White-Label Skill (FREE Plugins Only)

Complete WordPress white-labeling system using free plugins to create a professional, branded admin experience without any paid elements.

Plugin Stack

Plugin	Purpose	Key Features
ASE (Admin and Site Enhancements)	Security, admin cleanup	Custom login URL, disable XML-RPC, hide notices, obfuscate authors
White Label CMS	Dashboard & menu branding	Setup wizard, custom welcome panel, hide menus by role, import/export
Branda (White Labeling)	Login page branding	Custom logo, colors, backgrounds, admin bar logo
Admin Menu Editor (optional)	Advanced menu control	Reorder, rename, custom icons, granular permissions

Recommended Approach

1. ASE - Security first (login URL, XML-RPC, author slugs)
2. White Label CMS - Use setup wizard for quick branding + menu hiding
3. Branda - Fine-tune login page if White Label CMS isn't enough

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White Label CMS Quick Setup

Access: WordPress Admin → Settings → White Label CMS

Setup Wizard

White Label CMS has a built-in wizard that walks you through:

1. Your company logo (admin bar, login page)
2. Client details
3. Dashboard welcome panel
4. Menu visibility

Key Features

• Custom Welcome Dashboard: Add your own panel with Elementor/Beaver Builder support
• Hide Menus by Role: Built-in, no extra plugin needed
• CMS Profiles: Choose Website, Blog, or Custom preset
• Import/Export: Save and reuse settings across sites
• Login Page: Customize logo and use /login as URL alias

What We Can Configure (100% FREE)

Feature	Plugin	How
Custom login page logo	Branda	Upload via Media Library
Login background color/image	Branda	Color picker or image upload
Login form styling	Branda	Colors, borders, shadows
Admin footer text	ASE or Branda	Custom HTML text
Admin bar cleanup	ASE	Toggle visibility of items
Hide "Howdy" greeting	Branda	Replace with custom text
Dashboard widget removal	ASE	Checkbox per widget
Custom login URL	ASE	Slug like /client-login
Menu organization	Admin Menu Editor	Drag-and-drop
WordPress version hiding	ASE	Toggle on/off
Admin color scheme	Branda	Custom palette
Disable admin notices	ASE	Move to panel or hide

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Phase 1: Security First (ASE)

1.1 Change Login URL

• Plugin: ASE → Login/Logout → Change Login URL
• Setting: Custom URL like /client-login or /secure-access
• Why: Prevents automated attacks on /wp-login.php

Recommended slugs:

/client-login
/company-access
/portal
/secure-login

Avoid: /login, /admin, /signin (too common)

1.2 Login ID Type

• Plugin: ASE → Login/Logout → Login ID Type
• Setting: Restrict to "Username only" or "Email only"
• Reduces attack surface

1.3 Obfuscate Author Slugs

• Plugin: ASE → Security → Obfuscate Author Slugs
• Hides usernames from author archive URLs

1.4 Disable XML-RPC

• Plugin: ASE → Security → Disable XML-RPC
• Prevents brute force and DDoS attacks

1.5 Email Address Obfuscation

• Plugin: ASE → Security → Email Address Obfuscation
• Protects displayed emails from scrapers

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Phase 2: Branding (Branda)

2.1 Login Page Customization

Access: Branda → Login Screen

Customize:

• Logo: Upload client's logo (recommended: 200-400px wide, PNG or SVG)
• Logo Link: Change from wordpress.org to client's site
• Background: Solid color or image
• Form Box: Background color, border radius, shadow
• Button: Background color, text color, hover state
• Links: "Lost password" and "Back to site" colors

Example Configuration:

Logo: /wp-content/uploads/client-logo.png
Logo Width: 300px
Background Color: #1a1a2e
Form Background: #ffffff
Form Border Radius: 8px
Button Color: #e94560
Button Hover: #c73e54

2.2 Admin Bar Branding

Access: Branda → Admin Area → Admin Bar

Options:

• Replace WordPress logo with custom logo
• Hide WordPress logo entirely
• Custom admin bar background color
• Custom menu item colors

2.3 Replace "Howdy" Greeting

Access: Branda → Admin Area → Howdy Message

Replace with:

• "Welcome, {username}"
• "Hello, {display_name}"
• "{display_name}" (just the name)

2.4 Admin Footer

Access: Branda → Admin Area → Admin Footer

Custom footer text (HTML supported):

&copy; 2025 [Client Name]. Powered by <a href="https://youragency.com">Your Agency</a>.

