Tag Archives: summary

Jeffrey Paul 4:43 pm on 10 July 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 8 July 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on WordPress 7.1 release readiness, 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/index.php AI Client embeddings and streaming PRs, the near-term scope 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., developer education, and WCUS AI team booth planning.

WordPress 7.1 release scope

With WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 approaching, the team discussed the need to be cautious about anything still targeted for the release. Because the 7.1 cycle is shorter than usual, contributors agreed that work should only proceed if there is strong confidence in the implementation, review status, and testing. This applies especially to embeddings, streaming, and abilities-related work.

DECISION: If work targeted for WordPress 7.1 is still not ready by next Tuesday, July 14th, then the team should go “pencils down” and defer it to WordPress 7.2 rather than forcing uncertain work into the 7.1 release.

PHP AI Client

The team reviewed current progress on the embeddings PR. The implementation is working from a code perspective, but needs additional review and testing before it can be considered ready for WordPress 7.1.

Testing remains difficult because embeddings require several pieces to work together:

  • Embeddings support in the PHP AI Client
  • A providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). 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. with embedding support (e.g. OpenAI, Google, Ollama)
  • A WordPress-side implementation that uses the client and provider together (e.g. native vector search)

A small proof of concept in the AI Plugin was suggested as the best next step to demonstrate that the client, provider branches, and storage layer can work together in practice.

The team also discussed the streaming PR, which is open and needs additional review. Contributors noted that a concise summary for @jason_the_adams would help focus review and reduce the chance that the request gets lost in 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/ notifications.

Abilities API

A significant portion of the meeting focused on the Abilities API and what is appropriate for WordPress 7.1. Contributors discussed whether coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. should include abilities for post, user, and settings management, and how to avoid repeating delays across release cycles. The group also discussed the current shape of create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) abilities, including whether create and update should remain grouped together or be represented as separate primitives.

One key point of agreement was that abilities should be treated as WordPress functional primitives, separate from the transport layers that may expose them. Transport layers such as REST, MCP, command palettes, or other interfaces may consume abilities, but 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. itself should not be designed as if it belongs to only one of those contexts.

The near-term WordPress 7.1 scope discussed in the meeting remains focused on read-oriented abilities rather than broader management capabilities. The group also clarified that there is no plan to quietly refactor the existing 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 “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/ to use abilities. Any future overlap between REST and abilities should be intentional, reviewed, and clearly communicated.

DECISION: Abilities should remain decoupled from transport layers such as REST or MCP.

DECISION: Share feedback about both 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. design overall and potential 7.1 inclusion on the merge proposal.

AI Plugin

The AI plugin continues to serve as the primary place to test and demonstrate AI-related functionality before broader core consideration. Contributors discussed using the plugin as a model implementation for abilities, helping demonstrate how functional primitives can be used in real features and not only as abstract API design.

The group also noted that better examples are needed to help developers understand why abilities are useful. Suggested developer education work includes showing compelling implementations and highlighting how abilities can be orchestrated outside of AI-specific or REST-specific contexts.

WordPress Agent Skills and evaluation

The group briefly discussed the evolution of skills and the need to treat current implementations as iterative rather than final. The eval folder in the agent skills repository was noted as still being a stub. Additional work is needed to determine whether and how it should connect to WordPress benchmarking efforts.

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 AI Team booth

The team reviewed planning for the WCUS AI Team booth. Contributors discussed making the booth volunteer form more casual and approachable so more people feel comfortable signing up. The team also discussed signage, QR codes for documentation, and lightweight booth visuals. @gajendrasingh offered to help with booth visuals and coordination needs.

DECISION: The booth volunteer form should be adjusted to feel more casual and lower-friction for contributors who may be available to help.

Next Steps

  • Review and test the embeddings PR.
  • Identify a small AI Plugin proof of concept that demonstrates embeddings working across the PHP AI Client, provider plugins, and WordPress-side storage.
  • Review and test the streaming PR.
  • Prepare a concise streaming PR summary for @jason_the_adams.
  • Review the Abilities API merge proposal and provide feedback on the discussion thread.
  • Provide feedback on CRUD patterns and ability structure, especially around separating primitive ability definitions from transport-layer exposure.
  • Create or share practical developer examples showing how abilities can be used.
  • Update the WCUS booth signup form to feel more casual and approachable.
  • Continue WCUS booth coordination and visual preparation.
  • Have @webdevmattcrom and @gajendrasingh shadow the next AI Team Office Hours session.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a 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/ Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 9 July 2026. @justlevine to lead, @webdevmattcrom @gajendrasingh to shadow.
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 8 July 2026.

Props to @nikskyverge @justlevinefor pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 3:48 pm on 8 July 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 1 July 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on final preparation 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. merge proposal, 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 planning, 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/index.php AI Client compatibility work, and contributor priorities ahead of WordPress 7.1 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.

WordCamp US AI Team booth

The team reviewed planning for the WordCamp US 2026 AI Team booth.

Contributors who expect to attend WordCamp US and may be available to help at the booth are encouraged to sign up for a shift. Signing up is not a firm commitment, but helps the team understand likely volunteer availability.

@gajendrasingh also volunteered to help remotely with booth preparation and coordination. This includes serving as a liaison with WordCamp US organizers and helping ensure the team provides any needed information, posts, or preparation materials.

DECISION: @gajendrasingh will help coordinate remotely with WordCamp US organizers for AI Team booth preparation.

Abilities API

The Abilities API merge proposal draft is nearing publication on Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. The team discussed how best to share the proposal for pre-publish review after the private preview link was not accessible to all reviewers.

To avoid blocking review, the pre-publish draft will be shared through a Google Doc. After publication, broader proposal feedback should happen in public comments on Make/Core.

The team also noted that @gziolo opened additional, smaller TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. tickets related to 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. flags and categories. Contributors are encouraged to join those discussions, especially around centralizing how ability categories are discussed and represented.

DECISION: Pre-publish review of the Abilities API merge proposal will happen in Google Docs, with broader feedback moving to Make/Core after publication.

DECISION: Feedback on ability renaming should continue in the 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. PRs, with agreed changes backported to WordPress core once settled.

AI Plugin

AI Plugin 1.1.0 was released this week and is in the 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/ plugin directory release process. The plugin also passed 100,000 all-time downloads and is currently at more than 30,000 active installs.

A release announcement post is in progress. Help is welcome with a short demo video or screenshots showing the newest Experiments and updated Settings page.

With WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 approaching, the team noted that near-term contributor focus may shift away from general AI Plugin work and toward the PHP AI Client and Abilities API work needed for the release timeline.

