neillmcshea 2:26 am on 19 March 2026
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AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 18 March 2026

The AI Contributor group met on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, to discuss the final push for WordPress 7.0, upcoming 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. releases, and critical architecture decisions regarding the MCP (Model Context Protocol) and the AI “Master Switch.”

AI Experiments PluginAI Experiments Plugin WordPress's AI laboratory bringing all building blocks together. Serves as both a user tool and developer reference implementation. First release (v0.1.0) includes Title Generation experiment.

  • Version 0.5.0 Released: This version aligns the plugin with the AI client in WordPress 7.0 CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
  • Version 0.6.0 Scheduled: Targeting a release tomorrow. The primary focus is Image Editing, which has been identified as a Feature (notably not an Experiment) for the 7.0 cycle.
  • Refine from Notes: A new experiment is underway allowing AI to action comments within post notes to update content.
  • Contextual Tagging: Work is beginning on AI-suggested categories and tags, though it may land in a post-7.0 release.

UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. and Design Concerns

  • Settings Refactor: There is a push to align the AI settings page with the modern “Connectors” UI.
  • Banner Design Feedback: @jeffpaul raised concerns regarding the new “WordPress in bits” banner design, noting that the floating elements could be interpreted as AI “breaking up” or destroying WordPress. Designers are encouraged to provide feedback on the Trac ticket by the end of the week.

The AI “Off Switch”

A significant portion of the meeting focused on the implementation of a global constant to disable AI features.

  • The Conflict: There is a debate between using a filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. (allowing plugins to override) versus a strict constant (an “Off Switch”).
  • Decision: To meet the RC1 deadline tomorrow, the team will merge the current implementation but continue the discussion during the RCRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. phase. The goal is to ensure users have a transparent way to opt-out of AI entirely without plugin interference.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

  • Plugin vs. Package: Discussion continued on whether the MCP adapterMCP Adapter Translates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts. should be a standalone plugin on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ or bundled as a package.
  • Stability: @dlevine emphasized that if AI becomes user-facing in 7.0, the MCP infrastructure must be considered stable.
  • Action: @ovidiuiulian is working to get version 0.5.0 of the MCP adapter out to stabilize the codebase before any further refactoring.

Community & Documentation

  • 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. Asia Resources: @raftaar1191 presented a draft for a Core-AI welcome and resource list for contributors. The team is encouraged to review and provide feedback directly in the document.
  • Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Providers: The group discussed the lack of a prominent “Open Source” model providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). on the initial connector screen. While Local-LLM options like Ollama are in development, they may not be approved by the Plugins team and released in time for the WP 7.0 launch.

Weekly Goals

  • Merge the AI Off Switch into Core for RC1 by tomorrow.
  • Release AI Experiments 0.6.0 featuring Image Editing.
  • Publish PHPMCP Schema to Packagist (needs admin assistance).
  • Gather Design Feedback on the AI banner imagery to avoid negative connotations.

Upcoming Meetings

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #meeting