# Installation
Bedrock is the recommended way to manage your WordPress installation, themes, and plugins, and as such it's how we recommend you install Acorn. You can install Acorn as an mu-plugin or a "normal" plugin, but we don't support this. If it's a workflow you need, or have experience with, we encourage you to submit a PR to improve these docs.
# Server Requirements
Acorn's server requirements are minimal, and mostly come from WordPress and Laravel 8's requirements. Most WordPress hosts will meet these requirements, but use the following list if you're unsure.
- PHP >=7.3 or >=8.0
- WordPress >= 5.4
- BCMath PHP Extension
- Ctype PHP Extension
- Fileinfo PHP Extension
- JSON PHP Extension
- Mbstring PHP Extension
- Tokenizer PHP Extension
- XML PHP Extension
# Installing Acorn
To install Acorn in a Bedrock environment, navigate to your Bedrock root directory (commonly site) and run the following command:
$ composer require roots/acorn
# Alternatives
Although not officially supported, the following options should work. Please file a bug report for future consideration if you run into issues.
- Install as mu-plugin.
Download the most recent version of Acorn and extract to your
mu-pluginsdirectory. Make sure you have a mechanism in place to autoload it, such asbedrock-autoloader. - Install as a normal plugin.
Download the most recent version of Acorn and extract to your
pluginsdirectory. Make sure to activate the plugin, or it won't work.