PHP AI Client

The first-pass review of the embeddings PR is complete. A few changes are still needed, but the overall direction looks good. @dkotter and @jeffpaul focused on helping get this merged in and released before shifting to respective updates in AI Client ahead of WP 7.1 Beta 1 deadline on July 15th.

The streaming PR is also open and awaiting feedback.

A significant part of the meeting focused on PHPDoc type handling, static analysis, and PHP version compatibility. The team discussed a PHPStan-related issue where namespaces can be lost when working with stub files, causing downstream type errors in IDEs and static analysis tools.

To address this, contributors discussed using fully qualified class names in PHPDoc types. While this adds some verbosity, the change is autofixable through linting and should improve downstream reliability for projects using the PHP AI Client.

DECISION: Proceed with a PR to enforce fully qualified class names in PHPDoc types, then request review from @flixos90.

The team also discussed a compatibility issue where the PHP AI Client currently depends on behavior available in PHP 7.4.12, while WordPress core still supports PHP 7.4.0. Since bumping the minimum PHP version would diverge from WordPress core support, the preferred fix is to move strict return types into doc blocks where needed.

DECISION: Preserve WordPress core PHP compatibility by moving affected return types into doc blocks instead of bumping the PHP minimum version.

Knowledge

The team noted the current merge proposal around Knowledge, previously referred to as Guidelines.

Contributors were encouraged to provide final feedback soon so the remaining work can move forward. If feedback comes in later, changes can still be adjusted during the WP 7.1 beta period as needed.

Contributor updates

@fellyph shared that work is underway to translate the AI Plugin into Brazilian Portuguese. AI Team announcements are also being shared with the Brazilian WordPress community, where AI-related posts have been getting strong interest.

@intenzi joined the discussion as a newer contributor focused on bug fixes and testing AI-related PRs.

Contributors looking for impactful work over the next two weeks are encouraged to focus on the PHP AI Client and Abilities API work tied to the WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 deadline on July 15th.

Next Steps

  • Review and provide final pre-publish feedback on the Abilities API merge proposal.
  • Join the discussion on the newly opened Abilities API Trac tickets.
  • Continue feedback on ability naming in the AI Plugin PRs.
  • Finish changes needed for the embeddings pull request.
  • Review and test the streaming PR.
  • Create and review the fully qualified class names pull request for PHPDoc types.
  • Update affected PHP AI Client return types to preserve PHP 7.4.0 compatibility.
  • Help with screenshots or a short demo video for the AI Plugin 1.1.0 release announcement.
  • Sign up to help with the WordCamp US AI Team booth if you may be attending.
  • Provide final feedback on the Knowledge merge proposal.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a 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/ Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 9 July 2026
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 8 July 2026.

Props to @justlevine for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 4:17 pm on 25 June 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 24 June 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on progress across the 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., 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., 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/index.php AI Client, 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., Connectors, and documentation efforts ahead of the WordPress 7.1 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 milestoned for July 15th.

Abilities API

The team reviewed ongoing work around content management abilities and broader abilities development.

Discussion focused on the importance of testing new abilities within the AI Plugin before considering any future coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. integration. Contributors highlighted the need to validate 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. design, discoverability, usability, and long-term compatibility through real-world usage and feedback.

@ovidiu-galatan also shared work [1, 2] on a large-scale abilities testing environment designed to explore how abilities behave at significantly larger scales, including challenges around discoverability and context window limitations.

DECISION: New AI abilities should be developed and tested within the AI Plugin before consideration for WordPress core.

AI Plugin

The team reviewed upcoming work planned for the next AI Plugin release and reiterated the plugin’s role as an experimental environment for AI-related functionality.

Contributors aligned on the idea that new abilities should be developed and tested within the AI Plugin rather than targeting WordPress core directly. The plugin provides a safe environment for experimentation, iteration, and gathering community feedback before long-term decisions are made.

The team also clarified that the AI Plugin itself is not intended to become part of WordPress core. Instead, individual concepts or features may eventually mature and graduate into core when appropriate.

DECISION: The AI Plugin serves as an experimental incubator for AI-related functionality and is not itself intended to become part of WordPress core.

MCP Adapter

Discussion covered the relationship between abilities and the MCP Adapter.

Contributors clarified that the MCP Adapter serves primarily as a transport layer for abilities, while MCP-specific functionality remains within the adapter itself. Ongoing work is exploring opportunities to refine how MCP-specific capabilities are represented and exposed.

The team also noted that help is welcome as work continues toward polishing the MCP Adapter for a future 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/ plugin release.

PHP AI Client

A significant portion of the meeting focused on the PHP AI Client and WordPress AI Client.

To support WordPress 7.1 timelines, attention is shifting toward foundational capabilities needed by downstream projects, particularly embedding support. Work in this area is expected to enable future connector enhancements and model capability declarations.

The team also reviewed ongoing streaming support work. Contributors discussed API design considerations, implementation approaches, and alignment with PHP Standards Recommendations (PSRs), with additional review and feedback encouraged on the PR.

Connectors

The team discussed ongoing connector development work, including a proposed field registration capability for the connector 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..

Contributors agreed that 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/ remains the appropriate repository for connector-related pull requests while broader ownership and maintenance questions continue to be explored.

DECISION: Gutenberg remains the primary repository for connector-related pull requests.

Documentation

Documentation was a major topic of discussion this week.

Contributors discussed the need for clearer guidance around the lifecycle of experimental features and how projects move from experimentation toward broader adoption. As part of that effort, plans were discussed to expand existing documentation into handbook content that better explains the experimentation process.

The team also reviewed opportunities to improve discoverability of AI-related documentation by organizing content under a dedicated AI categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. and refining existing documentation resources.

Next Steps

  • Continue review and testing of content management abilities.
  • Prepare and ship the next AI Plugin release.
  • Advance embedding support within the PHP AI Client and WordPress AI Client ahead of WordPress 7.1 Beta 1.
  • Continue review of streaming support implementation and API design.
  • Refine MCP Adapter functionality and prepare for a future WordPress.org release.
  • Improve AI documentation organization and handbook coverage.
  • Implement the new 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/ workflow for weekly agenda collection and meeting preparation.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a Slack Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 25 June 2026 << @jeffpaul @justlevine to co-lead, @webdevmattcrom to shadow on coordination.
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 1 July 2026.

Props to @justlevine for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 8:43 pm on 24 June 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 17 June 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on upcoming 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. releases, 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 planning, team collaboration processes, AI Client roadmap items for WordPress 7.1, and the team’s broader vision for human-centered AI experiences in WordPress.

AI Plugin 1.0.2 Released

Version 1.0.2 of the AI plugin has been released and includes general improvements and security fixes. Contributors are encouraged to help test and review two key areas targeted for the upcoming 1.1.0 release planned for end of June:

WordCamp US AI Booth Planning

The team discussed goals, positioning, and logistics for the AI Team’s presence at WordCamp US.