2.5 Dashboard Widget Branding

Access: Branda → Dashboard → Welcome Widget

Create custom welcome widget with:

• Client logo
• Quick links to common tasks
• Support contact information

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Phase 3: Admin Cleanup (ASE)

3.1 Clean Up Admin Bar

• Plugin: ASE → Admin Interface → Clean Up Admin Bar
• Hide: WordPress logo, comments, new content, updates, help tab
• Keep: Site name, user menu, essentials only

3.2 Hide Admin Notices

• Plugin: ASE → Admin Interface → Hide Admin Notices
• Moves notices to separate panel (accessible via admin bar icon)
• Keeps interface clean for clients

3.3 Disable Dashboard Widgets

• Plugin: ASE → Admin Interface → Disable Dashboard Widgets
• Disable:
  • WordPress News
  • Quick Draft
  • At a Glance (optional)
  • Activity (optional)
• Keep: Custom widgets, Site Health (maybe)

3.4 Wider Admin Menu

• Plugin: ASE → Admin Interface → Wider Admin Menu
• Better readability for long menu items

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Phase 4: Menu Organization (Admin Menu Editor)

4.1 Reorder Menu Items

Recommended Order for Clients:

1. Dashboard
2. Pages
3. Posts (or custom CPT name)
4. Media
5. (separator)
6. Comments (if enabled)
7. (separator)
8. Appearance (hide for editors)
9. Plugins (hide for editors)
10. Users
11. Tools (hide for editors)
12. Settings (hide for editors)

4.2 Rename Confusing Items

Original	Rename To
Posts	News / Blog / Articles
Media	Files / Images
Pages	Website Pages
Comments	Feedback / Reviews

4.3 Hide Advanced Items

Hide from Editors:

• Plugins
• Appearance → Editor
• Tools → all except Export
• Settings → all

Hide from Authors:

• Everything in Editor list
• Plus: Users, Comments settings

4.4 Add Custom Menu Items

Admin Menu Editor allows adding links to:

• External resources
• Custom admin pages
• Help documentation

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Phase 5: Performance & Cleanup (ASE)

5.1 Heartbeat Control

• Dashboard: Disable or reduce to 60s
• Post Editor: Reduce to 30s (for autosave)
• Frontend: Disable

5.2 Revisions Control

• Limit to 5-10 revisions per post
• Prevents database bloat

5.3 Image Upload Control

• Max dimensions: 2560x2560px
• Convert BMP to JPG: Enable
• Convert PNG to JPG: Enable (non-transparent only)

5.4 Disable Bloat

• Embeds: Disable if not using oEmbed
• Emoji: Disable (system emojis work fine)
• Dashicons on frontend: Disable
• jQuery Migrate: Disable if not needed

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Automated White-Labeling (Claude Can Do This!)

This skill includes automation scripts that allow Claude to configure ALL white-label settings programmatically based on brand information you provide.

Quick Start

# Apply white-label config from JSON file
/root/.claude/skills/white-label/scripts/apply-white-label.sh config.json container-name

# Example for CSR Development:
/root/.claude/skills/white-label/scripts/apply-white-label.sh \
  /root/csrdevelopment.com/white-label-config.json \
  wordpress-local-wordpress-1

Configuration File Format

Create a JSON file with your brand settings:

