Every client's stack at a glance — versions, plugins, updates

The portfolio inventory that updates itself.

How many of your 40 WordPress sites are running PHP 8.3? Which clients still have WooCommerce 7.x? When did Client D’s theme last update? Is anyone running a plugin version with a known vulnerability?

These questions should take seconds to answer. In practice, they take 40 WordPress admin logins — or a spreadsheet someone updated three weeks ago.

The System channel captures stack-level signals from every connected CMS installation: plugin versions, theme versions, CMS core versions, PHP versions, and environment details. Every change — every plugin update, every core bump, every PHP migration — becomes an event in the client’s project timeline.

The fleet view

The dashboard opens with the whole fleet: sites monitored, how many are up to date, how many need updates, outdated plugin and pending CMS update counts — each with a delta against the prior period. Below it, Site Health lists every site with its CMS version and the pending upgrade right beside it (craft 5.9.22 → 5.10.11), the PHP runtime, the plugin count with how many are outdated, when it was last scanned, and an Updates available or Up to date badge. Sort by what needs updates and the maintenance queue writes itself; it works the same whether the site runs WordPress, Craft, or Statamic.

Two mechanics keep the numbers honest. Every install sends heartbeat pings, so a site that stops reporting is itself a signal. And when the last scan isn’t fresh enough — you’re about to run maintenance, or a client just asked — any site can be re-scanned on demand.

Plugin inventory: who’s running what

The question behind every CMS security advisory is the same: which of our sites runs this, and in what version? The Plugin Inventory answers it as a table instead of a fire drill — every plugin across every site, install counts, the exact versions in the wild, and how many installs need an update, sorted by what needs attention first.

When a vulnerability drops in a plugin you have on nine sites across three versions, that’s no longer forty admin logins or a stale spreadsheet. It’s one row: nine installs, three versions, five needing the patched release. The response plan is the table.

What the System channel captures

Stack snapshots: Periodic captures of the full environment — CMS core version, every installed plugin with its version number, active theme and version, PHP version, and server environment details. The snapshot is the “current state” view of the client’s stack.

Plugin and theme lifecycle: Plugin installed, plugin updated (with from/to version numbers), plugin deactivated, theme changed, theme updated. Each event is timestamped and attributed to the client project.

Core updates: CMS core update available, core update applied. When WordPress 6.5 ships, you see which clients have updated and which haven’t — without checking each site individually.

Environment changes: PHP version changes, server configuration updates, hosting migrations. When a hosting provider upgrades PHP from 8.1 to 8.3, the event appears in the timeline for every affected client.

Why stack signals need a timeline

A version inventory is useful. A version inventory with a timeline is powerful.

The scenario: Client X’s contact form stops working on Tuesday. The developer checks the Burrow timeline and sees: plugin.updated on Monday at 11pm — WooCommerce auto-updated from 8.1.0 to 8.2.1. The Forms channel shows form.submitted volume dropped to zero at 11:02pm. The System channel provided the “what changed” and the Forms channel provided the “what broke.”

Without the System channel, the investigation starts with “did anything change recently?” — a question that requires checking ManageWP’s update logs, WordPress admin screens, and hosting panel activity. With the System channel, the answer is already in the timeline.

Portfolio-wide visibility

Your agency dashboard shows every client project with their System channel signals. At a glance:

• Which clients are running WordPress 6.4 vs. 6.5?
• Which sites have plugins with available updates?
• Which clients are still on PHP 8.1 before the hosting provider’s deprecation deadline?
• When did each client’s stack last change?

That portfolio view replaces the spreadsheet that’s always three weeks stale. The System channel updates itself every time a plugin changes, a core version bumps, or an environment shifts.

Integrations that feed this channel

• WordPress: Core version, plugin versions, theme version, PHP version, environment details
• Craft CMS: Core version, module versions, PHP version
• Statamic: Core version, addon versions, PHP version
• ExpressionEngine: Core version, addon versions, PHP version

How agencies use the System channel

Maintenance reporting: Monthly digests include: “12 plugin updates applied, WordPress core updated to 6.5, PHP version: 8.3.” The invisible maintenance work becomes a documented section of the client narrative.

Incident correlation: Plugin updates alongside form failures, checkout errors, and monitoring alerts. The “what changed?” question is answered before anyone asks it.

Compliance and auditing: The System channel is an audit trail of every stack change. When a client asks “what’s running on our site?” the answer is current, timestamped, and complete.

CMS version tracking use case | Maintenance reporting | WordPress integration | Craft CMS integration | Forms channel