Key themes included:

  • Creating an approachable “help center” experience for attendees.
  • Providing a place where contributors and users can ask questions about AI in WordPress.
  • Gathering feedback about how people are using AI and where they see opportunities for WordPress.
  • Creating opportunities for attendees to learn practical workflows and share knowledge with others.

The group aligned around a more conversational, human-centered environment rather than a traditional demo or support booth. Ideas included a lounge or campfire-style atmosphere focused on discussion, learning, and discovery.

@justlevine will coordinate logistics and publish a volunteer sign-up form and draft announcement post.

DECISION: The team aligned on pursuing a more conversational, human-centered booth environment rather than a traditional exhibition booth, with an emphasis on one-on-one interactions and community feedback.

Human Skills Repository

@neel33 highlighted continued progress on the Human Skills Repository initiative and encouraged contributors to participate.

The repository aims to improve visibility into contributor skills and interests, helping the team identify people who can assist with specific initiatives and making collaboration easier across the project.

Team Collaboration and Project Tracking

The team discussed challenges with tracking work that spans multiple repositories and non-code initiatives such as documentation, WordCamp planning, and roadmap efforts.

After discussing several options, the group aligned on exploring 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 as the primary mechanism for coordinating work across repositories and initiatives.

The discussion also covered opportunities to automate team updates and recurring summaries using tooling that can aggregate activity from GitHub and 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/.

DECISION: The team agreed to explore GitHub Projects as the primary tool for tracking and coordinating work that spans repositories and non-code initiatives.

AI Client and WordPress 7.1

@jason_the_adams provided an update on AI Client work planned for WordPress 7.1.

Current priorities include:

  • Stability improvements and fixes.
  • Embedding support.
  • Evaluation of streaming support as an experimental feature.

The team discussed the importance of clearly distinguishing experimental functionality from production-ready features and maintaining predictable release schedules.

DECISION: The group agreed that streaming support is worth pursuing as an experimental capability for the AI Client, provided it remains appropriately gated and does not create release risk.

Human-Centered AI Vision

A significant portion of the meeting focused on the team’s evolving philosophy around AI in WordPress.

Discussion topics included:

  • Empowering people rather than replacing them.
  • Helping users navigate uncertainty and concerns about AI adoption.
  • Ensuring AI features remain approachable and understandable.
  • Creating experiences that feel intuitive and useful without requiring users to become AI experts.
  • Balancing developer-focused building blocks with consumer-facing experiences.

Participants emphasized that WordPress should continue its long-standing mission of empowering people to publish and share ideas while adapting to a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

The discussion also highlighted the importance of maintaining humans in the decision-making loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop and creating tools that augment human capabilities rather than attempting to replace them.

Next Steps

  • Publish a volunteer form and announcement draft for the WordCamp US AI booth.
  • Identify contributors to help lead booth messaging and positioning.
  • Share and promote participation in the Human Skills Repository.
  • Continue evaluating GitHub Projects for team-wide coordination.
  • Complete embedding support work for the AI Client.
  • Investigate streaming support for future AI Client releases.
  • Draft updates covering AI Client plans for WordPress 7.1.
  • Continue refining the team’s human-centered AI vision and messaging.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a Slack Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 25 June 2026
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 24 June 2026.

Props to @justlevine for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

neillmcshea 1:10 am on 12 June 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 10 June 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on confirming maintainership across the team’s repositories, a decision to scope the 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. to 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, a new collaboration with the Docs team on user-facing documentation, takeaways from the 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. Europe 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ retrospective, and the start of an open strategy conversation on WordPress’s posture toward AI.

Repository Maintainership

  • Confirming Maintainers: The team worked through the full repository list to confirm existing maintainers for attribution and identify genuine gaps. @jeffpaul and @dkotter confirmed they are actively maintaining the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. WordPress/ai plugin repository, and @justlevine and @ovidiu-galatan continue to maintain 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..
  • Filling the Gaps: The repositories most in need of maintainers are the AI providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). plugins (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google), 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/index.php AI Client, and php-mcp-schema. @superdav42 volunteered to maintain the three provider plugins, where he has several long-open PRs he’d like to land. @miguellizama recently began work on wp-bench and was confirmed as its maintainer. @neillmcshea will follow up with @ovidiu-galatan on php-mcp-schema, currently a single point of context as a dependency of the MCP adapter.
  • Agent Skills: @mikeyarce and @psykro are taking over as the active maintainers of agent-skills, with @karmatosed joining to help both review incoming skills and drive what skills exist and their quality — two distinct needs @justlevine called out for that repository.
  • PHP AI Client Interim Plan: With @flixos90 focused on Vercel and @jason_the_adams stretched across AI work at Automattic, the PHP AI Client remains the most urgent gap given its path into core within the five-week window to 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. @justlevine offered to triage and streamline open PRs in the interim so a committer only needs to review a single prepared queue.
  • A Contributor Pool Beyond Maintainers: @karmatosed proposed surfacing contributors’ individual skills (product, design, code) so maintainers know who to 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.” for specific needs. @andrei_lupu offered to contribute across repositories below the maintainer commitment level, and @justlevine confirmed rtCamp has green-lit at least three developers — including @thelovekesh — to focus on team work once the gaps are mapped.

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.

  • Slug Fragments & Nested Namespaces: A consensus reached at Contributor Day on nested namespaces has reopened as more contributors weighed in on the ticket. Anyone with opinions on the structure is asked to share them directly on the ticket.
  • New Core Abilities as Experiments: @mamaduka is exploring which new core abilities to introduce, shaping them as plugin experiments first so schema shapes can be validated before shipping to core, while still targeting the tight five-week 7.1 cycle. @dkotter noted a new PR on the AI plugin mirroring the settings 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. PR on wordpress-develop; the group’s working assumption is that 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. schemas land in the plugin first for future-compatibility reasons, with clarification to follow on the ticket.
  • Already in Core: Abilities filtering and the new lifecycle 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. have landed in core trunk. @gziolo is refocusing the next five weeks on guidelines and context work building on what has already shipped.

AI Plugin: Block Editor Support

  • Scoping Statement: Following recurring support requests from users on the classic editor and page builder plugins, @jeffpaul proposed explicitly stating that the AI plugin supports the block editor only. @dkotter confirmed this is already the practical reality, the plugin has never supported the classic editor, and the change formalizes it in the readme.
  • Ecosystem Reasoning: @justlevine endorsed the scope, noting that a canonical plugin defining its boundaries is not limiting so long as the underlying primitives remain available for others to build classic editor or page builder integrations. @jeffpaul noted that limited maintainer time is likely better spent going deeper into the block editor than doubling down on other editing plugins.
  • Decision: With no objections raised, the statement moves forward. Feedback should be directed to the PR updating the readme that @jeffpaul will open.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

  • Documentation & 1.0 Checklist: @gajendrasingh began work on the documentation overhaul last week, with review pending. The remaining checklist toward the adapter’s 1.0 release is tracked in the linked GitHub issue, contributors welcome.

