Lesson 0: Setting Up Your Development Environment with GitHub Codespaces

Team Wpnzee on June 27, 2026

Welcome to Lesson 0 of the Building Flipnzee Auctions series.

Before writing a single line of PHP, let’s prepare our development environment.

Many WordPress tutorials begin by creating a folder inside wp-content/plugins and editing files directly on the server. While that approach works, it doesn’t scale well and doesn’t teach the workflow used by most professional developers.

Throughout this series, we’ll use GitHub Codespaces as our development environment. This means you can build your plugin entirely in your web browser, keep your code safely backed up in GitHub, and deploy it to any WordPress website by simply uploading a ZIP file.

Even if you’ve never used Git or GitHub before, don’t worry. We’ll learn everything step by step.

Why Use GitHub Codespaces?

GitHub Codespaces provides a complete Visual Studio Code development environment in your browser.

There is no need to install:

  • PHP
  • Apache
  • MySQL
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Git

Everything runs in the cloud.

Some of the benefits include:

  • Develop from any computer
  • Automatic backups with Git
  • Professional development workflow
  • Easy collaboration
  • No risk of accidentally breaking your live website
  • Perfect for open-source projects

By the end of this series, your entire plugin will be stored in a GitHub repository that you can continue improving for years.

Our Development Workflow

Every lesson in this series will follow the same workflow.

GitHub Repository
        │
        ▼
GitHub Codespaces
        │
        ▼
Develop & Test
        │
        ▼
Commit Changes
        │
        ▼
Push to GitHub
        │
        ▼
Download Plugin ZIP
        │
        ▼
WordPress Dashboard
        │
        ▼
Plugins → Add New
        │
        ▼
Upload Plugin
        │
        ▼
Activate Plugin

This is a modern workflow that combines version control with WordPress development.

Step 1: Create a GitHub Account

If you don’t already have one, create a free GitHub account.

Once your account is ready, sign in.

Step 2: Create a New Repository

Click the New Repository button.

Repository Name:

flipnzee-auctions

Choose:

  • Public (recommended for learning)
  • Add a README file
  • Add a .gitignore (choose None for now)
  • License: GPL-3.0 (or leave blank—we’ll add one later)

Click Create Repository.

Congratulations! You’ve just created the home of your plugin.

Step 3: Launch GitHub Codespaces

Inside your repository:

  1. Click the green Code button.
  2. Select the Codespaces tab.
  3. Click Create Codespace on main.

GitHub will prepare your development environment.

The first launch may take a minute or two.

When it finishes, you’ll see a browser-based version of Visual Studio Code.

Step 4: Explore the Interface

Spend a few minutes becoming familiar with the layout.

You’ll see:

  • Explorer (your project files)
  • Search
  • Source Control (Git)
  • Run & Debug
  • Extensions
  • Terminal

Don’t worry if some of these seem unfamiliar. We’ll use them throughout the series.

Step 5: Create the Plugin Folder

In the Explorer, create a new folder named:

flipnzee-auctions

This folder will eventually become the ZIP file that we’ll upload to WordPress.

Step 6: Open the Integrated Terminal

From the menu:

Terminal → New Terminal

Try a few basic commands:

pwd

Displays your current location.

ls

Lists files and folders.

Navigate into your plugin folder:

cd flipnzee-auctions

Confirm your location:

pwd

Learning a few terminal commands now will make development much easier later.

Step 7: Create a Project Roadmap

Inside your repository, create a file named:

ROADMAP.md

Add the following content:

# Flipnzee Auctions

## Planned Features

- Plugin Skeleton
- Database Tables
- Auction Engine
- Proxy Bidding
- Watchlist
- Buy Now
- Escrow Workflow
- Payment Gateways
- Website Transfer
- Reports
- Email Notifications
- REST API

This file acts as a checklist and helps you track progress throughout the project.

Step 8: Commit Your Work

Open the Source Control panel.

You’ll see the new files listed.

Stage the changes, add the commit message:

Lesson 0: Initial project setup

Then click Commit & Push.

If you prefer the terminal, you can also run:

git add .
git commit -m "Lesson 0: Initial project setup"
git push

This creates the first milestone in your project’s history.

Project Structure After Lesson 0

Repository
│
├── README.md
├── ROADMAP.md
│
└── flipnzee-auctions/

It’s a small beginning, but every professional project starts with a clean foundation.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned how to:

  • Create a GitHub repository
  • Launch GitHub Codespaces
  • Navigate the Visual Studio Code interface
  • Use basic terminal commands
  • Create the initial plugin folder
  • Create a project roadmap
  • Make your first Git commit

Although we haven’t written any PHP yet, you’ve already adopted a modern development workflow that will make building, maintaining, and deploying your plugin much easier.

In Lesson 1, we’ll create the actual WordPress plugin skeleton inside the flipnzee-auctions folder. We’ll add the plugin header, define constants, register activation and deactivation hooks, and build the foundation that WordPress will recognize as a plugin.