Settings
Go to Lumtera → Settings. Only administrators can change settings. More precisely, it takes the manage_options capability, and that can't be changed.
The settings index
Settings are split into sections, listed in groups with a short description of each:
| Group | Section | What it's for | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking | General | What gets checked, and when | General |
| Checks | Turn checks on or off, set how strict | Checks | |
| Ignore rules (Pro) | Hide findings you have reviewed | Ignore everywhere | |
| Fixing | Site fixes | Optional fixes for your theme | Site fixes |
| AI suggestions | Suggestions from your AI provider | AI suggestions | |
| Fix approvals (Pro) | Who proposes and approves fixes | Fixes queue | |
| Issue trackers (Pro) | GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp and Trello | Fix tracking | |
| Feedback and notifications | Feedback | The visitor feedback form and inbox | Feedback form and inbox |
| Response targets (Pro) | How quickly you aim to reply | Response targets | |
| Email summary | The weekly summary email | Weekly email summary | |
| Alerts (Pro) | Email and Slack alerts on new errors | Monitoring & alerts | |
| Integrations (Pro) | Webhooks, Slack and Teams | Activity log & webhooks | |
| People | Permissions | Who can see and do what | Roles & permissions |
| Branding (Pro) | Your name, logo and color on reports | Client reports | |
| Lumtera Pro | License | Your Lumtera Pro license | License & plans |
| Import and export | Move settings to another site | Import and export |
The Pro sections appear once Lumtera Pro is installed, and with Pro the People group is called People and branding. Add-ons can add their own sections, which appear under More.
Find a setting filters the index as you type, by section names and the settings inside them, and says when nothing matches. On a phone, the index becomes a Section: menu at the top of the screen.
Each section saves only its own fields. General, Checks and AI suggestions each have Reset to defaults, which resets only that section. In General, that also sets When Lumtera is deleted back to Keep my data (recommended).
Settings apply to the next check
Changing a setting doesn't re-check content that's already been checked. After changing what's checked or how strict to be, go to the Overview and click Check all content again.
General
Content to check
The content types Lumtera checks, reports on and shows in the editor. Every public content type is listed, including custom post types. Media (attachments) aren't listed.
Default: Posts and Pages, plus Products if WooCommerce is active.
Choose at least one. If you save with none ticked, Lumtera keeps your previous choice, saves your other changes, and shows "Choose at least one content type. The previous choice was kept; your other changes were saved."
While editing
These apply to the block editor, Elementor and the classic editor.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Check content on save | On | Checks each post when it's saved, so the reports and the list-table column stay up to date. Adds a fraction of a second to saving. |
| Outline blocks and widgets with issues | On | A subtle outline in the editor canvas around blocks with issues. This sets the default. Each author can switch it off for themselves. |
| Let people save review-mode findings (theme, menus, footer) to the reports | On | Lets review mode's Whole page tab save what it finds in the theme, menus and footer to the reports. Each person still chooses Save results to reports for themselves. Turn this off to store nothing. See Save results to reports. |
| Also note text that misses AAA contrast | Off | Adds a tip, not an error, where the colors a post sets pass AA but not AAA (7:1, or 4.5:1 for large text). AAA is not required by most laws and policies. |
Before publishing
What happens in the block editor when an author publishes content that has errors.
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| Do nothing | Issues are only shown in the Lumtera sidebar. |
| Show a summary (default) | The pre-publish panel lists any errors. Publishing is never blocked. |
| Require confirmation | If there are errors, the author must confirm Publish anyway before the post can be published or scheduled, even with WordPress's pre-publish checks turned off. Saving drafts always works. |
Elementor and the classic editor show the issues but never hold publishing. See Before publishing.
When Lumtera is deleted
What happens to feedback messages, results and settings if Lumtera is deleted from the Plugins screen. Deactivating never removes anything.
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| Keep my data (recommended) (default) | Feedback messages, results and settings stay in the database, so installing Lumtera again picks them up. |
| Delete everything | Also deletes every feedback message (visitors' reports, names, email addresses and your replies), every result and every setting. This can't be undone. It doesn't cover Lumtera Pro's reports and license: see Data & uninstall. |
Download every feedback message (CSV) under the choice saves a copy first. It shows when there are messages to save.
Either way, deleting Lumtera stops its scheduled tasks, such as the weekly email.
On the Plugins screen, while Lumtera is active:
- With Keep my data, Lumtera's row says Data is kept if deleted, with a change link to this setting.
- With Delete everything, a warning under Lumtera's row says how many feedback messages and results would be deleted, with Export feedback first (CSV) and Keep my data instead. Clicking Deactivate asks you to confirm first, because once Lumtera is inactive it can't warn you again before you delete it.
On a multisite network, each site keeps or deletes its own data as set on that site. Keeping it is the default.
Weekly home page check
Off by default. Click Check my home page every week to turn it on (or turn it on from the getting-started checklist, together with the weekly email).