User-Facing Documentation

  • Moving Beyond the Handbook: @estelaris recommended relocating end-user documentation from the AI handbook to the 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/ documentation site, noting the handbook’s developer jargon makes it inaccessible to non-technical users and that bouncing users between corners of WordPress.org adds friction. She offered to open a dedicated area with categories and access for the team, and noted user docs need screenshots — something handbook pages synced from 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/ can’t support. @jeffpaul noted he was unaware of much in the handbook that was non-technical user-facing docs and asked for examples to help figure out where best to shuffle docs around.
  • Contributor Day Origins: The initiative started at WCEU, where @karmatosed and contributors began drafting docs as portable markdown files specifically so they can live wherever serves the project best. Two Contributor Day participants offered to continue facilitating the work asynchronously.
  • A Docs Point Person: @estelaris committed to joining the weekly Wednesday calls going forward as the team’s connection to the Docs team, and is working on a longer-term workflow for keeping the documentation maintained.

WCEU Retrospective

  • Feedback Channels Work: @justlevine reported that a simple “ask me about AI” sign drew a steady stream of conversations, from veteran committers to first-time WordCampers, surfacing both enthusiasm and the kind of concerns the team usually only hears after decisions ship. A full retrospective post is expected by the end of the week.
  • A Core AI Booth at WordCamp US: Building on that experience, the team wants a dedicated Core AI booth at WordCamp US where attendees can ask questions and learn what the team is doing from a WordPress-and-AI perspective rather than a contribution one. @jeffpaul @jason_the_adams @nikmclaughlin expressed interest in helping staff it; @justlevine is following up in the organizer 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/. @karmatosed noted the precedent of 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/ testing booth from phase one, which proved highly effective for exposure and feedback.
  • Skills Were the Big Topic: The most consistent theme on the floor was agent skills, people want to know which skills the team uses, how to refine their own, and about resources like design.md and anti-slop skills they didn’t know existed. @justlevine also collected MCP use cases that challenged his own skepticism about the protocol.
  • Timezone 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): Meeting times and async chats are currently very US-centric. @justlevine is exploring options such as a monthly contributor call in a different timezone or rotating some async sessions to make meaningful contribution easier for the rest of the world.
  • Shared Primitives Across the Ecosystem: A highlight discussion paired Automattic and Elementor contributors on how both ecosystems can build on theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. — a proof point that getting the underlying APIs right serves everyone, and connected to follow-on conversations about content guidelines and design.md.

What Is WordPress’s Posture Toward AI?

With the foundational AI primitives delivered across WordPress 6.9 and 7.0, @jason_the_adams opened the first of a planned series of open strategy discussions on these calls: rather than working through “what’s next” privately, the team will think through observations, implications, and opportunities — community, core, and commercial — together.

  • AI-Empowered Humans: the central question was what stance WordPress takes toward AI in a moment of widespread distrust and fear of replacement. The team should be vocal about empowering people in their work — writers, bloggers, store owners — rather than replacing it, sharing how publishers are now overwhelmed trying to separate AI-generated manuscripts from human work.
  • “AI Enablement” as Framing: @elblakeo31 shared that in communities skeptical of AI — including labor and education contexts — “AI enablement” has replaced “AI literacy” as the term that opens conversations, because it conveys workforce integration and improvement rather than replacement or AGI narratives.
  • Accessibility & Inclusion: @karmatosed highlighted AI’s power as an accessibility tool — sharing how personal skills like “explain this to me how I will understand it” have changed how she navigates work as a dyslexic person — and stressed that empowering humans requires including diverse voices in how these tools are designed, with room for people to engage via voice, text, or skills as suits them.

The conversation clearly outgrew its 15-minute slot. Next week’s call will be restructured to give it more room, and @jason_the_adams will publish a follow-up post expanding on the framing once these notes are up.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a Slack Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 11 June 2026 <– @neillmcshea will kick this one off tomorrow
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 17 June 2026.

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

neillmcshea 2:15 pm on 10 June 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 3 June 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on structural changes to the synchronous meeting format, updates on the WordPress 7.1 timeline, repo maintainership delegation, and a deep architectural analysis regarding content provenance tracking (C2PA) and secure credential isolation.

Announcements & Milestone Timelines

  • WCEU 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ Post: The official handbook and setup guide for the WordCamp Europe Core AI table is live. Special props to @gajendrasingh, @justlevine, @gziolo, @jeffpaul, and @psykro for driving the draft collaboration.
  • WordPress 7.1 Release Roadmap: @jeffpaul highlighted the initial 7.1 cycle milestones, targeting July 15 for 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 and August 19 for the final general release (coinciding with 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). CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. release squad coordination alongside @4thhubbard is underway, with nominations closing next week.
  • 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. Status: Following the 1.0.1 minor 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. last week, active installations saw a sharp post-7.0 spike. To alleviate engineering burnout, the AI plugin development cycle is officially shifting away from a bi-weekly cadence to fixed monthly milestones, with version 1.1.0 targeting late June.

Strategic Pivots & Synchronous Meeting Structure

With the core AI foundational primitives delivered in the 7.0 architecture, the team evaluated how to maximize synchronous call efficiency.

  • Shifting to Forward-Looking Strategy: @jason_the_adams shared that his internal team constraints have stabilized following the conclusion of Automattic’s intensive Rapid Speed Month (“RSM”) prototyping cycle. He proposed returning the weekly sync call to its original mandate; collaborative, rapid-fire decision-making and strategic scoping and will be inviting Jeff Smith, who recently took on the role of Head of Product, AI at Automattic, to these meetings to help with alignment.
  • Asynchronous Status Logs: @jason_the_adams requested to tighten the scope of these weekly calls. General project status updates, task logging, and active ticket walk-throughs could be achieved a little more asynchronously. The synchronous meeting space could be dedicated to big-picture alignment on the future of AI within the open web CMS ecosystem.
  • Ecosystem Enablement: The strategic focus will expand past raw code generation to address structural enablement, such as supporting @4thhubbard‘s newly announced education micro-credential initiatives to train university students on WordPress AI primitives.

Ecosystem Pledges & Metrics Realignment

The team discussed how code contributions are monitored across distributed repositories to ensure the 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. squad accurately structures global pledge scoreboard data on profiles.wordpress.org.

