Question 1

What is a WordPress child theme?

Accepted Answer

A WordPress child theme is a sub-theme that inherits all the functionality, features and styling of a parent theme. It allows you to customize the design and functionality of a WordPress site without modifying the parent theme's files directly. When the parent theme receives an update, your child theme's customizations are preserved because they live in a separate directory. Child themes are the correct and recommended way to customize any WordPress theme.

Question 2

What files does a child theme need?

Accepted Answer

The minimum requirement for a WordPress child theme is a single file: style.css with a specific header block that includes Template: {parent-theme-slug}. This header tells WordPress which theme is the parent. In practice, most child themes include: style.css (required — with header and your CSS overrides), functions.php (to enqueue the parent stylesheet and add PHP customizations), and optionally any template files you want to override (e.g., single.php, page.php, header.php). The generator creates both style.css and functions.php with a properly structured wp_enqueue_scripts hook.

Question 3

How do I find the parent theme slug for my child theme?

Accepted Answer

The parent theme slug is the folder name of the theme inside /wp-content/themes/. For example: Astra's slug is 'astra', GeneratePress is 'generatepress', Kadence is 'kadence', OceanWP is 'oceanwp', Divi is 'Divi' (capital D — case-sensitive). You can find the exact slug by: (1) Looking in your hosting file manager at /wp-content/themes/; (2) Going to Appearance → Themes in wp-admin and clicking the theme's details — the slug appears in the URL as ?theme=slug; (3) Using SSH: ls /wp-content/themes/.

Question 4

Do I need to enqueue the parent theme stylesheet in my child theme?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The correct method is to enqueue the parent stylesheet via functions.php using wp_enqueue_style() with a dependency on the parent's stylesheet handle. The old method (@import in style.css) makes two HTTP requests instead of one and doesn't support conditional loading. The generator creates a functions.php with: add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function() { wp_enqueue_style('parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css'); }); This ensures the parent styles load before your child theme's overrides.

File	Required	What it does
style.css	Yes	Contains the required header block with Theme Name, Template (parent slug), Version and Text Domain. Add your CSS overrides below the header.
functions.php	No	Enqueues the parent stylesheet via wp_enqueue_style() — the correct method. Also the place to add PHP hooks, filters and custom functions.
screenshot.png	No	Optional 1200×900 px thumbnail shown in Appearance → Themes. The generator includes a placeholder if you need it.
template files	No	Any WordPress template (single.php, page.php, archive.php, header.php, footer.php) placed here overrides the parent theme's version.

Child Theme Generator

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