user_id() !== 2 );
    }
    add_filter( 'det_display_environment_type', 'rt_det_display_filter' );
    ```

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4aa92835d49a316a4b9ebdaa3f4a383f95d015bcc204ac534a04b489a67cce60?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Helpful Reminder](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/helpful-reminder/)󠁿

 [ericsackett](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ericsackett/) April 9, 2025

Easy to see reminder of which version of the site I’m on.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/57c0527248cb033a796a4c05c147127d6e4ec01c397ee3e2ded7ddfa4b2f9d2a?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[This is what a developer needs](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/this-is-what-a-developer-needs/)󠁿

 [drinkmaker](https://profiles.wordpress.org/drinkmaker/) January 24, 2024

Five stars for Display Environment Type! Huge thanks to the author for creating 
this gem. The plugin might be small, but it’s incredibly useful, doing exactly what
you’d expect without any unnecessary clutter. No settings hassle – just install 
and get to work seamlessly.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cb9358ffd8587c3498800d9c404ab24e3f8cf81596d7038125e10a65c76226de?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Yes, you are working on the live site – PAY ATTENTION!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/yes-you-are-working-on-the-live-site-pay-attention/)󠁿

 [Bjarne Oldrup](https://profiles.wordpress.org/oldrup/) April 26, 2022

I switch a LOT between production sites and a clone made for testing, when creating
a real staging environment is not possible. More than once, I have unintentionally
made changes to the wrong instance of the site. That’s no fun. Display Environment
Type makes it very clear what I’m working on, when I should pay extra attention.
Recommended.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ed2c3ccfe9b4cda57477896d9d36272c56305f9391d72522a07a5a5451bf5926?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Nice little helper](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nice-little-helper-4/)󠁿

 [Bego Mario Garde](https://profiles.wordpress.org/pixolin/) August 21, 2020

Have you ever accidentally added test content to a productive website? You can now
define a constant in your wp-config.php to distinguish between development, staging
and productuion sites. To make this visible, this lean but helpful plugin adds an
indicator to the admin bar and dashboard widget which helps to avoid mistakes as
adding “Lorem ipsum” to your productive site. 🙂 Plugin works like a charm. No settings
needed. Install, activate and feel happy.

 [ Read all 4 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Display Environment Type” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Stoil Dobreff ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sdobreff/)
 *   [ Roy Tanck ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/roytanck/)
 *   [ Mark Jaquith ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/markjaquith/)
 *   [ tflight ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tflight/)
 *   [ mrwweb ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrwweb/)
 *   [ tekapo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tekapo/)

“Display Environment Type” has been translated into 14 locales. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/display-environment-type/contributors)
for their contributions.

[Translate “Display Environment Type” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/display-environment-type)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/display-environment-type/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/display-environment-type/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/display-environment-type/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/display-environment-type/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.6.0 (2025-12-18)

 * Code improvements. Added the Gutenberg menu. 0 Day Analytics introduced.

#### 1.5.0 (2024-07-01)

 * Code improvements; shows the constants’ values regardless of the `WP_DEBUG` constant.
   WP Control plugin introduced.

#### 1.4.0 (2024-04-07)

 * Code improvements and UI fixes — show the icon on mobile and set colors in the“
   At a Glance” widget. Added WordPress version in the drop-down menu.

#### 1.3.5 (2025-04-04)

 * Added a drop-down submenu with WP constants and their values (enabled / disabled).

#### 1.3.4 (2024-12-20)

 * Added a filter hook to modify the environment’s display name (thanks @erniecom).

#### 1.3.3 (2024-07-05)

 * Internationalization improvements by @tekapo.

#### 1.3.2 (2023-11-10)

 * Accessibility improvements by @mrwweb.

#### 1.3.1 (2022-03-30)

 * Skip loading the CSS file on the front end if the toolbar is hidden (thanks @tflight).

#### 1.3 (2020-08-25)

 * Code refactor (thank you, @markjaquith).
 * Environment type now hidden by default for subscribers.

#### 1.2.1 (2020-08-23)

 * Removed the distracting hover effect (thank you, @markjaquith).
 * Hardening against XSS (props @markjaquith).

#### 1.2 (2020-08-21)

 * Adds a filter hook to allow you to determine whether the environment is displayed.

#### 1.1 (2020-08-21)

 * Added a conditional front-end display (admins only).
 * Improved plugin initialization.

#### 1.0.2 (2020-08-21)

 * Removed the (unstyled) display on the front-end admin bar.
 * Added a FAQ section to the readme file.

#### 1.0.1 (2020-08-21)

 * Fixed the plugin description and plugin URI.

#### 1.0 (2020-08-20)

 * Initial release.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.6.0**
 *  Last updated **4 months ago**
 *  Active installations **1,000+**
 *  WordPress version ** 5.5 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.9.4**
 *  PHP version ** 7.4 or higher **
 *  Languages
 * [Chinese (Taiwan)](https://tw.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Dutch](https://nl.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/), [Dutch (Belgium)](https://nl-be.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/), [French (France)](https://fr.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [German](https://de.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/), [Japanese](https://ja.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Norwegian (Bokmål)](https://nb.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Portuguese (Portugal)](https://pt.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Romanian](https://ro.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/), [Russian](https://ru.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Spanish (Mexico)](https://es-mx.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Spanish (Spain)](https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   [Spanish (Venezuela)](https://ve.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/),
   and [Swedish](https://sv.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/).
 *  [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/display-environment-type)
 * Tags
 * [development](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/development/)[environment](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/environment/)
   [production](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/production/)[staging](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/staging/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/display-environment-type/advanced/)

## Ratings

 5 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  4 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  0 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/?filter=1)

[Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Stoil Dobreff ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sdobreff/)
 *   [ Roy Tanck ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/roytanck/)
 *   [ Mark Jaquith ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/markjaquith/)
 *   [ tflight ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tflight/)
 *   [ mrwweb ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrwweb/)
 *   [ tekapo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tekapo/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/display-environment-type/)