  • Consolidated Repositories: The group finalized the core checklist of canonical repositories that must roll up directly into the Core AI pledge tracking scores:
    • WordPress/ai (Core plugin)
    • WordPress/agent-skills
    • WordPress/php-ai-client
    • WordPress/mcp-adapter & WordPress/php-mcp-schema
    • WordPress/wp-bench
    • Specialized providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). wrappers (ai-provider-for-openai, anthropic, and google)
  • Tracking TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. vs. 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/: Because early architecture, such as the native 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., has graduated into core SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. tracking repositories, @jeffpaul will coordinate with @yaniiliev to clarify how core tracker modifications can coorelate to the AI squad rather than defaulting to general Core team metrics.
  • Repository Lifecycle: WordPress/wp-ai-client has been officially scheduled for archival status.

Content Provenance (C2PA) & Signed Manifests

A significant portion of the meeting evaluated three extensive pull requests submitted by external vendor Encypher regarding content provenance logging.

  • The Signing Authority Bottleneck: The current C2PA technical specification requires an authoritative server to securely sign asset manifests. The team talked through the concept of using 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/ as a centralized signing entity. Acting as a public-facing signer introduces severe liability and endorsement risks if the central platform inadvertently stamps malicious or inappropriate user-generated media assets.
  • Avoiding Vendor Lock-In: Without a built-in decentralized solution, relying on the PRs would turn the core feature into a thinly veiled bridge to a single paid external signature service. @jason_the_adams noted that alternative specifications (such as the newly emerging RealStamp Verify) are shifting the industry landscape and advised sitting on the feature until localized signature approaches mature.
  • Local Origin Logs: Rather than abandoning provenance entirely, @jeffpaul suggested designing a lightweight, decentralized experiment inside the plugin. This alternative track will preserve an internal history loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop within the post revision meta fields, tracking exactly when an asset or piece of content was AI-generated, human-written, or AI-assisted.

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 Encryption Experiments

  • PR Testing Window: The exploratory programmatic encryption PR remains open for evaluation. The implementation handles pure cryptographic backend transactions using get_secret and set_secret variables with no user-interface layer.
  • Merge Philosophy: @justlevine urged the engineering group to merge the current mechanism into the upcoming 1.1.0 plugin lifecycle to capture real-world user configuration feedback. The team noted that the runtime architecture can easily be finessed, isolated, or refactored to an independent encryptor class ahead of the 7.1 core feature freeze in six weeks; though the overall secret management functionality may not make the 7.1 cycle due to it likely needing heavy core committer review and testing.

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/index.php AI Client Maintainership

  • Clearing the Review Backlog: The PHP client repository currently faces a backlog of roughly 15 open PRs detailing essential enhancements like text-to-speech sound generation, native embedding utilities, and core streaming data infrastructure.
  • Unblocking Bureaucracy: @jason_the_adams has coordinated directly with @flixos90 to initiate an intensive review sprint early next week. The team clarified that any contributor with valid commit rights is authorized to push tested improvements to clear the queue for 7.1 development, noting that any planned releases should be blocked until either @jason_the_adams or @flixos90 gives explicit approval.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

  • Documentation Review: @gajendrasingh issued a call for feedback on a comprehensive documentation overhaul intended to streamline setup clarity for the mcp-adapter plugin.
  • Review Bandwidth: Because @justlevine is currently in transit to WordCamp Europe, review passes will be conducted early next week alongside the broader adapter release testing loops.

Next Steps

  • Review, test, and provide technical feedback on the active API Key Encryption PR.
  • Auditing open PHP AI Client PRs ahead of next week’s scheduled review sprint.
  • Leave documentation and structure feedback on 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. documentation branch.
  • Coordinate with @yaniiliev to align repository scoreboards for the canonical AI metrics tracking profile update.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a 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/ Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 4 June 2026.
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 10 June 2026.

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

neillmcshea 2:27 pm on 28 May 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 27 May 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on initial strategy and timelines for the upcoming WordPress 7.1 release cycle, the deployment of a new minor 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. for the 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., and structural maintenance across 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/index.php AI Client and MCP repositories. The group also held an extensive discussion around ecosystem contribution metrics, programmatic encryption experiments, and the standardization of settings fields layout within the Connectors 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. interface.

Announcements & WordPress 7.1 Timeline

  • WordPress 7.0 Feedback: Following the successful launch of WordPress 7.0 last week, active installations and usage of the companion plugin have seen a significant initial increase. The support channels 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/ and 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/ remain stable and manageable.
  • WordPress 7.1 Schedule: @jeffpaul shared a tentative schedule for the 7.1 cycle, targeting July 15 for 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 and August 19 for the final release during 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.
  • Release Squad Nominations: CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. release squad nominations remain open through the end of next week. @jeffpaul is actively reviewing submissions to coordinate the squad selection alongside @4thhubbard. Any critical AI enhancements intended for core must be finalized before the six-week window closes at Beta 1.

WordCamp Europe (WCEU) 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ Preps

  • Documentation Progress: @gajendrasingh has compiled a comprehensive contributor day reference playbook based on data from previous events.
  • In-Person Adjustments: @justlevine noted that while the foundational context is excellent, the documentation should be slightly condensed for in-person attendees. The final prerequisites will be adjusted once the specific target testing sprint items are finalized.
  • Local Onboarding Instructions: Due to notorious local venue Wi-Fi constraints, the table will heavily emphasize local environments. The squad will issue proactive recommendations for contributors to download and configure software dependencies, such as Ollama packages, prior to arriving at the conference.

AI Plugin Releases & Encryption Experiments

  • Release Cadence Shift: A 1.0.1 minor plugin release containing bug fixes and structural polish is scheduled to deployDeploy Launching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors. today. Moving forward, the plugin development cycle will shift from a bi-weekly cadence to monthly milestones, with version 1.1.0 slated for late June and version 1.2.0 targeted for late July.
  • API Key Encryption PR: The group reviewed an experimental PR by @dkotter introducing programmatic key encryption based on background implementation mechanics from @ericmann.
  • Gathering Real-World Feedback: Addressing ecosystem panic regarding plaintext API storage, @justlevine recommended merging the current experiment to gather immediate real-world testing data. The team noted that community feedback typically arrives much faster post-release, and the code can easily be refactored or rolled back to a dedicated encryptor class inside the plugin if needed prior to the 7.1 core freeze.

