Themes update just like plugins with WP-CLI. The difference is the risk: if someone edited the theme directly, an update can overwrite those changes. Here’s how to update safely.
List your themes
wp theme list # all themes + status
wp theme list --update=available # only those with an updateThe status column shows which theme is active, and update shows whether a newer version exists.
Update the theme
wp theme update twentytwentyfour # one theme
wp theme update --all # all themes
wp theme update --all --dry-run # show first, change nothingSwitch the active theme
Want to activate a different theme, or install a new one? One command does it.
wp theme activate my-theme
wp theme install twentytwentyfive --activateThe trap: custom edits in the theme
If someone edited the theme’s files directly, an update overwrites them. That’s why customizations belong in a child theme or a plugin — never in the parent theme itself. Not sure the theme is untouched? Run the update on a staging copy first and compare.
- Using a block theme (FSE)? Templates and styles you changed in the editor live in the database, not the theme files — they survive an update.
- Have a custom theme? Then there’s usually no update to run — which is one of the points of building your own.
Verify afterwards
Reload the site and click through a few templates (homepage, post, archive). If something looks wrong you can roll back from your backup — always take a wp db export before major theme updates, just like with plugins in part three.
The full WP-CLI series
- Terminal basics: getting around with cd and ls
- SSH into your server and run search-replace
- Update plugins with WP-CLI
- Update your theme with WP-CLI
- The most important WP-CLI commands
Rather not do it yourself? At Kepler, WP-CLI and SSH access are part of Managed WordPress — we keep core, themes and plugins updated for you. And you can always SSH into your own cloud server and run the commands above whenever you like.