Jonathan Bossenger 10:20 am on 2 June 2026  

WCEU 2026 Core AI Contributor Day

The CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI Team is excited to be part of Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ at WordCamp Europe 2026, taking place June 4, 2026, at ICE Kraków. Whether you’re an engineer, designer, researcher, or just curious about AI, there’s something for you at Contributor Day, and we’re looking forward to meeting you there!

Read on to find out how to prepare and what to expect at the Core AI Team table.

⏰ Important Times

All Times are in Central European Summer Time (CEST)

08.30 – Registration
09.15 – Opening and welcome
10.00 – Contributing to WordPress
12.15 – Group photo
12.30 – Lunch
14.00 – Contributing to WordPress
16.30 – Teams summaries and wrap-up

Remote contributors are welcome to join via the #contributor-day or #core-ai 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/ channels.

Meet the Table Leads

We’re excited to be joined by the following contributors who will be leading the Core AI Team table:

In-Person Table Leads

Additionally, Gajendra Singh (@gajendrasingh) will be joining us as Digital Table Lead, providing remote support for folks on the ground and participating virtually.

Other veteran Core AI contributors and team members will also be dropping by in person and online throughout the day to help out and lend their expertise.

Core AI Team Table Focus

There are many ways to contribute to the Core AI Team depending on your background and comfort level:

  • Testing, QA, and Feedback: With the latest WordPress 7.0 release and v1.0 of the canonical AI plugin, there’s a lot of new and experimental AI-related features to test and provide feedback on.
  • Documentation: Enhance the clarity and comprehensiveness of the AI Team Handbook, project-specific developer docs, and user-facing guidelines, tutorials, and other resources.
  • Good First Issues: There are a number of issues in various Core AI Team repositories and even WordPress Core that are ideal for new contributors to get involved with, and we’ll be sharing links and highlighting some of these throughout the day.

Remember: it’s “Contributor Day”, not “Contribution Day”, and our focus for the day revolves around finding meaningful ways to contribute, and not necessarily landing a specific patch. If you’re working on individual TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. Tickets or 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/ Issues, keep in mind:

  • Work started on Contributor may land in 7.1 or later.
  • That’s normal!
  • 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. is iterative.

We encourage contributors to pick tickets that can make progress in a few focused hours – while remaining flexible in case release-related priorities arise.

Not sure where to start? Talk to a team lead at the table or on Slack and we will help you find the right task.

What the Core AI Team is building

The Core AI Team is dedicated to exploring and coordinating AI projects across the WordPress ecosystem, providing the technical “Building Blocks” needed for users and developers to access, use, and implement powerful AI features:

  • AI Client: Shipped as part of WordPress 7.0, the AI Client provides a standardized APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. for interacting with various AI providers. It wraps the wordpress/php-ai-client Composer library.
  • 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.: Added to WordPress 6.9, the Abilities API provides a standardized ways to register and discover discrete reusable functionality (“abilities”) that can be called reliably across different contexts and environments. While not AI-specific, Abilities are what allow us to reliably build and integrate with AI functionality at breakneck speeds without worrying about underlying implementation details.
  • AI 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.: V1.0 of the canonical AI plugin shipped alongside WordPress 7.0, includes a growing set of AI-powered features and experiments, and is home to the first “official” user-facing AI functionality in WordPress.
  • 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.: A WordPress plugin that allows AI harnesses like Claude and ChatGPT to connect directly to WordPress by translating the Abilities API into a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. MCP Adapter is currently distributed as a Composer library, the plugin will soon be submitted to 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/ for wider use and adoption.
  • WP Bench: A benchmarking framework for evaluating AI performance, quality, and reliability across different providers and use cases within WordPress.
  • Agent Skills: Uses the AGENTS.md specification to provide reusable instructions that AI agents can follow to perform specific tasks.

Prepare at home

To make the most out of Contributor Day, it’s essential to come prepared.

Downloading and installing software takes time, and between spotty wifi and the rush of trying to get set up quickly can lead to missing steps and lots of frustration. While the specific tools you’ll need will depend on the area you want to contribute to, here are some general recommendations:

Local WordPress Environment

  • For testing of core WordPress 7.0 features, or the latest versions of the AI plugin or the MCP Adapter, any local WordPress environment with the latest version of WordPress will work, such as:
  • For code contributions or testing PRs and patches, you’ll need to set up Docker or a local environment with the following:
    • Node.js / npm
    • Composer
    • A working local installLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer.
    • Python 3.10+ and pip (for WP Bench)

AI ProviderProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI).

The AI features in WordPress 7.0 require an AI Provider to be connected in order to work, and you may use the Connector plugin of your choice to connect to a cloud or local AI Provider.

Free Provider API Keys

It’s best to be prepared for the likelihood of spotty or even no wifi. Even if you are planning to use a cloud provider, we recommend setting up a local provider as a fallback option:

Helpful Resources

👀 Looking Ahead

WCEU Contributor Days are always special, and this year is no different. While the foundational AI features are now merged into WordPress core, there’s still lots to do. From testing and building out new AI features, to improving the tooling around how WordPress consumes and interacts with AI. Your contributions help the millions of WordPress users, builders, and developers around the world make the most of AI for their WordPress sites.

Interested in Contributor Day but unsure if Core AI is the right fit for you? Check out Make WordPress’s Find Your Team tool to discover other opportunities.

Props to @gajendrasingh and @justlevine for helping write this post, and @gziolo and @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.