PHP AI Client Maintenance & Blockers

  • Feature Gaps: Essential feature updates, including streaming data support, sound generation, and native embeddings infrastructure, remain high-priority requirements for the 7.1 cycle.
  • Maintainership Bottlenecks: With @flixos90 stepping back and @jason_the_adams holding elevated structural responsibilities at Automattic, the repositories are facing a deficit in active maintainership.
  • Unblocking Repositories: @jeffpaul clarified that contributors should feel empowered to aggressively test and review PRs within the PHP repository. Merging reviewed work does not trigger a deployment until a release version is formally tagged. If a green button needs to be pressed on a validated community PR, @jeffpaul will assist in sourcing an available committer to ensure development does not stall due to bureaucracy. Team will pause for @jason_the_adams or @flixos90 approval on releases, but otherwise will proceed with merging PRs.

Contributor Pledges & Metric Weights

  • Revamped Profile Scoreboards: The team evaluated an active request from the Meta squad regarding data sets, weighted values, and scoring metrics for individual team pledge scoreboards on profiles.wordpress.org (core example, empty AI page).
  • Beyond Code Contributions: @karmatosed raised a critical flag that the AI team relies heavily on a “Swiss Army knife” contributor model. Metrics that rely purely on trackable GitHub PRs or code commits fail to recognize vital non-dev contributions such as documentation audits, outreach, leading event tables, public presentations, and 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. design workflows.
  • Prior Art Modeling: @justlevine suggested checking in with the Performance team to see how they balanced plugin-to-core code metrics with documentation tracking. @jeffpaul noted that since Core and 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. are the only groups with established metric criteria, the AI team will temporarily mirror Core tracking mechanisms while iterating to account for unique non-code contributor tracks.

Connectors API Settings Fields Registry

  • Custom Metadata Fields: @andrei_lupu created an issue on the Gutenberg repository exploring how individual connector providers can safely register custom metadata fields beyond the standard URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org and API key inputs. This infrastructure is particularly necessary for local or self-hosted configurations like Llama.
  • A Declarative PHP Approach: While custom layouts can technically be injected using heavy ReactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org components, @andrei_lupu argued that the vast majority of WordPress plugin developers need a declarative, server-side PHP registry class to register standard elements (text fields, selectors, radios) without needing a complex 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 user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com build setup.
  • The “Fields API” Forcing Function: The group discussed how the unified Connectors configuration interface has inadvertently become a forcing function for an option fields utility. @justlevineand and @nikmclaughlin noted that building a standard, secure programmatic registry within Connectors provides a safer path toward core settings standardization in 7.1, preventing plugins from dangerously hijacking core interfaces with unvalidated custom scripts.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

  • Bumping Minimum Dependencies: @justlevine confirmed that the ongoing 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. integration is progressing steadily. Later today, the repository will officially merge a PR elevating the minimum environment requirement to WordPress 6.9.
  • Forward-Compatible Pathways: Bumping the requirement allows the adapter to drop older library dependencies and natively rely on static analysis tools and the core 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. framework. The repository remains open for documentation contributions, and a forward-compatible migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. pathway will be provided for legacy library integrations.

Next Steps

  • Deploy today’s minor bug-fix release for the AI plugin.
  • Review, test, and provide technical feedback on the active Encryption PR.
  • Coordinate with @andrei_lupu on the Connectors custom fields registry issue within 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.
  • Finalize and distribute the WCEU Contributor Day preparation checklists for local environments.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Contributors are welcome to join every Wednesday at 1700 UTC via Google Meet. In-meeting notes are captured live in a 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/ Canvas and paired with aggregate transcription data to generate this meeting summary post. All team meeting schedules are published directly to the WordPress Meeting Calendar.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 28 May 2026. Facilitator @jeffpaul.
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 3 June 2026.

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

neillmcshea 5:24 pm on 21 May 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 20 May 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting coincided directly with the landmark launch day of WordPress 7.0. The team focused on tracking the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. release timeline, stabilizing the freshly debuted version 1.0.0 of the 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., resolving high-priority architectural questions 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., and restructuring technical and operational frameworks for the upcoming 7.1 cycle.

Announcements & Timeline

  • WordPress 7.0 Launch: The final core release processing was officially kicked off during the meeting hour. The core trunk development branch is scheduled to reopen immediately following the final deployment to accept early alpha contributions for WordPress 7.1.
  • WordPress 7.1 Release: @jeffpaul noted that a formal call for the 7.1 major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality. squad will likely be published tomorrow on Make/Core.
  • WordPress 7.0.1: to ensure immediate post-launch ecosystem feedback or technical regressions, a 7.0.1 release can be quickly shipped based on feedback seen by the Core team.
  • AI Plugin 1.0.0 Released: The AI experimentation companion plugin successfully hit its 1.0.0 milestone yesterday. The launch was intentionally prioritized a day ahead of WordPress 7.0 to guarantee immediate stability and cross-version compatibility for early adopters interacting with core AI primitives.

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. Europe (WCEU) 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ Planning

The team consolidated logistical and strategic planning across two discussion blocks during the call to finalize their approach for the upcoming Contributor Day:

  • Table Leadership: WordCamp Europe’s Core AI table will be co-led in person by @justlevine and @gziolo, with @gajendrasingh supporting asynchronously as the remote/online table lead. @justlevine confirmed his travel was successfully finalized, with generous corporate sponsorship provided by @rtcamp.
  • Venue Preparation: @karmatosed advised the group to actively anticipate spotty venue Wi-Fi by emphasizing local development environments and offline-ready resources.
  • User Research Orientation: The table will balance codebase contributions with beginner outreach. @karmatosed pointed out that many general attendees register for the AI table out of an interest to learn about or use AI rather than write core 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/index.php. The team intends to use this captive audience for valuable user research to determine what specific AI tools and workflows the broader community actually wants.
  • Low-Barrier Onboarding: @neel33 proposed running a structured 20-minute onboarding workshop at the start of the day. This session will walk non-technical contributors through the exact process of setting up local sandboxes, configuring 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. tokens, testing plugin experiments, and filing clear, actionable bug reports.

Abilities API Evolution

The group reviewed a dedicated list of milestone tickets to close out lingering architecture debates and chart a path forward for core primitives:

  • Supporting Massive Scale (#21): The team discussed the long-term optimization required to safely register, 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 surface hundreds or thousands of concurrent abilities within an active system without introducing database degradation.
    • Action Item: @justlevine will advance this ticket by documenting emerging ecosystem trends and, if necessary, opening an expansive TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket to coordinate broader core developer feedback.
  • Ecosystem Alignment: @justlevine noted that third-party infrastructure has heavily coalesced around the “find tool” layout pattern. Organizing an experimental “find abilities” discovery workflow within the companion plugin is designated as the next technical milestone.
  • Progressive Disclosure: As soon as the pending slug fragments PR safely merges into core trunk for 7.1, the team will begin prototyping multi-layered, complex nested abilities.

