Local WordPress & PHP, from one calm command room.

Honest UI

Rules the interface follows, written down.

• Status derives from reality — never from what we asked for.
• Progress moves only on real completions. Failure freezes the bar — it never rolls back.
• A counter that cannot advance is not shown at all.
• A control whose only outcome is an error is not rendered.

Each one exists because a screen lied to somebody once. They are the reason rexenv sometimes shows you less than another tool would.

Install

curl -fsSL https://rexenv.rex.bd/install.sh | bash

brew tap rexenv/tap
brew trust rexenv/tap
brew install --cask rexenv

irm https://rexenv.rex.bd/install.ps1 | iex

curl -fsSL https://rexenv.rex.bd/install.sh | bash

Before you install

The things worth knowing first.

macOS

13 (Ventura) or later — 15 for everything

Intel or Apple Silicon — one universal build. On macOS 13 a few components are older builds and PostgreSQL and PHP 8.0 are refused by name; 14 differs from 15 in two rows. Read the requirements

First run

Internet required, up to ~600MB

rexenv downloads its components on demand rather than bundling them, checksum-verified. After that it works offline. What gets downloaded

Permissions

Three prompts, once

An admin password for the DNS resolver, a Keychain prompt to trust a local CA that signs only your sites, and an admin password to bind ports 80 and 443. What each prompt writes

Where it lives

The menu bar — no dock icon

Closing the window hides it and stops nothing; Quit is in the menu-bar menu. The rex CLI and the agent endpoint are remote controls for the running app, so a close that quit used to take them down. The menu bar

Uninstalling

One in-app step first

Settings → Remove system changes, then delete the app. Dragging it to the Bin leaves a root daemon holding port 443. How to uninstall

Windows

11 x64

Windows 10 22H2 is best-effort — it left mainstream support in October 2025. arm64 is unsupported: the x64 build runs under emulation, but PHP publishes no arm64 Windows build and PostgreSQL’s portable build is x64 only, so there is nothing native to ship. Read the requirements

The installer

Unsigned — SmartScreen speaks first

rexenv is open source and earns nothing, so it buys no code-signing certificate. Windows shows “Windows protected your PC” and Run anyway is behind More info. The installer itself is per-user, about 37MB, and asks for no administrator approval. What the dialogs say, word for word

First run

Internet required, then two prompts

rexenv downloads its components on demand, checksum-verified, then asks twice: one UAC prompt for the .rex DNS rule, and Windows’ own certificate dialog to trust a local CA in your user’s Root store. There is no third prompt — the edge binds 80 and 443 unelevated. What each prompt writes

Where it lives

The tray — left-click opens it

Left-click the tray icon for the window, right-click for the menu — the reverse of macOS, because that is what Windows users expect. Closing the window does not quit rexenv; Quit is in the tray menu. The tray

Not in this build

Five components

Apache, FrankenPHP, Xdebug, Redis and MariaDB are refused with a message that says why, rather than offered and then failing. MySQL 8.4 and 8.0 both ship, so a database is there either way. What ships on Windows

Uninstalling

One in-app step first

Settings → Remove system changes — one UAC prompt, removing the NRPT rules, the \rexenv\dns-agent scheduled task, the CA trust and the rex copy on your Path. Then remove the app. How to uninstall

Linux

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer

x86_64 or arm64, a native build for each. 22.04 is the first LTS with libwebkit2gtk-4.1, which the app’s window needs, so the one-command installer refuses 20.04 with a sentence saying so. Other distributions with systemd-resolved and polkit will probably work; none has been tested. Read the requirements

The package

apt — a signed repository — or an AppImage

The one command adds rexenv’s apt repository and installs the rexenv package from it, so its dependencies come with it, sudo apt upgrade sees later versions, and sudo asks for your password in the terminal. Without apt it puts the AppImage in ~/Applications. The repository is signed with rexenv’s own key; the app carries no code-signing certificate — rexenv earns nothing — and every file on a release has a .sha256 beside it. Every install route

First run

Internet required, then two polkit prompts

rexenv downloads its components on demand, checksum-verified. Then your desktop’s password dialog asks twice: once for the .rex DNS route and the local CA in the system store together, once for the web server on ports 80 and 443. Your browsers’ own certificate databases need no prompt. What each prompt writes

Where it lives

The tray — any click opens the menu

An appindicator icon in the top bar has no click of its own, so its menu is the whole interaction: Open rexenv is there, and Quit. Closing the window does not quit rexenv. The tray

Not in this build

Four components

Apache, Xdebug, Redis and MariaDB are refused with a message naming Linux, rather than offered and then failing — Homebrew’s Linux builds of them are x86_64 only and unrelinked. FrankenPHP, all seven PHP versions, MySQL and PostgreSQL ship. What ships on Linux

Uninstalling

One in-app step first

Settings → Remove system changes — one password dialog, removing the DNS route, the edge unit and its root folder, both certificate trusts, the DNS agent and the rex link. Then sudo apt remove rexenv, or delete the AppImage. How to uninstall