Tag Archives: core-ai

Jeffrey Paul 6:13 pm on 21 January 2026
Tags: , , , core-ai   

What’s new in AI Experiments 0.2.0 (20 JAN 2026)?

AI Experiments 0.2.0 has been released and is available for download! โ€œWhatโ€™s new in AI Experimentsโ€ฆโ€ posts (labeled with the #aiex-release tag) are posted following every AI Experiments release, showcasing new features included in each release.

Weโ€™re pleased to announce the release of AI Experiments v0.2.0, the latest update to the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. 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 powering experimental AI-powered features in WordPress. This release focuses on practical editorial improvements and developer tooling that move the plugin closer to a useful, real-world set of experiments for authors, editors, and developers. Where v0.1.0 introduced the initial framework and the first experiments, v0.2.0 prioritizes deeper user-facing features while continuing to lay the groundwork for what comes next.

Whatโ€™s new in 0.2.0?

AI-powered excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that pluginโ€™s metabox. generation

The most significant user-facing addition in v0.2.0 is AI-powered excerpt generation. This release introduces a dedicated Excerpt Generation experiment, allowing authors to generate concise, neutral excerpts directly from post or page content.

Excerpt model displaying a new Generate excerpt button that when pressed will leverage post content and AI to generate and save an excerpt to the post.

Excerpt generation is a small but meaningful workflow improvement. Excerpts are widely used across archives, feeds, and previews, yet are often skipped or written last. This experiment explores how AI can assist by producing a first draft that is clearly derived from the content and easy for authors to review, edit, or replace as needed.

Block editor sidebar panel showing a new Generate excerpt button next to an empty excerpt.

Abilities Explorer

v0.2.0 also introduces the Abilities Explorer, a new admin screen that surfaces all registered AI Abilities within the plugin. The Explorer provides a clear view into what AI-powered actions are available, how they are defined, and how they are exposed within the system.

A new Abilities Explorer second level menu under Tools in the WordPress Admin that displays available Abilities segmented between those provided by Core or Plugins with the option to view details about them and test the input and output in-browser.

This is a key step in making the Abilities framework more understandable and extensibleExtensible This is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software.. As more abilities are added over time, having an inspectable, centralized view helps developers reason about existing capabilities and how new ones should fit in.

Additional user-facing refinements

Alongside excerpt generation, this release includes several refinements to existing editorial interactions. These changes focus on improving how AI output is presented and reviewed, reinforcing patterns around transparency, user control, and iterative editing rather than one-click replacement.

While these updates are less visible than a new feature, they help establish consistent expectations for how AI-assisted workflows should behave inside WordPress.

Developer-facing improvements

For developers, v0.2.0 continues to mature the Abilities system as a core abstraction within the plugin. Abilities are becoming more clearly defined, easier to register, and more consistent in how they are surfaced across the UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think โ€˜how are they doing thatโ€™ and less about what they are doing..

This release also includes backend groundwork for future experiments, including content summarization and image-related features. While these capabilities are not yet fully exposed, the underlying support helps ensure upcoming experiments can be built in a more predictable and reusable way.

Quality-of-life and tooling updates

v0.2.0 includes a number of smaller improvements across documentation, demo setups, and tooling. These changes improve onboarding, align demos and Playground blueprints with 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/ conventions, and make experiments easier to explore even when AI credentials are not yet configured.

Whatโ€™s next in 0.3.0?

Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for v0.3.0, including:

  • Content Summarization, enabling concise summaries of longer posts and pages
  • Featured Image Generation, exploring AI-assisted image creation tied directly to post content
  • Alt Text Generation, helping improve 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 โ€œdirect accessโ€ (i.e. unassisted) and โ€œindirect accessโ€ meaning compatibility with a personโ€™s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) workflows through contextual image descriptions
  • A refactor of the Abilities Explorer to TypeScript, leveraging DataViews and DataForms for a more consistent and scalable UI
  • A refactor of the Settings experience to similarly adopt @wordpress/build tooling and DataForms, aligning it more closely with modern WordPress admin patterns

Together, these efforts continue to push toward clearer patterns, stronger foundations, and more realistic experiments that can inform future core AI discussions.

Thanks to contributors!

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release, including:

@jamesmorrison, @dkotter, @mindctrl, @swissspidy, @mokhaled, @karmatosed, @nholzmann, @jason_the_adams, @justlevine, @psykro, @jeffpaul, @juanmaguitar, @flixos90, @webdevmattcrom, @zieladam, @huzaifaalmesbah, @mehrazmorshed, @westonruter, @aslamdoctor, @pbearne, and others involved in review, testing, and 226 commits between 0.1.1 and 0.2.0.

Your help and feedback are what make these experiments possible.

Get involved

As always, we welcome feedback, testing, and contributions from the community. Whether you are interested in editor UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think โ€˜what they are doingโ€™ and less about how they do it., APIs, accessibility, performance, or AI ethics and policy, there are many ways to participate.

You can explore the v0.2.0 release today, review open issues and pull requests, and help shape what comes next.

Props to @justlevine for reviewing this post.

#ai-experiments, #aiex-release, #canonical-plugins, #core-ai

James LePage 9:31 pm on 14 January 2026
Tags: , core-ai   

Introducing WP-Bench: A WordPress AI Benchmark

How well do language models actually understand WordPress? To answer this, weโ€™re introducing WP-Bench โ€“ the official WordPress AI benchmark.

WP-Bench evaluates how well AI models understand WordPress development, from coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. APIs and coding standards to 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 architecture and security best practices.

Why WP-Bench Matters

WordPress powers over 40% of the web, yet AI models are typically evaluated on general programming tasks. WP-Bench fills this gap by measuring WordPress-specific capabilities.

