Core-AI Contributor Check-in – July 23rd, 2025

Announcements (5 min)

  1. Welcome! To our new contributors!
    1. Tammie Lister
    2. Adam Silverstein
    3. David Levine 

Progress this week (5 min)

  1. Published our Roadmap
  2. First Code PR merged for PHP Client
  3. Two PRs in review
    1. Unit tests framework
    2. Implementor DTOs
  4. Activity in the Providers discussion
    1. Add this to the BiWeekly agenda for tomorrow.

Questions/Decision points (15 min)

  1. Confirm Plan to open this meeting to more Attendees via a Panalist/Webinar medium (thanks to @desrosj for the discussion point
  2. What does a Contributor for this coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team look like? Is this defined by the current milestone? 
  3. Some structure for GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/ Projects (Tammie)
    1. Review proposed initial idea for labels: Proposal: core-ai repos
  4. Would a review call for the DTO work be useful? (Jason)
    1. https://github.com/WordPress/php-ai-client/pull/28
  5. Would documenting the method Jason is using for incorporating Claude Code
    1. Would this be documentation? 
    2. Publishing that this was generated via Claude

Week’s goals (5 min)

  1. Finish remaining “Foundation” work (Jason)
    1. Need for a discussion on where the providers need to live? Step before that – establishing a vision for how the providers connect holistically.
  2. PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php. Client Work & Abilities APIAbilities API A core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system. – integrating some folks that will be working on this.
  3. David – has 4-5 hours for this week. James recommends partnering with some of the Automattic folks who will begin being available in the next few days.
  4. Tammie suggests starting to set some aggressive milestones, added when we have GitHub Projects set up a little more, that would encourage some momentum before WCUS 2025

Action Items and Notes 

  • Draft for tomorrows BiWeekly
  • James is leading the BiWeekly meeting tomorrow
  • Page to publish these meeting agendas and notes (James will set this up) 

Gemini Generated Summary

Neill McShea welcomed new team members Tammie Lister, Adam Silverstein, and David Levine. Jason Adams shared updates on the project’s progress and discussed providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). integrations, while James LePage emphasized defining contributions and pathways, and Tammie Lister proposed structuring GitHub projects. The main talking points included the roadmap, provider integrations, meeting structure, defining contributions, GitHub project structure, DTO work, strategic vision for providers and hosts, and weekly goals.

Details

  • Welcome and Introductions Neill McShea welcomed new team members, Tammie Lister, Adam Silverstein, and David Levine, to the second meeting. Each new member briefly introduced themself, sharing their location and involvement with WordPress
  • Roadmap and Progress Review Neill McShea shared updates on the project’s progress, including the publication of their roadmap and the merging of the first code PR for the PHP client . Jason Adams noted activity in the providers discussion and mentioned that the topic of which providers to support and who will build the integrations needs further discussion .
  • Provider Integrations Discussion Jason Adams raised concerns about the timing and linear progression of provider integrations, suggesting that it might be better to invite contributions for these integrations rather than letting them hold up the experimental pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. David Levine and Jason Adams agreed that the bi-weekly meeting would be a good venue to continue this discussion, as hosts are already listening in channels and seeking ways to contribute.
  • Meeting Structure and Attendance The team discussed confirming a plan to open the meeting to more attendees using a “panelist idea” proposed by Jonathan. James LePage and Neill McShea are looking into tools for this, aiming to allow wider participation while keeping the meetings focused on concrete progress and avoiding large, unstructured discussions.
  • Defining Contributions and Pathways James LePage emphasized the need for clear pathways and definitions of what constitutes a contribution beyond code, including design and thought, to better harness enthusiasm and guide contributors. Tammie Lister supported this, suggesting that scope should be defined per milestone or project, as different repositories will have different needs, such as documentation or design.
  • GitHub Project Structure Tammie Lister proposed structuring GitHub projects by adapting the best practices from the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ repository, including labeling, documenting labels, and setting up milestones. This approach aims to guide contributions by clearly indicating where different types of help are needed and providing “good first contribution” areas, especially within the experiments project.
  • DTO Work and Cloud Code Jason Adams updated the team on the Data Transfer Object (DTO) work, describing it as a critical foundational piece that is nearing completion, with the goal to finish all foundational pieces this week. Jason Adams also highlighted the efficiency of using Cloud Code for generating 98% of the code, noting its high cost but effectiveness.
  • Strategic Vision for Providers and Hosts Jason Adams emphasized the need for a vision on how providers fit into the overall WordPress work, including how to involve hosts sooner rather than later to ensure broader adoption of the experimental plugin. James LePage stressed supporting state-of-the-art modalities and playing nicely with self-hosted and open-source solutions, expecting major hosts to adopt the new features immediately.
  • Weekly Goals and Upcoming Meetings James LePage outlined goals for integrating Automatic’s resources into the MCP and Abilities API work, aiming to have usable versions or clear pathways for all three packages by WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US in a month . David Levine offered his free time for contributions, particularly in the Abilities and MCP work and the experiments plugin.
  • Agenda for Bi-Weekly Chat James LePage shared a draft agenda for the upcoming bi-weekly chat, inviting team members to review and suggest additions or restructuring for the discussion. Felix joined late and discussed the DTO pull request review process, with Jason Adams emphasizing the desire to complete foundational work this week.
  • Meeting Notes Publication Neill McShea reminded the team about the idea of publishing meeting agendas and notes on a dedicated page to ensure continuity and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), with James LePage volunteering to set this up .

Suggested next steps

uncheckedDavid Levine and Matt Batchelder will help with the review of the DTOs.

uncheckedJames LePage will add the discussion about providers to the agenda for tomorrow’s bi-weekly meeting.

uncheckedJason Adams will follow up with Felix regarding the DTO work and finish all foundational pieces this week.

uncheckedJason Adams will schedule synchronous calls with Felix and pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” each other on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. to speed up the review process when Felix has capacity.

uncheckedJames LePage will chat with David Levine about the abilities in MCP and how to tie the experiments plug-in together.

uncheckedJames LePage will spin up a page to publish meeting agendas and notes.

uncheckedTammie Lister and Neill McShea will lead the implementation of the GitHub project structure, starting by sharing the plan tomorrow and then iterating in public.

#check-in, #core-ai