Cannot install the command or upgrade to version 2.2.0 due to wp-cli/wp-cli Composer version issue

[baizmandesign]

Bug Report

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• Yes, more specifically, I reviewed the guidelines on how to write clear bug reports.

Describe the current, buggy behavior

Attempting to install this command via the instructions on the official documentation fails. Here are the instructions:

wp package install wp-cli/scaffold-package-command

Here's the full output of the command including the error:

$ wp package install wp-cli/scaffold-package-command

Installing package wp-cli/scaffold-package-command (dev-main)
Updating /Users/saul/.wp-cli/packages/composer.json to require the package...
Registering https://github.com/wp-cli/scaffold-package-command.git as a VCS repository...
Updating package index repository url...
Using Composer to install the package...
---
Loading composer repositories with package information
Found 4,053 package versions referenced in your dependency graph. 3,651 (90%) were optimized away.
Updating dependencies
Generating rules
Resolving dependencies through SAT
Looking at all rules.

Dependency resolution completed in 0.003 seconds
Your requirements could not be resolved to an installable set of packages.
Problem 1
    - Root composer.json requires wp-cli/scaffold-package-command dev-main -> satisfiable by wp-cli/scaffold-package-command[dev-main].
    - wp-cli/scaffold-package-command dev-main requires wp-cli/wp-cli ^2.13 -> found wp-cli/wp-cli[2.12.0] but it does not match the constraint. See https://getcomposer.org/dep-on-root for details and assistance.
Running update with --no-dev does not mean require-dev is ignored, it just means the packages will not be installed. If dev requirements are blocking the update you have to resolve those problems.
---
**Error:** Package installation failed (Composer return code 2).
Reverted composer.json.

As you can see, the command appears to require version 2.13 of wp-cli/wp-cli, but the current version is 2.12.

This affects my macOS 15 computer and a Docker imager running Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, but I think it affects everyone who wants to install the command.

Provide a possible solution

I think the version string might be incorrect in 81e6d6e, but I'm not sure what it should be to correct it.

The output of "wp cli info":

OS:     Darwin 24.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Wed Nov  5 21:33:59 PST 2025; root:xnu-11417.140.69.705.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8112 x86_64
Shell:  /bin/zsh
PHP binary:     /usr/local/Cellar/php@8.3/8.3.23/bin/php
PHP version:    8.3.23
php.ini used:   /usr/local/etc/php/8.3/php.ini
MySQL binary:   /Users/Shared/DBngin/mysql/8.0.27/bin/mysql
MySQL version:  mysql  Ver 8.0.27 for macos11 on x86_64 (MySQL Community Server - GPL)
SQL modes:      ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY,STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION
WP-CLI root dir:        phar://wp-cli.phar/vendor/wp-cli/wp-cli
WP-CLI vendor dir:      phar://wp-cli.phar/vendor
WP_CLI phar path:       phar:///usr/local/bin/wp
WP-CLI packages dir:    /Users/saul/.wp-cli/packages/
WP-CLI cache dir:       /Users/saul/.wp-cli/cache
WP-CLI global config:   /Users/saul/.wp-cli/config.yml
WP-CLI project config:
WP-CLI version: 2.12.0

[swissspidy]

Hi there, thanks for your report!

After 81e6d6e we actually did another version bump in be3a937 to improve static analysis, and yesterday I pushed a new release to fix some automated tests. We're planning to publish the next WP-CLI release very soon, so this is simply an unfortunate transitioning state.

You should be able to work around this by either downloading the WP-CLI nightly build (wp cli update --nightly), which is generally stable, or by installing an older version of the command (wp package install wp-cli/scaffold-package-command:@2.1.0).

Hope that helps!

Related: wp-cli/package-command#195

[baizmandesign]

Thanks @swissspidy! I ended up installing an older version, per your suggestion.

Glad to hear there's an updated WP CLI on the way! :-)