Once a week, your own server loads your home page as a logged-out visitor and checks it. It's the same check as wp lumtera check --page=/ in WP-CLI: the HTML your server sends, including the theme's header, menus and footer. Nothing is sent to any other server. The first check runs in the background within a few minutes of turning it on.
- New errors show on the Overview, with Check now and the trend, and in the weekly email.
- It can't measure what needs a browser, such as contrast from your theme's styles, keyboard focus and layout. Use review mode's Whole page tab for those.
- It runs through WP-Cron, so it needs a visit to the site (or a real cron job) to start. If your host blocks the site from loading its own pages (a "loopback" request), the Overview says the check didn't run and why. Tools → Site Health shows whether loopback requests work.
Turn off the weekly check stops it. Developers can check a different page with the lumtera_home_watch_url filter; see Hooks & filters.
Getting started
If you dismissed the Overview's getting-started checklist, a Getting started card here has Show the getting-started checklist to bring it back.
Checks
Raise, lower or turn off any of the 88 checks, and the whole-page checks that review mode and Lumtera Pro's page checks run in the browser. They're listed under Whole page, in the browser.
For each check, choose:
- Default: the check's built-in severity, shown in brackets
- Error
- Needs review
- Tip
- Off: the check doesn't run at all
Checks are grouped by category, with jump links. Filter checks searches check titles, fix text and WCAG numbers. Show changed only lists just the checks you've changed, marked Changed. Reset sets one check back to its default.
A severity you choose applies to everything that check finds. Turning off one of the alt text checks also removes it from the alt text manager's Needs review tab. Turning a check off also lowers the coverage shown on the Overview, if no other check covers the same criterion.
Be careful turning checks off
If a check keeps flagging something that's fine on one page, dismiss that item instead. Turn a check off only if it never applies to your site. With Lumtera Pro, you can also ignore one finding everywhere under Ignore rules.
AI suggestions
Optional, AI-assisted suggestions you review. Every switch is off by default, and every check works without AI.
| Setting | Where it appears |
|---|---|
| Suggest alt text | The alt text manager, the Image block, and Draft with AI in the fix dialog |
| Suggest better link text | The block editor sidebar, on vague links, web addresses used as link text, and links that share text with links to other pages, and Draft with AI in the fix dialog |
| Suggest headings | The block editor sidebar, on bold text that looks like a heading, and on long content with no subheadings, and Draft with AI in the fix dialog |
| Draft a plain-language summary | The Reading level in the block editor sidebar, when content reads above the target grade |
The last three are grouped under Writing help in the editor. They're listed only when a connected AI provider can write text.
See AI suggestions for what each one needs, and exactly what it sends.
Site fixes
19 optional fixes for common theme problems, each off by default. The section also lists any CSS rules you approved for theme colors from the rendered page check. See Site fixes.
Permissions
Choose which roles can see the reports, dismiss errors, use review mode and handle accessibility feedback. With Lumtera Pro, also who can propose and approve fixes, and who can manage client reports. Administrators always can. See Roles & permissions.
Email summary
An optional weekly email with your score, error counts, what was fixed, the most common issues, pages that got worse and the weekly home page check. Off by default. The section also shows when a summary could not be sent, and has Send a test summary now. See Weekly email summary.
Feedback
Who gets an email when a visitor sends feedback, how long personal data is kept, and the optional Akismet spam check. See Feedback form and inbox.
Import and export
Lumtera → Settings → Import and export saves Lumtera's settings to a file you can import on another site. The file holds choices only, with no email addresses, keys or content, so it's safe to share.
You choose what travels: Checks and general settings, Site fixes, Weekly email (not its addresses), Feedback form (not its addresses) and Statement link in the footer.
Importing shows what would change before anything does. Undo puts your earlier settings back. A file from a newer Lumtera is refused until you update, and a file that isn't a Lumtera settings file changes nothing.
Network defaults
On a multisite network, super admins can set defaults at Network Admin → Settings → Lumtera defaults, from a site (Use this site's settings as the defaults) or a settings file (Use this file as the defaults). Remove the defaults takes them away.
A site that hasn't saved its own settings uses the network's. Saving a Settings screen gives that site its own settings, and each site's General section says which applies. A large network catches up within minutes.
A site that follows the defaults needs Settings → Site fixes saved once before the page title and language fixes act and its skip link is checked, because Lumtera looks at that site's home page when the screen is saved.
Pro settings
Pro Lumtera Pro adds these sections.
| Section | Guide |
|---|---|
| Ignore rules | Ignore everywhere |
| Fix approvals | Fixes queue |
| Alerts | Monitoring & alerts |
| Response targets | Feedback response targets |
| Branding | Client reports |
| Integrations | Webhooks |
| Issue trackers | Fix tracking |
| License | License & plans |
A few Pro settings live on their own screens: scheduled checks and signed-in checks on Page checks, and how long to keep activity and evidence on Activity.
For developers
The lumtera_settings_sections filter adds sections, lumtera_settings_groups places them in the index, and lumtera_settings_keywords adds words that Find a setting matches. See Hooks & filters.