Understanding todayโ€™s models. Whether youโ€™re building AI-powered plugins or using coding assistants, knowing which models excel at WordPress helps you make better tooling decisions.

Shaping tomorrowโ€™s models. We want WP-Bench to become a standard benchmark that AI labs use when developing new models. When providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google run pre-release evaluations, we want WordPress performance on their radar โ€“ not as an afterthought. This creates incentive to optimize for the millions of developers and site owners who depend on WordPress.

Building an 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. leaderboard. Weโ€™re working toward a public leaderboard tracking model performance on WordPress tasks. This will provide transparent results for the community, inform how the WordPress project engages with AI providers, and help developers choose the right tools for their projects.

How It Works

WP-Bench measures AI capabilities across two dimensions:

  • Knowledge โ€“ Multiple-choice questions testing WordPress concepts, APIs, hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., security patterns, and coding standards, with an emphasis on modern additions like 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. and Interactivity 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..
  • Execution โ€“ Code generation tasks graded by a real WordPress runtime with static analysis and runtime assertions.

The benchmark uses WordPress itself as the grader, running generated code in a sandboxed environment. This ensures we measure both theoretical understanding and practical abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. to produce working, standards-compliant code.

Current State & Known Limitations

WP-Bench is an early release, and weโ€™re being transparent about where it needs work:

  • Dataset size โ€“ The current test suite is relatively small. We need more test cases across WordPress APIs and patterns to make this a comprehensive benchmark.
  • Version coverage โ€“ The benchmark currently skews toward WordPress 6.9 features like the Abilities API and Interactivity API. This is partly intentional (newer APIs are where models genuinely struggle) but also creates a bias since these features post-date most modelsโ€™ training data. We need more coverage of established WordPress patterns to create a balanced evaluation.
  • Benchmark saturation โ€“ Early testing showed models scoring very high on older WordPress concepts, which means those questions arenโ€™t providing strong signal. The challenge is finding problems that are genuinely difficult, not just new.

These limitations are exactly why weโ€™re releasing now rather than waiting. We know that the WordPress community is uniquely positioned to help build a robust, representative benchmark.

Quick Start

# Install
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ./python

# Start the WordPress runtime
cd runtime && npm install && npm start

# Run the benchmark
cd .. && wp-bench run --config wp-bench.example.yaml

Configure your model providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). API keys in a .env file, and results are written to output/results.json. The harness supports running multiple models in a single pass for easy comparison.

Supporting the AI Building Blocks

WP-Bench complements the other AI Building Blocks for WordPress by measuring how well AI models work with WordPress. As we build out the Abilities API, 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., and other infrastructure, a standardized benchmark helps ensure these tools integrate with the best available models.

Get Involved

WP-Bench needs your help. The benchmark is only as good as its test cases, and the WordPress community has decades of collective knowledge about what makes WordPress development challenging.

Ways to contribute:

  • Add test cases โ€“ Know a tricky WordPress pattern that trips up developers? It probably trips up AI too. We need coverage across more APIs, hooks, and real-world scenarios.
  • Run benchmarks โ€“ Test models youโ€™re using and share your findings.
  • Improve grading logic โ€“ Help make the evaluation more rigorous.
  • Submit results โ€“ Contribute to the public leaderboard.

If you work at an AI lab, weโ€™d love to collaborate on integrating WP-Bench into your evaluation pipeline.

Resources:

Our goal is for WP-Bench to become the standard evaluation AI providers use when releasing new models โ€“ creating a virtuous cycle where WordPress performance improves with each generation. Join us in #core-ai to discuss, share results, and help shape the future of AI in WordPress.

Props to @jason_the_adams for leading development on WP-Bench.

#ai-building-blocks, #core-ai

Jeffrey Paul 2:56 am on 13 January 2026
Tags: core-ai,   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 7 January 2026

The formerly named โ€œCoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-AI Contributor Check-inโ€ from 2025 reconvened today as the โ€œAI Contributor weekly meetingโ€ in 2026 as a weekly video chat for contributors to discuss progress and milestones across the projects maintained by the WordPress AI team. Folks are welcome to join on Wednesdayโ€™s at 1700 UTC via Google Meet with in-meeting notes captured in a Slack Canvas and then paired with Gemini meeting notes to help generate this meeting summary post.

This weekโ€™s discussion focused on unblocking near-term work and clarifying priorities as the group looks ahead to WordPress 7.0 by identifying work that can continue to move forward now, while acknowledging areas that may temporarily slow down.

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. status and upcoming release

A significant portion of the meeting centered on the AI Experiments plugin and the path to a v0.2.0 release later this month:

For the Abilities Explorer feature, the group aligned on prioritizing a solid V1 for the upcoming release rather than blocking on UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think โ€˜how are they doing thatโ€™ and less about what they are doing. improvements like converting to Data Views. @jeffpaul suggested exploring the Data Views update as a follow-up PR, though @justlevine shared interest in potentially making those updates during his updates to the PR.

Roadmap visibility and communication

@jeffpaul raised the idea of moving the AI Experiments roadmap out of a static markdown file and instead relying on the project board as the primary source of truth, linking to it from the README. @karmatosed suggested pairing upcoming releases with blog posts and reopening regular Make/AI publishing for the year to support ongoing education and awareness of the teamโ€™s work.

There was shared agreement that clearer communication and consistent outreach are needed, both to gather feedback and to help the broader community better understand what the AI team is building and why.

Feedback, outreach, and community engagement

@isotropic clarified that several of his open PRs are exploratory and intended to spark discussion rather than represent finalized features. The group agreed to shift away from active code review and testing on those PRs and towards confirming the feature is desired in the 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 and whether the UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think โ€˜what they are doingโ€™ and less about how they do it. and technical implementation are aligned with team expectations.

