There are 2 methods to include Kirki in your theme.
- Recommend (or require) the installation of Kirki as a plugin
- Embed Kirki directly in your theme
Require the official Kirki plugin
If you are using TGMPA or MerlinWP in your theme, then you can use those to recommend (or require) the installation of the Kirki plugin with your theme.
A word of caution for themes on wordpress.org:
If your theme will be distributed via wordpress.org you cannot require the installation of plugins but you can recommend them. That means that the theme will still have to work when kirki is not installed, for which we have already build a fallback PHP Class you can use in your themes here.
If your theme will be distributed via wordpress.org you cannot require the installation of plugins but you can recommend them. That means that the theme will still have to work when kirki is not installed, for which we have already build a fallback PHP Class you can use in your themes here.
Embed in your theme
Though we do do not recommend embedding kirki in your theme, it is still possible to do so. You can simply copy the plugin in your theme and then include the main plugin file – for instance – from your themes functions.php file.
Keep in mind that if you choose to follow this method Kirki will be “invisible” as a plugin to your clients and they will therefore be unable to update to future versions in case of bugfixes and/or security updates. This is something you, as the theme developer will have to take care of.