{
  "brand": {
    "company_name": "Your Company",
    "logo_url": "https://example.com/logo.png",
    "website": "https://yourcompany.com",
    "colors": {
      "primary": "#2271b1",
      "primary_dark": "#135e96",
      "background": "#1a1a2e"
    }
  },
  "login": {
    "background_color": "#1a1a2e",
    "form_background": "#ffffff",
    "button_color": "#2271b1",
    "logo_width": 300
  },
  "security": {
    "login_url": "secure-login",
    "disable_xmlrpc": true,
    "obfuscate_authors": true
  },
  "dashboard": {
    "hide_news": true,
    "hide_quick_draft": true,
    "welcome_title": "Welcome",
    "welcome_message": "<p>Your custom dashboard message</p>"
  },
  "greeting": "Welcome,"
}

What Gets Configured

The automation script configures:

Plugin	Settings Applied
White Label CMS	Admin bar logo, greeting, side menu, footer, dashboard widgets, welcome panel
ASE	Custom login URL, XML-RPC, author obfuscation, email obfuscation, heartbeat, revisions
Branda	Login page styling, admin bar, howdy message, footer

Asking Claude to White-Label

Just say:

• "White-label this site for [Company Name]"
• "Apply branding with primary color #e94560"
• "Set up client handoff for [Company]"

Claude will:

1. Create or use existing config JSON
2. Run the automation script
3. Verify all settings applied
4. Report completion

Scripts Location

/root/.claude/skills/white-label/scripts/
├── apply-white-label.sh           # Main runner script
├── configure-white-label.php      # WP-CLI configuration script
└── white-label-config.example.json # Example config file

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Programmatic Configuration

All three plugins store settings in wp_options:

Plugin	Option Name	Format
ASE	admin_site_enhancements	Serialized array
Branda	ub_settings (and others)	Serialized array
Admin Menu Editor	acp_custom_menu, acp_custom_menu_data	Serialized array

Reading Current Settings

# ASE settings
docker exec wordpress wp option get admin_site_enhancements --format=json

# Branda settings
docker exec wordpress wp option get ub_settings --format=json

# Admin Menu Editor
docker exec wordpress wp option get acp_custom_menu --format=json

Updating Settings via WP-CLI

ASE Configuration:

docker exec wordpress wp option update admin_site_enhancements '{
  "change_login_url": {"enabled": true, "slug": "secure-login"},
  "hide_admin_notices": true,
  "disable_xmlrpc": true,
  "obfuscate_author_slugs": true,
  "heartbeat_control": {
    "dashboard": "disable",
    "post_editor": 30,
    "frontend": "disable"
  },
  "revisions_control": 5
}' --format=json

Branda Login Customization:

# Upload logo first
docker exec wordpress wp media import /path/to/logo.png --title="Client Logo"

# Get attachment ID
LOGO_ID=$(docker exec wordpress wp post list --post_type=attachment --name=logo --field=ID)

# Update Branda settings
docker exec wordpress wp option update ub_login_image "$LOGO_ID"
docker exec wordpress wp option update ub_login_background_color "#1a1a2e"

---

Automation Script

Complete white-label setup script:

#!/bin/bash
# white-label-setup.sh - Apply complete white-labeling

CLIENT_NAME="${1:-Client Name}"
LOGIN_URL="${2:-client-login}"
LOGO_PATH="${3:-}"
PRIMARY_COLOR="${4:-#2271b1}"
BACKGROUND_COLOR="${5:-#1a1a2e}"

# Configure ASE
docker-compose exec -T wpcli wp option update admin_site_enhancements "$(cat <<EOF
{
  "change_login_url": {"enabled": true, "slug": "$LOGIN_URL"},
  "hide_admin_notices": true,
  "disable_xmlrpc": true,
  "obfuscate_author_slugs": true,
  "email_address_obfuscation": true,
  "clean_up_admin_bar": {
    "enabled": true,
    "hide_wp_logo": true,
    "hide_comments": true,
    "hide_new_content": true
  },
  "disable_dashboard_widgets": {
    "welcome": true,
    "quick_draft": true,
    "wordpress_news": true
  },
  "heartbeat_control": {
    "dashboard": "disable",
    "post_editor": 30,
    "frontend": "disable"
  },
  "revisions_control": 5
}
EOF
)" --format=json

