This week’s meeting was characterized by an urgent focus on hitting the Friday milestone for the Abilities APIAbilities API A core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system. to ensure inclusion in the upcoming WordPress 6.9 betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. release (scheduled for the following week). The team quickly made a decision to formally extend the internal milestone deadline to Friday to allow time for critical reviews and merges.

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

Finally, the team received exciting external validation as Jeff Marx shared that he had successfully implemented 11 abilities using the Abilities API in the GatherPress pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, demonstrating the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.’s readiness for real-world plugin development.

Key Highlights

🗓️ Abilities API Deadline and Scope

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

• Milestone Reset: The internal milestone deadline was formally moved from Thursday to Friday to allow critical work to be completed without unnecessary panic.
• Core Deadline: The target for core integration is tied to the WordPress 6.9 Beta 1 release, which is scheduled for the beginning of the following week (the 21st).
• Core Functionality Complete: The essential goal for 6.9—the abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. to register and retrieve abilities—is already complete.
• Focus on Core, Defer “Icing”: The team prioritized shipping the core API and deferring optional features like filtering to avoid introducing complexity or missing the deadline. Filtering was deemed non-essential, as developers can always retrieve all abilities and filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. them manually.
• Urgent Decision Point (Cherry on the Cake):
  • An in-progress feature (the “half cherry,” likely a complex required field like categories) was noted as partially merged on the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php. side but lacking JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/./client-side completion.
  • Action: Jason Adams was tasked with getting an immediate decision from core leadership (James and Greg) by end of play the following day (Friday) on whether to pull the unfinished feature entirely or push for its completion by the new deadline.

Abilities API Core Features Status

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

• Categories (Grouping Mechanism):
  • Status: Work is in progress and is now required due to a prior decision.
  • Plan: Ovidiu Galatan committed to completing the implementation and aligning the MCP AdapterMCP Adapter Translates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts. with the required categories today, provided the filtering work is paused.
• Core Abilities:
  • Status: A draft PR exists but is unlikely to be fully reviewed, approved, and merged in time.
  • Decision: The team decided to defer most initial built-in core abilities (excluding the ability fetching ability) for now to avoid slowing down the overall 6.9 timeline.
• Filtering:
  • Status: Work is in progress but is highly complex.
  • Decision: The team agreed to pause/punt the formal filtering feature as it is not a blocker for using the Abilities API.

Client and Experiments Update

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

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

External Validation and Testing

The project received positive external validation for the Abilities API.

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

MCP Adapter Status

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

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

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary

This week’s meeting focused on updating the team on various component progress, including the Abilities APIAbilities API A core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system., AI Experiments pluginAI Experiments Plugin WordPress's AI laboratory bringing all building blocks together. Serves as both a user tool and developer reference implementation. First release (v0.1.0) includes Title Generation experiment., and PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php./WordPress AI Clients. A major announcement was the deployment of the MCP adapterMCP Adapter Translates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts. on WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/, marking a significant step in dogfooding the new technology.

The primary discussion points centered on scope and definitions for the Abilities API, particularly what constitutes a required vs. optional parameter, and how to define “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..” The team also had an in-depth conversation about the user experience for AI settings, specifically managing providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). credentials and feature toggles, acknowledging the high friction point this represents for users.

Key Highlights

Announcements & Overall Progress

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

Abilities API & Scope Management

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

AI Client Updates

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

AI Experiments Plugin

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

Basic Admin Setting Screen UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it.

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

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary

High-Level Call Summary

The meeting focused primarily on progressing the Abilities APIAbilities API A core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system. and the MCP AdapterMCP Adapter Translates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts. for the upcoming 6.9 release, establishing clear next steps, and making key decisions to keep momentum. A spirit of urgency and a commitment to an iterative, “alpha” approach to early development were evident, particularly for the MCP Adapter, to avoid accruing technical debt and to accelerate testing. Key outcomes included narrowing the scope for abilities included in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. 6.9 (focusing on the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. itself and a few small, stable tools), agreeing to introduce categories as a required part of abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. registration, and setting a plan to merge the major refactor of the MCP Adapter to enable wider testing. The team also celebrated a key personnel announcement regarding a transition to an AI-related engineering leadership role at Automatic.

Topics and Supporting Highlights

Abilities API Update & Milestones

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

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

Abilities API: Core Inclusion & Roadmap

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

• The Abilities API itself is the primary achievement for 6.9.
• The decision was made to ship only one or two very small, stable tools with the core Abilities API in 6.9.
• Greg’s proposed site info was highlighted as a good candidate for a core ability, as it’s a base unit of WordPress with useful information.
• The longer list of proposed abilities (Issue #52) will be moved to the Experiments pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party to allow for broader testing and exploration of different implementation approaches (e.g., naming conventions).
• The roadmap for the Abilities API will be updated and shipped following the decision to limit core tools.

Abilities API: Categories Decision

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

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

MCP Adapter Update and Stability

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

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

Action Items & Next Steps for the Week

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

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

Contribution & Workflow Reminders

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

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

Contribution & Workflow Reminders

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

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

Community Feedback & Strategic Communication

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

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

Action Items & Next Steps for the Week

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

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

#core-ai, #meeting, #summary