Ideas for broader engagement included:

  • Publishing a Make/AI post with screenshots or short screencasts to invite community feedback on @isotropicโ€˜s exploratory concepts.
  • Exploring formats like Hallway Hangouts to surface what contributors are working on and where help might be useful.

@jeffpaul will coordinate the follow-up Make/AI post for the broader AI team to continue these conversations.

Core inclusion and WordPress 7.0 considerations

@justlevine asked about the WordPress 7.0 BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 timeline, noting that decisions around core inclusion will need to be made ahead of that milestone. While the exact date is still TBD while the release squad gets assembled, the group acknowledged that it is likely approaching quickly with February 19th as the currently targeted date.

Key points discussed:

  • The need to prioritize versionless deprecation in Abilities to maintain forward compatibility.
  • Alignment from @isotropic on proposing inclusion of the WP AI client for WordPress 7.0.
  • @jason_the_adams and @flixos90 will coordinate on outlining a formal merge proposal post on Make/Core and and opening the appropriate ticket and PR to prepare for community review.

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. and WordPress AI client updates

@jason_the_adams shared an update on the PHP AI client v0.4.0, which includes:

  • Event dispatching support for actions and filters.
  • A full rewrite of the Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI providers using the latest APIs.
  • Plans to extract providers into separate repositories and plugins for 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/ distribution.
  • An in-progress caching layer.

Local AI providers and future exploration

@raftaar1191 asked about support for local AI providers such as Ollama. While the PHP and WP AI clients do not currently support browser-based or local providers, @jeffpaul noted that the ClassifAI plugin does and can be used as an example for those service providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). integrations for now. @raftaar1191 expressed interest in experimenting with an Ollama integration and potentially presenting learnings at 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 theyโ€™ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Kolhapur, with some discussion around the UX challenges of local providers on multi-user sites.

Next steps

  • @jeffpaul will review AI Experiments plugin PRs and aim to ship a v0.2.0 point releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. this month.
  • @justlevine will review and help finish the Abilities Explorer PRs and assist with additional code reviews where desired.
  • Contributors will provide feedback on @isotropicโ€™s exploratory PRs over the coming week.
  • @jason_the_adams will review @dkotterโ€™s PRs
  • @jason_the_adams coordinate with @flixos90 on the WP AI client merge proposal.
  • @jeffpaul will publish a Make/AI post to gather broader community feedback and continue the 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/. discussion with the AI team on @isotropic exploratory PRs.

Upcoming meetings

Reminder that all team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Chat Slack discussion is scheduled for 8 January 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 14 January 2026.

Props to @justlevine for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jason Adams 7:58 pm on 4 December 2025
Tags: core-ai   

AI for WordPress Hosts

For AI to succeed in WordPress, it will require the adoption of the WordPress hosting ecosystem. If you work for a hosting company that provides managed hosting for WordPress, then this article is for you. Check out the AI Building Blocks for WordPress post if you need an introduction to the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI efforts.

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

Imagine if WordPress hosting was BYOD (Bring Your Own Database). The host is willing to provide the filesystem and WordPress instance, but for it to really work you need to somehow hook up your own database. Plugins likely each come up with their own way of helping users find and connect a database. At the very least, a significant percentage of the market would be lost. Putting this kind of technical requirement on users to figure out adds significant friction to virtually every non-technical user.

The same problem exists for AI. There are a number of AI plugins for WordPress right now. They all have their own way of helping the user to find an AI provider, generate an 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. key, and copy-paste it in the WordPress settings. To many of this this doesnโ€™t sound too bad, but such 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 authors have shared that this remains the most significant barrier to entry for users.

If AI is to be considered a fundamental component of WordPress, the same way databases are, our project depends onย  hosts taking ownership of this step and including it in their offerings.

Why itโ€™s worth it

This of course means the cost of developing a way to provide AI in hosting as well as the ongoing token cost from AI usage. Itโ€™s not an inconsequential undertaking. But it is worth it, and hereโ€™s why:

The Internet has transformed and is transforming in real time, starting in just the past two years. Offerings like Lovable used to be far too quirky to be usable a couple years ago, and now the prospect of AI building a decent website is real. The reality is that itโ€™s not one WordPress host, one WordPress product, or one WordPress company versus these prolific solutions, itโ€™s all of WordPress. All WordPress ships must rise with the tide of AI, so everyone has a part to play.

This sounds a bit existential, and to an extent it is, but itโ€™s also an incredible opportunity. An AI-powered WordPress has the potential to compete with everyone of these solutions. The reason being the same as to why WordPress powers over 40% of the Internet right now: It grows at the rate of its ecosystemโ€™s innovations. As one of the largest open-source projects in the world, no one can keep up with the multitudes of people making it better every day. Armed with AI, there is a real chance to see WordPressโ€™ market share take yet another major jump. When this happens everyone wins.

Once hosts begin including AI in their hosting, the AI-powered features developed by plugin authors will simply work. No extra user steps, just features that feel like magic and wouldโ€™ve taken a long time to build. Hosts can also make use of things like MCP Servers in WordPress to create site dashboards that are vastly more capable. As plugins improve their AI integrations, much of this is accessible on a hosting level, allowing for host-level features.

Business opportunities

There are a lot of opportunities to differentiate in this new landscape. Many hosts are likely to go the route of providing a Provider as a proxy to someone like Anthropic, taking advantage of purchasing tokens at volume. This, in turn, can allow different hosts to provide varying levels of AI requests within different plans. Wanting more AI requests can mean upselling to a higher plan or purchasing an AI add-on. Others may explore usage-based billing, instead.