AI Plugin Updates & Experiments

Following the successful deployment of version 1.0.0, development focus officially shifts toward polishing experimental features targeted for the upcoming version 1.1.0 lifecycle, scheduled for release on Thursday, June 4.

  • Displaying Additional AI Providers (#27): Discussion centered on defining strict, objective criteria for displaying third-party providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). options on the core Connectors page. @jeffpaul suggested prioritizing free, open-source models that natively map to existing text or image generation primitives within the plugin. @justlevine noted that criteria could also be applied as checklist for how Core might add other default connectors to that screen.
  • Experiment Initialization (#159): The team discussed refactoring how plugin experiments are booted, moving initialization logic away from explicit register() methods toward standard, hook-based init() action routines. Sentiment leaned towards closing out this PR, but agreed for folks to comment on the PR to then decide next step.
  • Programmatic Encryption & Secrets Management (#560): @dkotter highlighted an active exploratory PR reviewing a standalone encryption utility built on prior implementation code from @ericmann (originally drafted from conversation within the core Two-Factor plugin 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/ channel). The utility has zero 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. footprint and focuses strictly on exposing standard backend get_secret and set_secret mechanics to act as a proving ground for pitching a dedicated core Secrets Management API in 7.1.

Content Provenance (C2PA)

  • Preserving Asset Manifests: The group evaluated three open PRs (#294, #302, #459) in the AI repository dealing with asset authenticity metadata. The current logic ensures that when an image containing an active C2PA manifest is uploaded, WordPress preserves the embedded provenance trail rather than silently discarding it during standard attachment optimization routines.
  • Authority Systems: @jason_the_adams and @dkotter are examining the overarching authority structure of the system, seeking to clarify the technical and legal implications if 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/ eventually acts as an official content signing entity for open-source media verification. @jeffpaul previously provided a PDF from @originvault to @isotropic and @jason_the_adams to help guide WPORG in conforming to the C2PA spec.

Operational Clarity & Maintainership

  • Defining Commit Boundaries: @jason_the_adams called for clearer operational boundaries regarding companion repository maintenance. Several primary provider plugins (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) are experiencing review friction and risk stalling without explicitly named maintainers authorized to commit community PRs. @jason_the_adams aims for formalize where Automattic intends to lead/contribute in these areas.
  • Project Prototyping Guardrails: @justlevine advised against launching ancillary side-projects without verifying active support teams first, noting that scattered repositories inadvertently pull focus and resources away from higher-priority core milestones.

Looking Ahead to 7.1 Strategy

  • Landscape Re-survey: @jason_the_adams suggested taking a step back on upcoming calls to re-survey the broader AI space, acknowledging that model behavior and agent frameworks have shifted drastically since the team’s roadmap was first drafted a year ago. @jason_the_adams to disseminate any additional strategic guidance from @matt to the broader Core AI team.
  • Meeting Layout Changes: Future contributor agendas will likely phase out rigid component headings (e.g., separating PHP vs. JS clients) in favor of a consolidated “Existing Work” overview paired with an expanded, open-floor strategy session.
  • Core Streaming Support: Native streaming data support remains the top requested missing feature among early 7.0 testers. Building out deep streaming infrastructure is officially marked as a critical priority for the 7.1 cycle.

Next Steps

  • Track feedback and bug reports following the WordPress 7.0 core launch.
  • Review and leave feedback on the Connectors Visibility criteria ticket (#27).
  • Update documentation and core tickets regarding Abilities structural scale (#21).
  • Conduct code compatibility reviews on the experimental Secret Management encryption PR (#560).

Upcoming Meetings

  • Folks are welcome to join on Wednesday’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. All team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): Wednesday, 27 May 2026.
  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): Thursday, 28 May 2026.

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

neillmcshea 9:34 pm on 13 May 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 13 May 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on the final coordination for the WordPress 7.0 release, the roadmap for the 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. 1.0.0, and a deep dive into security experiments regarding Connector Approvals and Request Logging.

Announcements & Timeline

  • Reviewed the current WP 7.0 timeline and where the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-ai teams work fits in
  • Field Guide: The comprehensive developer field guide is expected to be published alongside RC4. @jeffpaul noted that the content regarding Connectors 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., Abilities, and the AI Client is being finessed for accuracy. Draft, with current edits available here; any and all feedback in the guide ASAP is greatly appreciated!
  • AI Plugin 0.9.0: Has officially shipped: Announcement post
  • AI Plugin 1.0.0: The team is targeting Tuesday, May 19 for the V1 release, strategically launching one day before WordPress 7.0 to provide a stable companion for early adopters.

WordPress 7.0 Field Guide

  • The team reviewed the draft status of the 7.0 Field Guide.
  • Action Item: Contributors are asked to review the draft and lacking that then the published version immediately upon release. If any technical errors are spotted regarding AI implementations, they must be called out quickly for immediate adjustment.

WCEU & 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ Planning

  • Table Leads: The team is seeking a Table Lead for Core AI for 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. Europe – Please 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.” in the #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/ channel if you would like to know more.
  • Leadership Strategy: @karmatosed and @justlevine emphasized the importance of “empowering new blood,” suggesting that experienced contributors like @justlevine (remote) and @swissspidy (local) could pair with and support newer leads rather than just leading the table themselves. @swissspidy confirmed after the meeting, in slack that, he has not yet confirmed if he will be attending.
  • Digital Participation: @justlevine confirmed he will provide digital support for contributors working remotely during the event.

AI Plugin 1.0.0

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to the specific features intended to ship in the V1 release:

Connector Approval Experiment

  • The Problem: Right now, any installed plugin can potentially use the Connectors API and reuse stored AI credentials, which means site owners may not have clear control over which plugins are actually using those keys. The concern is not only general plugin access, but also the newer AI-specific risk: once an LLM can access sensitive data, that data may be sent upstream into model history with little practical privacy boundary.
  • The Proposed Solution: @dkotter adds a Connectors Approval flow that blocks plugin access by default and requires admin approval before a plugin can use a connector. The goal is to create a practical first layer of interference around access to sensitive connector data now, without waiting to solve the entire long-term secrets architecture.
  • @justlevine, commentary: David helped reframe the value of the experiment by distinguishing LLMs from traditional plugin risk. He argued that the immediate problem is not just secret storage, but that LLMs can absorb and pass along context in a non-deterministic way, which makes access control especially important. His view was that the first step does not need to fully solve encryption or the deeper secrets-management layer; it can instead focus on preventing access to the sensitive data that LLM-powered features might otherwise consume. He also reinforced the value of “emergency breaks,” such as the existing constant-based kill switch and approval controls, because they give site owners a way to limit or stop unsafe behavior while the platform matures. Finally, he suggested that Connectors could be positioned as a more robust and safer pattern for registering credentials and related options than traditional settings, which could help drive adoption of this more managed model over time.
  • Security Concerns: @jason_the_adams pushed on the idea of “false security,” pointing out that this does not stop a bad plugin from pulling API credentials directly from the database or otherwise bypassing the approval flow. Others agreed that secret management or encryption on its own would not fully solve that, because WordPress does not yet have a true per-plugin sandbox or permissions layer around secrets. The group aligned that this experiment should be documented carefully so users understand it improves control and creates friction, but does not eliminate the broader platform-level gap.
  • Decision: The group landed on moving forward with the PR as an experiment for 1.0, not as a complete security solution. The reasoning from @jeffpaul was that it is better to start with a clear, limited control mechanism now than to wait for a perfect model, and that this gives the team something concrete to build on for 7.1 work around secrets management, permissions, and safer connector access.

