WPCLI often gets out of memory error, while the site runs fine.

Start by reproducing wp plugin list with many large plugins and compare it with --skip-plugins in the reported PHP 8.4 Linux environment. Trace where the memory allocation failure occurs and identify whether the problem is in WP-CLI or plugin loading. Done means the command runs successfully without exceeding memory while the site remains unaffected.

Bug Report

--- ✅ If you are in the correct location now... --->

• 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

Sometimes wp cli can run out of memory, while site itself is fine and not hitting the limit. This seems to be common among those sites with many large plugins. For example, one had these:

 wp plugin list --skip-plugins
+---------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+----------------+-------------+
| name                      | status   | update    | version | update_version | auto_update |
+---------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+----------------+-------------+
| all-in-one-wp-migration   | inactive | none      | 7.105   |                | off         |
| all-in-one-seo-pack       | inactive | none      | 4.9.7.2 |                | off         |
| pojo-accessibility        | active   | none      | 4.1.2   |                | on          |
| better-payment            | inactive | none      | 2.1.2   |                | off         |
| better-search-replace     | inactive | none      | 1.4.10  |                | on          |
| duplicate-page            | inactive | none      | 4.5.9   |                | off         |
| elementor                 | active   | none      | 4.1.1   |                | off         |
| elementor-pro             | active   | none      | 4.1.0   |                | off         |
| forminator                | active   | none      | 1.54.0  |                | on          |
| give                      | active   | none      | 4.15.3  |                | on          |
| image-optimization        | active   | none      | 1.7.4   |                | on          |
| mailpoet                  | active   | none      | 5.28.0  |                | off         |
| optinmonster              | inactive | none      | 2.16.24 |                | off         |
| reftagger                 | active   | none      | 2.4.7   |                | on          |
| sf-media                  | active   | none      | 1.3.4   |                | on          |
| google-site-kit           | active   | available | 1.179.0 | 1.180.0        | off         |
| site-mailer               | inactive | none      | 1.4.4   |                | off         |
| sliced-invoices           | inactive | none      | 3.10.0  |                | off         |
| analogwp-templates        | active   | none      | 2.6.5   |                | off         |
| the-events-calendar       | active   | none      | 6.16.3  |                | off         |
| boldgrid-backup           | inactive | none      | 1.17.2  |                | off         |
| userfeedback-lite         | inactive | none      | 1.11.2  |                | off         |
| w3-total-cache            | active   | none      | 2.9.4   |                | on          |
| wp-file-manager           | inactive | none      | 8.0.4   |                | off         |
| wpforms-lite              | active   | none      | 1.10.1  |                | on          |
| wp-mail-smtp              | active   | none      | 4.8.0   |                | on          |
| wp-statistics             | active   | none      | 14.16.8 |                | on          |
| wpvulnerability           | active   | none      | 5.0.0   |                | on          |
| wordpress-seo             | active   | none      | 27.7    |                | on          |
| advanced-cache.php        | dropin   |           |         |                | off         |
+---------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+----------------+-------------+

Andy wpcli command results in an error without "--skip-plugins":

wp plugin list
mmap() failed: [12] Cannot allocate memory
mmap() failed: [12] Cannot allocate memory
...

Describe how other contributors can replicate this bug

• Install many many plugins
• Try a wp cli command.

Describe what you expect as the correct outcome

WPCLI should run and run without exceeding memory limit while the site itself isn't hitting the limit.

Let us know what environment you are running this on

OS:	Linux 4.18.0-553.80.1.el8_10.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Oct 20 03:57:49 EDT 2025 x86_64
Shell:	/usr/local/cpanel/bin/jailshell
PHP binary:	/opt/cpanel/ea-php84/root/usr/bin/php
PHP version:	8.4.21
php.ini used:	/opt/cpanel/ea-php84/root/etc/php.ini
MySQL binary:	/usr/bin/mariadb
MySQL version:	mariadb  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.11.18-MariaDB, for Linux (x86_64) using readline 5.1
SQL modes:
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/cpanel/3rdparty/share/cpanel-wp-cli/wp-cli.phar
WP-CLI packages dir:	/home/.../.wp-cli/packages/
WP-CLI cache dir:	/home/sf927076/.wp-cli/cache
WP-CLI global config:	/home/.../.wp-cli/config.yml
WP-CLI project config:
WP-CLI version:	2.12.0

Provide a possible solution

There doesn't seem to be a solution other than temporarily disabling some plugins. The website/dashboard doesn't seem to have the issue.

Provide additional context/screenshots

N/A