Warning: "https://wordpress.org/cli/" does not contain valid JSON

[Mike-Hermans]

Bug Report

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

Describe the current, buggy behavior

Running the wp package browse or wp package install <package> commands result in an error:

Warning: "https://wordpress.org/cli/" does not contain valid JSON
Parse error on line 1:
<...
^
Expected one of: 'STRING', 'NUMBER', 'NULL', 'TRUE', 'FALSE', '{', '['

I was hoping to bypass this by requesting a direct Github repository, but while it seems to find and download the package correctly, it still results in the same error:

Command: wp package install git@github.com:timber/wp-i18n-twig.git --debug

Debug (bootstrap): argv: /usr/local/bin/wp package install git@github.com:timber/wp-i18n-twig.git --debug (0.046s)
Debug (bootstrap): ABSPATH defined: /Users/mike/dev/sites/kps/ (0.046s)
Debug (hooks): Executing hook: before_wp_load (0.046s)
Debug (hooks): Processing hook "before_run_command" with 1 callbacks (0.046s)
Debug (hooks): On hook "before_run_command": WP_CLI\Bootstrap\RegisterDeferredCommands->add_deferred_commands() (0.046s)
Debug (bootstrap): Running command: package install (0.046s)
Debug (packages): Detected package default branch: main (0.101s)
Installing package timber/wp-i18n-twig (dev-main)
Updating /Users/mike/.wp-cli/packages/composer.json to require the package...
Registering git@github.com:timber/wp-i18n-twig.git as a VCS repository...
Using Composer to install the package...
---
Loading composer repositories with package information
Warning: "https://wordpress.org/cli/" does not contain valid JSON
Parse error on line 1:
<...
^
Expected one of: 'STRING', 'NUMBER', 'NULL', 'TRUE', 'FALSE', '{', '['
---
Debug (packages): composer.json content:
{
    "name": "wp-cli/wp-cli",
    "description": "Installed community packages used by WP-CLI",
    "version": "2.12.0",
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "WP-CLI",
            "email": "noreply@wpcli.org"
        }
    ],
    "homepage": "https://wp-cli.org/package-index/",
    "require": {
        "timber/wp-i18n-twig": "dev-main"
    },
    "require-dev": {},
    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "prefer-stable": true,
    "license": "MIT",
    "repositories": {
        "wp-cli": {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "https://wp-cli.org/package-index/"
        },
        "timber/wp-i18n-twig": {
            "type": "vcs",
            "url": "git@github.com:timber/wp-i18n-twig.git"
        }
    },
    "config": {
        "secure-http": true
    }
}
 (1.008s)
Error: Package installation failed.
Reverted composer.json.

$ wp cli info                                                                                                                                                
OS:	Darwin 25.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:54:46 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.91.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 arm64
Shell:	/bin/zsh
PHP binary:	/opt/homebrew/Cellar/php@8.2/8.2.28_1/bin/php
PHP version:	8.2.28
php.ini used:	/opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.2/php.ini
MySQL binary:	/opt/homebrew/opt/mysql@8.4/bin/mysql
MySQL version:	mysql  Ver 8.4.4 for macos15.2 on arm64 (Homebrew)
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/mike/.wp-cli/packages/
WP-CLI cache dir:	/Users/mike/.wp-cli/cache
WP-CLI global config:	
WP-CLI project config:	/Users/mike/dev/sites/kps/wp-content/themes/kunststofplatenshop/wp-cli.yml
WP-CLI version:	2.12.0

Provide a possible solution

I assume there's something wrong with the requested endpoint at https://wordpress.org/cli/. I don't know why this endpoint is still required when directly requesting a Github repository, or if there's anyway to still be able to request these repositories while the service is down.

Provide additional context/Screenshots

I noticed this problem at around 8AM CEST, our last deployments yesterday ran around 3/4PM CEST mostly without issues, although I did hear from colleagues that this action sometimes failed in our deploys already

[richard-raadi]

https://github.com/wp-cli/package-command/blob/main/src/Package_Command.php

wp-cli package command has a hardcoded base URL:
const PACKAGE_INDEX_URL = 'https://wp-cli.org/package-index/';

https://wp-cli.org/ has started redirecting overnight to https://wordpress.org/cli/

[swissspidy]

Hi there,

Thanks for your report. I'm aware of this. Yes we started redirecting the homepage but the package-index should have been unaffected. Looks like the redirect wasn't quite accurate. Will follow up with systems :)

[vdwijngaert]

Issue seems to have been resolved!

[swissspidy]

Indeed!