AI Request Logging

  • Database Strategy: The team reached a consensus on using a custom database table for logging rather than post 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., primarily due to enterprise-level performance concerns. This was based on this PR.
  • Data Structure: To prevent bloat, the log will use truncated context. @mikeyarce suggested adding tracking for cached vs. non-cached tokens to assist with cost analysis for providers like Anthropic and OpenAI.

Version Management & Philosophy

  • Versioning: The question was asked if 1.0.0 is meant to imply semver-style stability, or if we are following WordPress-style versioning, where experiments can still change in breaking ways. The group leaned toward dropping strict SemVer expectations and following WordPress-style versioning, with experiments explicitly not guaranteed future compatibility.
  • Compatibility: The group reiterated that features marked as Experiments do not guarantee future compatibility. Users opting into these features should expect potential breaking changes as the team iterates.

Next Steps

  • Review and finalize the WordPress 7.0 Field Guide content tomorrow.
  • Perform final testing on the Connector Approval and Request Logging PRs.
  • Finalize the AI Plugin 1.0.0 release for Tuesday.
  • @justlevine to finalize 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. documentation and plugin scaffolding over the weekend.
  • Formalize the call for WCEU Table Leads in the Slack channel.

Upcoming Meetings

  • AI Team Office Hours (Slack): 14 May 2026. @jeffpaul and @justlevine will facilitate.
  • Weekly AI Contributor Call (Google Meet): 20 May 2026 (WordPress 7.0 Release Day).

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#summary

Jeffrey Paul 4:29 pm on 8 May 2026
Tags: , summary   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 6 May 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on the evolving direction of the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI team, preparation for the WordPress 7.0 release cycle, and an extended discussion around connector approval and 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 security within the 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. ecosystem.

Announcements

  • @jason_the_adams shared high-level conceptual updates following a recent strategy discussion with @isotropic and Matt about the future direction of the Core AI team
  • The team confirmed that the initial foundational AI building blocks for WordPress have largely been delivered, with future work expected to include both technical iteration and broader ecosystem enablement
  • @4thhubbard is expected to take a more active interest in following Core AI team progress and future direction discussions
  • Contributors were reminded that WordPress 7.0 field guide draft reviews and milestone ticket work should be completed by the end of the week where possible

Core AI Team Direction

  • Discussion continued around what comes next for the Core AI team now that many of the original foundational goals have been achieved
  • Topics discussed included continued iteration on the AI plugin and providers, ecosystem education and outreach, AI best practices and guidance, supporting other WordPress contributor teams with AI tooling and workflows, and long-term strategic positioning for AI within WordPress
  • Additional public updates about future direction are expected in the coming weeks

WordPress 7.0 Preparation

  • Contributors reviewed timelines and priorities related to the WordPress 7.0 release cycle
  • Key focus areas included reviewing and improving the draft 7.0 field guide, finalizing AI-related milestone tickets, stabilizing functionality ahead of RC1, and ensuring documentation and developer references are complete
  • The team aims to have remaining milestone work merged before RC1 on May 14 where possible

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

  • Discussion continued around releases for the Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic provider plugins
  • The goal is to ship updated releases prior to WordPress 7.0 in order to include bug fixes, provider updates, and additional compatibility improvements
  • Longer-term maintainership for provider repositories also remains under discussion << if you have interest and availability to help here, please comment on this post!

WP-Bench & Agent Skills

  • The group discussed ongoing maintainership and contribution needs around both WP-Bench and WordPress Agent Skills
  • @jason_the_adams noted continued strategic interest in WP-Bench as a way to encourage providers to improve model performance for WordPress-specific tasks
  • Contributors interested in helping with WP-Bench were encouraged to get involved, particularly around expanding execution tests

AI Plugin

  • Version 0.9.0 of the AI plugin is planned for release this week and is expected to include Content Resizing, Content Moderation, and additional bug fixes and polish
  • The current goal is to ship AI plugin 1.0.0 during the week of the WordPress 7.0 release
  • Potential additions in 1.0.0 still under discussion include AI Request Logging, refinements to “Review Notes” and “Refine from Notes”, Connector Approval functionality potentially including secret management, and additional UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. and workflow improvements

Connector Approval Experiment

  • A significant portion of the meeting focused on discussion around the proposed connector approval experiment
  • The feature is designed to help site administrators control which plugins can access configured AI provider connectors and API keys
  • The proposed approach would 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. Connector access by default, allow admins to explicitly approve plugin access, and provide visibility into which plugins are attempting to use connectors

Security & Secrets Management Concerns

  • Contributors discussed the limitations of attempting to solve API key security entirely within plugin-land
  • Concerns raised included the possibility of creating a false sense of security, existing WordPress limitations around secure secret storage, and the need for a more fundamental secrets management API within WordPress core
  • At the same time, several contributors argued that introducing an experimental approval mechanism now could help reduce immediate risks, gather real-world feedback, and drive broader conversations around secure key management in WordPress
  • @jeffpaul stressed that this experiment was planned as a first step towards potential elevation to a 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/ experiment (with a broader test base), and potentially to WordPress core in 7.1 (as it was too late to try and get something stable into 7.0, but that this was a notable concern with the existing Connectors and WP AI Client implementations)
  • The group generally agreed that additional discussion and review are still needed before a final decision is made regarding inclusion in the AI 1.0.0 release

Next Steps

  • Continue defining the long-term Core AI team strategy
  • Review and finalize WordPress 7.0 field guide content
  • Merge remaining AI milestone tickets ahead of WP 7.0 RC1
  • Ship provider plugin releases with pending bug fixes by WP 7.0 release
  • Continue testing and reviewing the Connector Approval PR
  • Gather additional contributor feedback around API key security and secrets management approaches

Upcoming meetings

Folks are welcome to join on Wednesday’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. All team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Office Hours 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 is scheduled for 14 May 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 13 May 2026.

Props to @neel33 for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary