✨ Key Features of NibbleSalt
Built So a Rotation Never Becomes an Outage
Every one of these is part of version 1.0, not a roadmap item, and not gated behind a paid tier.
1 Careful wp-config.php Editing
In File mode, NibbleSalt changes only the eight key and salt values and leaves the rest of the file alone.
- The new file is written to a randomly named, owner-only temporary file in the same folder, then swapped in
- File permissions and ownership are left as they were
- No leftover temporary files, and nothing named after your database credentials
2 A Health Check Before Anyone Is Signed Out
After the change, NibbleSalt loads your site the way a visitor would. If that request fails, the original wp-config.php is restored automatically and nothing is rotated. Sessions are only ended once the site has proven healthy.
3 Database Mode for Locked-Down Hosts
Hosts that make wp-config.php read-only, or that set salts from the environment, can't be rotated by editing a file. NibbleSalt handles them by supplying the salts through WordPress itself, from seeds it stores in an autoloaded option, so the file is never touched.
4 Aware of Server Caching
On servers where wp-config.php is cached and never re-read, a file edit can look successful while doing nothing. NibbleSalt notices that the new keys aren't live and says so, instead of quietly reporting success.
5 WooCommerce-Aware Timing
If a shopper has a real, recent, non-empty cart, or has placed an order that's still waiting on payment, NibbleSalt waits instead of signing them out.
- It retries hourly and postpones the rotation once a cap is reached, so the guard can never block rotation forever
- Empty carts never cause a delay
- An "only wait if at least N shoppers are active" setting keeps a steady trickle of carts on a busy store from holding things up
6 A 15-Minute Warning for Everyone, Not Just You
Fifteen minutes before a scheduled rotation, a dismissible countdown appears for every logged-in person, any role, on the front end and in wp-admin alike, so no one is caught mid-task.
- Starting a rotation manually offers the same warning: check "Warn everyone first" and it waits 15 minutes and shows the identical countdown, instead of signing everyone out on the spot
- While a delayed rotation is pending, the settings page shows exactly when it will run, and the Rotate Now button is disabled so a second one can't be started on top of it
7 A Schedule That Respects Your Timezone
Choose daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Times are worked out in your site's own timezone and stay correct across daylight saving changes. If WordPress's scheduler runs late, past the rotation window, NibbleSalt reports the rotation as postponed instead of running it at a bad time.
8 One Rotation at a Time, Even After a Crash
An atomic lock prevents two rotations from overlapping, whether they start from the button, the scheduler or the command line. The lock is released automatically if the process crashes or times out, and it clears itself after ten minutes at worst, so a rotation can never hang on "already running".
9 Honest Reporting When Something Goes Wrong Late
If a step fails after the keys have already changed, NibbleSalt says exactly that: the keys changed, and a follow-up step failed. It never retries in that situation, because a second rotation would sign everyone out twice. The next run is simply scheduled as normal.
10 A 24-Hour Undo That Can't Be Abused
Standard rotations can be undone for 24 hours. There is no emailed rescue link, because a link like that could re-validate a stolen cookie.
- Every rotation ends all sessions, so undoing one can never bring an old cookie back to life
- Undo is switched off after an Emergency rotation and after 24 hours
11 Activity Log and Command Line
A Recent activity list on the settings screen shows your most recent rotations, deferrals and postponements. WP-CLI commands let hosts and scripts trigger a rotation, check its status, or undo the last one, and they respect the same lock as the dashboard.
12 Page Caches Cleared at the Right Moment
When a rotation includes the nonce keys (the "All eight keys" option), NibbleSalt clears the page caches of common caching plugins and hosts afterward, never before, because clearing first would let caches refill with pages tied to the old keys. The default, login-keys-only rotation doesn't touch nonces, so it skips this step entirely.
13 Extendable by Developers
Filters and actions let you add your own checkout guards, cache purges, session handling and file locations, and run code after every rotation.