Another opportunity is to explore how developers can be provided with access to the hosted AI Provider to test their plugins on hostsโ€™ specific systems. This ensures that the AI-powered features within plugins work optimally on hostsโ€™ systems.

With this, some hosts may decide to experiment with an in-house model to tentatively drive down costs, or simply handle a specific prompt modality (e.g. text-to-text). This can then be used to provide further differential in cost. Others may want to go the more expensive route and try to provide the best output without trying to be the cheapest.

The point being, standing out as a WordPress host that enables incredible AI-powered features, literally just by being on that host, is a significant competitive advantage. This adds a new dimension in standing out.

Registering the hosted provider

AI integration will work through the WP AI Client, which is proposed to go into WordPress 7.0. Connecting your AI model using this is pretty simple. On a high level, itโ€™s the following steps:

  1. Create a Provider, which contains and informs the system of your models
  2. Create one or more Models, including your model capabilities (e.g. can it generate images)
  3. Connect your Model to your Provider
  4. Register your Provider with the AI_Client

Authentication is supported to keep your AI API secured, and there are helpers for Providers/Models that communicate over HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.. If you run into any issues during integration, please make an Issue in the repository or reach out on #core-ai in the Make WordPress channel 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/..

More documentation and examples will be provided over the coming weeks!

Wrapping up

This is an exciting time for WordPress and an exciting opportunity for hosts. For hosts that are the first to bundle AI in their services WordPress will simply have AI-powered features that appear only within those hosts. While most products and SaaS services out there are chasing similar AI features to include in their products and services, WordPress has the opportunity to leapfrog the market and be the first AI-powered CMS.

Props to @annezazu, @jeffpaul, and @isotropic for the pre-publish review!

neillmcshea 2:42 am on 25 October 2025
Tags: , core-ai, ,   

Core-AI Contributor Check-in โ€“ Oct 22nd, 2025

The CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI team celebrated a major milestone this week: the 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. successfully merged into the WordPress 6.9 BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. release. This achievement marks the culmination of intense, last-minute work, and the team recognized the extraordinary effort required to meet the core feature freeze deadline.

With the foundational server-side 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. now in core, the teamโ€™s focus is immediately shifting to the future, specifically managing the client-side (JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a userโ€™s browser. https://www.javascript.com/.) portion of the Abilities API and planning the next phases for the 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.. A major decision surfaced regarding the destination of the client-side code, with a consensus leaning toward moving it into 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ repository to leverage existing infrastructure and streamline future development.

The team is also cleaning up post-merge tasks, including resolving follow-up issues in 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. and starting to define long-term maintenance and communication strategies for the new components now living in the WordPress core.

Key Highlights

๐Ÿš€ Abilities API Shipped in WordPress 6.9 Beta

The server-side implementation of the Abilities API has successfully landed in the core WordPress beta, marking the projectโ€™s most significant milestone to date.

  • Core Integration Complete: The underlying server-side code for registering and retrieving abilities is now part of the WordPress 6.9 beta.
  • Team Recognition: The team gave a huge shout-out to Greg Ziรณล‚kowski for his โ€œunyielding effortsโ€ in finalizing the merge before the code freeze deadline.
  • Post-Merge Cleanup: Several related issues and documentation tasks in the Abilities API repository are being closed or moved, as the source of truth for the API now resides in the core WordPress develop repository.

๐Ÿ’ป Client-Side Abilities and Future Development

The front-end portion of the Abilities API did not make the 6.9 beta deadline, prompting a major strategic discussion on its future home.

  • Client-Side Deferred: The JavaScript client-side code for abilities did not ship with 6.9, primarily due to the tight deadline and complexity, confirming that none of the client-side registration made it into the beta.
  • Strategic Move to Gutenberg: There is a strong consensus among the team and core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org. to move the client-side code to the Gutenberg repository.
    • Reasoning: This location offers the best โ€œtesting groundโ€ and development environment, simplifying integration with the BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor and command palette, and aligns with the strategy of centralizing JavaScript development.
  • Repo Fate: The long-term plan is to archive the original Abilities API repository once the feature stabilizes in core, officially making the WordPress develop repository the source of truth for the server-side API.
  • Maintaining Compatibility: The team will continue to explore methods (like Composer packages) to ship polyfills for WordPress 6.8 and older, ensuring continuity for developers who need to support previous versions.

๐Ÿงช AI Experiments Plugin Progress

Development is continuing on the 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 designed to host experimental AI features.

  • Unblocking Contributors: The team is focused on merging final scaffolding PRs to unblock more contributors who are eager to start building experimental features.
  • Design North Star: A preliminary design discussion considered using a card format for enabling/disabling features (similar to the Add Plugin screen) to provide a familiar user interface.
  • Prioritizing Credentials: The most immediate need is the basic service providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). settings screen to allow users to enter API credentials and start experimenting.
  • Design Contribution: Product design work and mockups are being pulled from Fueled resources to initiate discussions and provide a conceptual starting point, inviting broader community feedback on the Needs Design tasks.

๐Ÿ“ฆ 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 and MCP Adapter Milestones

Work is progressing on the core developer tools that power the AI features.

  • PHP AI Client (0.2) Released: The core PHP client SDK had its 0.2 version released.
  • Native API Support De-prioritized: Work to use native provider APIs (e.g., for Google Gemini) was deemed not urgent, as the current OpenAI-centric API format is sufficient for initial experimentation.
  • MCP Adapter Major Merge: The significant Major Refactor PR (#48) in the MCP Adapter has been merged, though the resulting codebase requires immediate follow-up testing and small fixes before it can be tagged as version 0.3.
  • MCP Follow-up: Ovidiu Galatan is currently tackling several small, technical follow-up issues stemming from the large merge, with a plan to prioritize and organize them for community pickup before he goes on vacation.