# Upload logo if provided
if [ -n "$LOGO_PATH" ] && [ -f "$LOGO_PATH" ]; then
    docker cp "$LOGO_PATH" wordpress:/tmp/logo.png
    docker-compose exec -T wpcli wp media import /tmp/logo.png --title="$CLIENT_NAME Logo"
fi

# Configure admin footer
docker-compose exec -T wpcli wp option update ub_admin_footer_text \
  "&copy; $(date +%Y) $CLIENT_NAME. All rights reserved."

echo "White-labeling complete for: $CLIENT_NAME"
echo "Login URL: /wp-login.php → /$LOGIN_URL"

---

Template Configuration Export

Save this as your baseline white-label configuration:

{
  "ase": {
    "change_login_url": {
      "enabled": true,
      "slug": "secure-login"
    },
    "hide_admin_notices": true,
    "disable_xmlrpc": true,
    "obfuscate_author_slugs": true,
    "email_address_obfuscation": true,
    "clean_up_admin_bar": {
      "enabled": true,
      "hide_wp_logo": true,
      "hide_comments": true,
      "hide_new_content": true,
      "hide_updates": true
    },
    "disable_dashboard_widgets": {
      "welcome": true,
      "quick_draft": true,
      "wordpress_news": true,
      "activity": false
    },
    "heartbeat_control": {
      "dashboard": "disable",
      "post_editor": 30,
      "frontend": "disable"
    },
    "revisions_control": 5,
    "image_upload_control": {
      "max_width": 2560,
      "max_height": 2560
    }
  },
  "branda": {
    "login_screen": {
      "logo_enabled": true,
      "background_color": "#1a1a2e",
      "form_background": "#ffffff",
      "button_color": "#e94560"
    },
    "admin_bar": {
      "hide_wp_logo": true,
      "custom_logo_enabled": true
    },
    "howdy_message": {
      "enabled": true,
      "text": "Welcome,"
    },
    "admin_footer": {
      "enabled": true,
      "text": "© {year} {client}. All rights reserved."
    }
  },
  "admin_menu_editor": {
    "hide_for_non_admins": [
      "plugins.php",
      "theme-editor.php",
      "options-general.php",
      "tools.php"
    ],
    "rename": {
      "Posts": "News",
      "Media": "Files"
    }
  }
}

---

Client Handoff Checklist

Before handing off to client:

• [ ] Custom login URL set and tested
• [ ] Login page has client logo
• [ ] Login page colors match brand
• [ ] Admin bar shows client branding (not WordPress)
• [ ] "Howdy" replaced with professional greeting
• [ ] Admin footer shows client copyright
• [ ] Dashboard widgets cleaned up
• [ ] Menu items renamed and organized
• [ ] Advanced items hidden from editors
• [ ] WordPress version hidden
• [ ] XML-RPC disabled
• [ ] Author slugs obfuscated
• [ ] Email addresses obfuscated
• [ ] Heartbeat optimized
• [ ] Revisions limited
• [ ] Image upload limits set

---

Troubleshooting

Login URL Not Working

1. Flush permalinks: Settings → Permalinks → Save
2. Check for plugin conflicts
3. Verify .htaccess is writable
4. Clear all caches

Logo Not Displaying on Login

1. Check image dimensions (not too large)
2. Verify image URL is accessible
3. Clear browser cache
4. Check Branda settings saved

Admin Bar Items Still Visible

1. Clear browser cache
2. Check if other plugins are adding items
3. Verify ASE/Branda settings saved
4. Check user role (some items only for admins)

Settings Not Saving

1. Check user capabilities (must be admin)
2. Clear cache (if using caching plugin)
3. Disable other security plugins temporarily
4. Check PHP memory limit

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Related Skills

• wp-docker: Development environment
• wp-playground: Testing environment
• wordpress-admin: Site management
• seo-optimizer: SEO configuration
• brand-guide: Brand documentation

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Sources

• ASE Plugin
• Branda Plugin
• Admin Menu Editor
• White-Labeling Best Practices