Setup

Install and activate RuleFence

Activation creates the governance tables and starts the control plane. It grants no permissions, connects no agents, and changes nothing an existing integration could already do.

  • Install & activate
  • 4 min read

Install

Either route works and both produce the same build:

  1. From the ZIP. Download the plugin, then in WordPress open Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin, choose the file, and install.
  2. From the plugin directory. Search for RuleFence under Plugins → Add Plugin and install from there.

Then activate. If activation is refused, the message names the requirement that failed — see Check requirements before installing.

What activation does

  • Creates the versioned custom tables for agents, connections, permissions, approvals, sessions, and the audit chain.
  • Registers the secured management REST API under rulefence/v1.
  • Starts the local control plane and opens guided setup.
  • Writes the first entries in the audit trail, including the activation itself.

What activation does not do

This matters more than the list above, because it is what makes installing safe on a live site:

  • It grants no permissions. Every Ability starts blocked for every agent. Default deny is the starting state, not a setting you switch on.
  • It creates no credentials. No Application Password is generated for you, including for the administrator running setup.
  • It does not change WordPress roles or capabilities. The native authority ceiling is untouched.
  • It does not block anything that was already working. Existing integrations that do not go through a governed Ability request are unaffected.
Installing does not retroactively govern anything

Governance applies to requests made by a managed agent through a registered Ability. Installing the plugin does not put a boundary around code that was already running inside your site.

Adding RuleFence Pro

RuleFence Pro is a second plugin, installed alongside this one. Nothing in the free plugin is unlocked by a key; Pro adds its own features.

  1. Buy a licence from the pricing page. The licence key and the Pro download are emailed to you, and kept in your account on rulefence.com.
  2. Upload and activate the Pro plugin like any other. Keep the free plugin active — Pro builds on it.
  3. Open Licence in the RuleFence menu, paste the key, and activate it.
A licence belongs to a site address

Activation is tied to the site it was made on. A copy at another address — a staging clone, or a migration — does not inherit it: activate it there, or tell the Licence screen which environment the installation is. If an edition lapses, everything already configured keeps enforcing; what stops is adding or changing paid features.

What to do next

Do not start by opening the permission matrix. Start by completing guided setup, which walks the same path a real request will take and ends with a readiness score for the agent it just created.

Install & activate

Keep the boundary while you fix the problem.

A good fix restores intended behaviour without creating a second path around WordPress or the governed request lifecycle.

More in Install & activate Open support