๐Ÿš€ Testing and Next Steps

The team emphasized the need for immediate, widespread testing to flush out bugs during the beta phase.

  • External Testing Commitment: David Levine plans to actively engage external parties, including the Elementor team, for migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. and testing next week to provide a crucial influx of real-world feedback.
  • Real-World Validation: The successful independent integration of 11 abilities into the GatherPress plugin provides valuable evidence of the APIโ€™s immediate utility.
  • Process Documentation: The current process of moving features from a feature repository into core is noted as a necessary step, and the team plans to document this handover process to create a clear path for future feature incubation.

#check-in, #core-ai, #meeting, #summary

Jonathan Bossenger 9:46 am on 21 October 2025
Tags: core-ai, ,   

AI Chat Summary โ€“ 16 October 2025

Location: #core-ai Slack Channelย 

The bi-weekly CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI meeting was held on October 16th, 2025:

  • 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. Progress and Inclusion in WordPress 6.9
    • @isotropic and @jason_the_adams led a discussion focused on the urgent need to finalize the Abilities API for inclusion in the upcoming WordPress 6.9 betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. release, scheduled for the following week.
  • Abilities API HooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. and Extensibility
    • @jason_the_adams raised a discussion around the hooks needed to maintain an Abilities API 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 that can provide more bleeding edge features between core releases. @justlevine and @jason_the_adams agreed the current MVPMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia hooks, like the *_args 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. and unshaped metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress., should allow for experimentation and future improvements.
  • Abilities API Categories and Filtering
    • @isotropic discussed the need for robust filtering of abilities, particularly for AI agents, but the group concluded the current categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. and meta system provides sufficient flexibility for now, with the responsibility of filtering abilities falling more on systems like 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. rather than the core Abilities API.
  • Abilities API and AI Experiments
    • @isotropic and @justlevine highlighted the need for abilities to support AI use cases, such as handling dates and inserting blocks, and encouraged @jmarx75 to create issues in the AI Experiments repo to propose new abilities. The group agreed these could start in experiments before potentially flowing into core.
  • Abilities API Documentation and Terminology
    • @karmatosed suggested adding a terms/glossary section to the Abilities API handbook to help provide clarity, and @justlevine referenced Tanstackโ€™s โ€œPhilosophyโ€ approach as a potential model for documenting the projectโ€™s beliefs and principles.

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary

neillmcshea 2:49 pm on 16 October 2025
Tags: core-ai, ,   

Core-AI Contributor Check-in โ€“ Oct 16th, 2025

This weekโ€™s meeting was characterized by an urgent focus on hitting the Friday milestone for the 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. to ensure inclusion in the upcoming WordPress 6.9 betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. release (scheduled for the following week). The team quickly made a decision to formally extend the internal milestone deadline to Friday to allow time for critical reviews and merges.

The discussion revolved around which in-progress features (like categories, coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. abilities, and filtering) could realistically be finalized without introducing complexity or technical debt. The team prioritized confirming that the core functionalityโ€”registering and retrieving abilitiesโ€”was done, while tabling or deferring more complex โ€œicing on the cakeโ€ features like filtering. Jason Adams was tasked with raising an immediate decision point to leadership on whether to pull an in-progress feature if it could not be finalized quickly.

Finally, the team received exciting external validation as Jeff Marx shared that he had successfully implemented 11 abilities using the Abilities API in the GatherPress 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, demonstrating the 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.โ€™s readiness for real-world plugin development.

Key Highlights

๐Ÿ—“๏ธ Abilities API Deadline and Scope

The team established a firm internal deadline to complete all necessary work for the Abilities API to make it into the core WordPress 6.9 beta.

  • Milestone Reset: The internal milestone deadline was formally moved from Thursday to Friday to allow critical work to be completed without unnecessary panic.
  • Core Deadline: The target for core integration is tied to the WordPress 6.9 Beta 1 release, which is scheduled for the beginning of the following week (the 21st).
  • Core Functionality Complete: The essential goal for 6.9โ€”the abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. to register and retrieve abilitiesโ€”is already complete.
  • Focus on Core, Defer โ€œIcingโ€: The team prioritized shipping the core API and deferring optional features like filtering to avoid introducing complexity or missing the deadline. Filtering was deemed non-essential, as developers can always retrieve all abilities and 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. them manually.
  • Urgent Decision Point (Cherry on the Cake):
    • An in-progress feature (the โ€œhalf cherry,โ€ likely a complex required field like categories) was noted as partially merged on the 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. side but lacking JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a userโ€™s browser. https://www.javascript.com/./client-side completion.
    • Action: Jason Adams was tasked with getting an immediate decision from core leadership (James and Greg) by end of play the following day (Friday) on whether to pull the unfinished feature entirely or push for its completion by the new deadline.

Abilities API Core Features Status

The team reviewed the status of key features intended for the 6.9 core merge:

  • Categories (Grouping Mechanism):
    • Status: Work is in progress and is now required due to a prior decision.
    • Plan: Ovidiu Galatan committed to completing the implementation and aligning 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. with the required categories today, provided the filtering work is paused.
  • Core Abilities:
    • Status: A draft PR exists but is unlikely to be fully reviewed, approved, and merged in time.
    • Decision: The team decided to defer most initial built-in core abilities (excluding the ability fetching ability) for now to avoid slowing down the overall 6.9 timeline.
  • Filtering:
    • Status: Work is in progress but is highly complex.
    • Decision: The team agreed to pause/punt the formal filtering feature as it is not a blocker for using the Abilities API.

Client and Experiments Update

The focus shifts to completing client tools now that the Abilities API is nearing its core deadline.

  • PHP AI Client (0.2): Jason Adams is finalizing PRs to prepare for the 0.2 release of the PHP client.
    • New Feature: A preferred model feature is being added, allowing developers to provide a prioritized list of models, with the client automatically falling back to the next available model that fits the prompt criteria.
  • WordPress AI Client (0.1): Development will ramp up on the WordPress AI client wrapper (0.1 release) in the coming weeks, especially once Jason Adams shifts to full-time work on the project.
  • Experiments Plugin: Work is continuing on design mockups and product definition for future features (V2/V3). The pluginโ€™s release is not coupled to the WordPress 6.9 release, allowing the team to iterate on it until December 2nd and beyond.

External Validation and Testing

The project received positive external validation for the Abilities API.

  • GatherPress Integration: Jeff Marx reported successfully implementing 11 abilities in the GatherPress plugin over the weekend, demonstrating the APIโ€™s effectiveness for managing events and venues.
  • Actionable Feedback: David Levine offered to review Jeffโ€™s code and potentially create a demo video, ensuring the new code serves as valuable prior art for future API refinement before the 6.9 core deadline.

MCP Adapter Status

Focus is shifting back to the adapter now that Abilities API is nearing completion.

  • Major Refactor PR: The largest outstanding piece of work, Oviโ€™s Major Refactor PR, needs final review.
  • Next Steps: Ovi will align the adapterโ€™s code with the newly required categories from the Abilities API. Once this is done and reviews are complete, the team plans to merge the PR and bump the version to the next major iteration (e.g., 0.3) to move past this stalled point.
  • Issue Cleanup: The team closed an old, ambiguous issue related to version numbering (issue 40) to reduce confusion.

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary

neillmcshea 3:52 am on 9 October 2025
Tags: core-ai, ,   

Core-AI Contributor Check-in โ€“ Oct 8th, 2025

This weekโ€™s meeting focused on updating the team on various component progress, including the 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., 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., and 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./WordPress AI Clients. A major announcement was the deployment of 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. on WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/, marking a significant step in dogfooding the new technology.

The primary discussion points centered on scope and definitions for the Abilities API, particularly what constitutes a required vs. optional parameter, and how to define โ€œmetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress..โ€ The team also had an in-depth conversation about the user experience for AI settings, specifically managing providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). credentials and feature toggles, acknowledging the high friction point this represents for users.

Key Highlights

Announcements & Overall Progress

  • MCP Adapter on WordPress.com: The MCP (Modular Capabilities Package) adapter has been deployedDeploy Launching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors. and is actively being used on WordPress.com, confirming its real-world application.
  • Roadmap Review: Tammie Lister proposed wrapping up the roadmap discussion issue to maintain flow and actionability.
  • Abilities Repo Health: The Abilities Repository has 11 PRs and 1 draft, with five issues in the current milestone, signaling good progress.
  • MCP Repo Structure: Neill McShea and David Levine have scheduled a meeting to clarify and structure the MCP repository information, allowing for more detailed updates in the future.

Abilities API & Scope Management

  • Categories Requirement: The team agreed that a grouping mechanism (like โ€œcategoriesโ€) needs to be a required parameter from the first iteration of the Abilities API.
    • Reasoning: This is crucial for future-proofing, ensuring order in a potential โ€œwild westโ€ of abilities, and allowing for filtering when there are thousands of tools in WordPress.
  • Meta vs. Root-Level Arguments: A long discussion was held to define a clear boundary for placing arguments in the meta object versus at the root level of an abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications..
    • Proposed Definition: Root-level arguments should be for anything required to execute the action (e.g., input/output schema, callback functions). Meta should be for anything descriptive, optional, or speculative/experimental that is not required for execution (e.g., annotations, show in REST, show in MCP).
    • Action: Jason Adams will work on a clear, concrete definition to be documented.
  • Scope Concern: David Levine raised a concern about โ€œscope creepโ€ and โ€œshipping tech debt,โ€ urging the team to confirm that currently planned speculative features (like annotations) are truly necessary for the first release, given that CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. does not easily remove features once they ship.

AI Client Updates

  • PHP AI Client (0.2): Felix Arntz is prioritizing the release of a 0.2 version of the PHP AI Client, with most work already complete and just a few outstanding PRs.
  • WordPress AI Client (Wrapper): The team needs to make a decision on whether the client wrapper should adjust for WordPress coding standardsWordPress Coding Standards The Accessibility, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, etc. coding standards as published in the WordPress Coding Standards Handbook. May also refer to The collection of PHP_CodeSniffer rules (sniffs) used to format and validate PHP code developed for WordPress according to the PHP coding standards. (e.g., snake_case functions and returning WP_Error) instead of strictly adhering to PHPโ€™s best practices (camelCase functions and throwing exceptions).

AI Experiments Plugin

  • Issues and Mockups: Jeff Paul reported new issues opened, aligning with the roadmap, including the need to wrap up product definition and design mockups for future versions (V0.2 and V0.3).
  • Engineering Starts: Engineering work from the Fueled side is scheduled to begin within the next week or so.
  • Abilities Integration: The key question remains: which Abilities API features (those that will land in 6.9) will be exposed and built upon within the AI Experiments plugin?

Basic Admin Setting Screen UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think โ€˜what they are doingโ€™ and less about how they do it.

  • Two Settings Concerns: There are two main concerns for the settings screen: 1) Provider Credentials and 2) Feature Toggles (enabling/disabling specific AI experiments).
  • Centralized Provider Settings: The ideal approach is to have a single, central screen to configure one or more AI providers, which all AI plugins (both Core and third-party) could then leverage. This prevents users from having to enter the same credentials multiple times.
  • Component-Based UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think โ€˜how are they doing thatโ€™ and less about what they are doing.: The team discussed the need for reusable UI components that allow individual feature settings pages to either select a pre-configured provider or offer a graceful flow (e.g., a modal) to add a new one without forcing the user to bounce out to the main settings page.
  • Friction Point: Tammy Lister and Jeff Paul emphasized that provider setup is the highest friction point for user adoption, requiring an emphasis on clear, informative design, especially regarding token usage and potential costs.

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary

neillmcshea 1:29 am on 2 October 2025
Tags: core-ai, ,   

Core-AI Contributor Check-in โ€“ Oct 1st, 2025

High-Level Call Summary

The meeting focused primarily on progressing the 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. and 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. for the upcoming 6.9 release, establishing clear next steps, and making key decisions to keep momentum. A spirit of urgency and a commitment to an iterative, โ€œalphaโ€ approach to early development were evident, particularly for the MCP Adapter, to avoid accruing technical debt and to accelerate testing. Key outcomes included narrowing the scope for abilities included in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. 6.9 (focusing on the 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. itself and a few small, stable tools), agreeing to introduce categories as a required part of abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. registration, and setting a plan to merge the major refactor of the MCP Adapter to enable wider testing. The team also celebrated a key personnel announcement regarding a transition to an AI-related engineering leadership role at Automatic.

Topics and Supporting Highlights

Abilities API Update & Milestones

The team reviewed the status of the Abilities API, which is a key focus for the upcoming release. A strong emphasis was placed on making necessary decisions quickly, with a general consensus that decisions could be made asynchronously due to high engagement.

  • The team is aiming for an optimistic release plan of one milestone, but pessimistically planning for a pre-6.9 and a 6.9 milestone.
  • There are several issues currently without milestones that need to be prioritized.
  • The project has 10 open Pull Requests (PRs), with 3 failing tests and 7 needing approval before they can be shipped or slated for a release.
  • A decision on issue #30 related to tooling over repos was postponed to prioritize 6.9 tasks.
  • Decisions regarding milestones were mostly made asynchronously due to team members jumping in and adding comments.

Abilities API: Core Inclusion & Roadmap

A major discussion point centered on the scope of abilities to include in the core 6.9 release, ultimately favoring a limited approach.

  • The Abilities API itself is the primary achievement for 6.9.
  • The decision was made to ship only one or two very small, stable tools with the core Abilities API in 6.9.
  • Gregโ€™s proposed site info was highlighted as a good candidate for a core ability, as itโ€™s a base unit of WordPress with useful information.
  • The longer list of proposed abilities (Issue #52) will be moved to the Experiments 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 to allow for broader testing and exploration of different implementation approaches (e.g., naming conventions).
  • The roadmap for the Abilities API will be updated and shipped following the decision to limit core tools.

Abilities API: Categories Decision

A critical feature for organizing and exposing abilities to the AI was discussed and agreed upon.

  • The team agreed that categories should be a required part of registering an ability in the API.
  • This feature is necessary for the MCP Adapter to present an โ€œapproachable, discoverable set of abilitiesโ€ to the AI, rather than โ€œthrowing every single abilityโ€ at it.
  • Ovi is committed to owning the Pull Request (PR) to implement categories in both the Abilities API and the MCP Adapter repos.
  • It was clarified that a way to register a categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. separately will be needed since a category must have a description.

MCP Adapter Update and Stability

The discussion around the MCP Adapter focused on accelerating its release and addressing community concerns about the stability of the protocol itself.

  • The major refactor (0.3/third iteration) is considered a โ€œdeveloper versionโ€ or โ€œalphaโ€ and should be merged and released as soon as possible to allow for testing.
  • The team agreed to not worry about technical debt or deprecation warnings at this early, experimental stage, and to simply remove deprecated code in the current PR.
  • The goal is to have the 0.3 version available during the WordPress 6.9 betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. period as the officially linked version in announcement posts.
  • Community concern about MCPโ€™s stability was addressed by reiterating that the adapter approach was specifically chosen to future-proof the Abilities API; if the MCP protocol changes or another standard emerges (like โ€œTypeCPโ€), the Abilities API remains reusable with a new adapter.
  • A plan was made to publish a blog post or strong communication before 6.9 to clarify the adaptive nature of the Abilities API and address these stability concerns.
  • James and (possibly) Jonathan will โ€œtag teamโ€ a post to encourage the 70 Core AI contributors to go test the new adapter release.

Action Items & Next Steps for the Week

This heading focuses on the immediate, assigned tasks and plans discussed to be completed before the next check-in.

  • Ship the MCP Adapter: The primary action is for Ovidiu and James to proceed with merging and releasing the major refactor (0.3) of the MCP Adapter after final review, despite its โ€œalphaโ€ state.
  • Write Testing/Announcement Post: James and Jonathan will collaborate on a post (likely a blog post or 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/. announcement) to encourage testing of the newly released MCP Adapter, setting clear boundaries and opportunities for community engagement.
  • Implement Categories PR: Ovidiu committed to creating the Pull Requests for the Abilities API and the MCP Adapter to implement categories as a required field for registering an ability.
  • Update and Publish Roadmaps: Tammy will finalize updates to the Abilities API roadmap (Issue #83) and the Experiments roadmap based on the decisions made (e.g., scoping the number of core abilities).
  • Check on Built-in Abilities: James will confirm with Greg (or another team member) the creation of the two basic, built-in abilities for 6.9 core (e.g., site info).

Contribution & Workflow Reminders

This section pulls out a specific process reminder about crediting contributors and mentions general developer exploration.

  • Co-Author Credit for PRs: Jeff reminded the team to be mindful of using the generated co-author-by text on PR comments when merging commits to ensure proper, liberal credit is given to all contributors (filtering out simple โ€œ+1, great ideaโ€ comments).
  • Modular Architecture Focus: A general architectural desire was restated to keep all features modular to easily pull features in and out, avoiding complex dependencies.
  • Future Ability Exploration: James noted an interest in doing personal exploration (not assigned work) using tools like GPT-5 Pro to test various ability naming conventions (e.g., verb naming) to see which is most effective for different AI models.
  • Potential for Non-AI Adapters: The idea was briefly resurfaced that the Abilities API could potentially be used to create adapters for non-AI contexts, like a command line (CLICLI Command Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress.) or REST interface, providing โ€œfreeโ€ functionality for simple plugins.

Contribution & Workflow Reminders

The team addressed internal best practices and forward-looking architectural ideas, focusing on how contributions are credited and the potential future uses of the Abilities API structure.

  • Potential for Non-AI Adapters: The idea was briefly resurfaced that the Abilities API could potentially be used to create adapters for non-AI contexts, like a command line (CLI) or REST interface, providing โ€œfreeโ€ functionality for simple plugins.
  • Future Ability Exploration: James noted an interest in doing personal exploration (not assigned work) using tools like GPT-5 Pro to test various ability naming conventions (e.g., verb naming) to see which is most effective for different AI models.
  • Co-Author Credit for PRs: Jeff reminded the team to be mindful of using the generated co-author-by text on PR comments when merging commits to ensure proper, liberal credit is given to all contributors (filtering out simple โ€œ+1, great ideaโ€ comments).

Community Feedback & Strategic Communication

Proactive communication is planned to address community concerns regarding technical decisions and highlight the strategic approach being taken.

  • Plan Proactive Announcement: A commitment was made to publish a clear, strategic announcement (likely a blog post before 6.9) to explain the decoupled adapter architecture and celebrate its future-proofing advantage.
  • Defend the Adapter Approach: The response emphasizes that the Abilities APIโ€™s decoupled adapter architecture is the precise solution to community questions about the stability of the MCP protocol, allowing the core to remain stable regardless of external protocol changes.
  • Address MCP Stability Concerns: The team acknowledged the recurring community question about the stability of the MCP protocol and the risk of it being superseded by a better standard.

Action Items & Next Steps for the Week

The team established a short list of immediate, assigned tasks to be completed to maintain momentum toward the 6.9 release.

  • Check on Built-in Abilities: James will confirm with Greg (or another team member) the creation of the two basic, built-in abilities for 6.9 core (e.g., site info).
  • Update and Publish Roadmaps: Tammy will finalize updates to the Abilities API roadmap (Issue #83) and the Experiments roadmap based on the decisions made (e.g., scoping the number of core abilities).
  • Implement Categories PR: Ovidiu committed to creating the Pull Requests for the Abilities API and the MCP Adapter to implement categories as a required field for registering an ability.
  • Write Testing/Announcement Post: James and Jonathan will collaborate on a post (likely a blog post or Slack announcement) to encourage testing of the newly released MCP Adapter, setting clear boundaries and opportunities for community engagement.
  • Ship the MCP Adapter: The primary action is for Ovidiu and James to proceed with merging and releasing the major refactor (0.3) of the MCP Adapter after final review, despite its โ€œalphaโ€ state.

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary

Jonathan Bossenger 6:47 am on 26 September 2025
Tags: core-ai, ,   

AI Chat Summary โ€“ 18 September 2025

Location: #core-ai Slack Channelย 

Agenda: No formal agenda this week

The bi-weekly CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI meeting was held on September 18th, 2025:

Key discussion points:

  • WordPress 6.9 BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1: A reminder that the beta is scheduled for October 21st and when the first iteration of the 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. will be merged into core.
  • Changing Package Type: @justlevine raised a topic about changing the package type of the Abilities API from a library to wordpress-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. @isotropic agreed to the change as it doesnโ€™t impact existing plugins. However, he suggests itโ€™s important to note in the docs and messaging that this is going core, and not intended to be a plugin. Currently the suggested way to use this pre 6.9 is using Composer to install it into the vendor directory. A good example of this is how WooCommerce has done it.
  • Composer Package Expectations: The team wants to define what they expect from a Composer package to align with architectural decisions.
  • Client-Side Abilities in 6.9: @isotropic expressed interest in including the client-side abilities in WordPress 6.9, noting that the relevant PRs are in a good state. However, the method of inclusion and the specific abilities to ship need to be determined.
  • Number of Abilities in Core: There was a consensus to include a minimal number of โ€œsparklyโ€ (i.e., impactful) abilities in 6.9, with the option to add more later. @flixos90 cited the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think โ€œphone appโ€ or โ€œwebsiteโ€) can communicate with the data store (think โ€œdatabaseโ€ or โ€œfile systemโ€) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. as an example of an 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. shipped with few initial endpoints that were later expanded.
  • โ€œDiscover Abilitiesโ€ as a First AbilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications.: @justlevine suggested making โ€œdiscovering abilitiesโ€ the first ability, referencing ChatGPTโ€™s initial connector specification.
  • 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. 0.2.0 Release: @psykro requested a 0.2.0 version of the MCP adapter, as only 0.1.0 is currently available on Packagist. This would allow for easier access to the latest code for demos. @ovidiu-galatan has a large pull request that could be considered for this release, despite its size, to avoid delaying needed functionality.

Decisions and Next Steps:

  • @isotropic and @gziolo will drive the conversation in the issues next week to decide on client inclusion and what abilities will ship in 6.9, aiming for a decision by mid-next week.
  • A release discussion issue will be created to set up a milestone for the MCP adapter 0.2.0 release.

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary