Summary, Dev Chat, January 28, 2026

Welcome!

The WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:

Found a bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.? Create a ticket in the bug tracker.

Want to contribute? Get started quickly with tickets marked as good first bugs for new contributors or join a bug scrub. There’s more on the reports page, like patches needing testing, and on feature projects page.

Other questions? Here is a detailed handbook for contributors, complete with tutorials.

Start of the meeting in 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/., facilitated by @audrasjb 🔗 Agenda post.

Announcements 📢

Nominations for CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team Reps 2026

The nomination process for Core Team Representatives for 2026 is still open. Please submit your nomination here.

Recap: WordPress 6.9 “Gene” Retrospective

A retrospective of WP 6.9 was published by its release squad, with detailed feedback on the 6.9 cycle.

WordPress 6.9.1 Release Schedule

The WordPress 6.9.1 maintenance release is planned on February 3, 2026, with a first 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 on January 29, 2026.

@jorbin noted that help is still needed on the following tickets/PR:

WordPress 7.0 Release Squad and Bug Scrub Schedule

The WordPress 7.0 Release Squad has been announced.

The 7.0 bug scrub schedule was published. @audrasjb hosted the first scrub right before the devchat.

What’s new in 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/ 22.4

Gutenberg 22.4 was released, with a detailed announcement.

Open floor 💬

As a new contributor @indigochill asked whether ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #60726 was a good way to start contributing to WordPress Core. @johnbillion, @jorbin and @audrasjb confirmed that it is a nice first ticket to learn how to contribute to Core as it is self-contained and clearly documented, but encouraged them to thoroughly read all the comments in the ticket to make sure to understand the full background of the ticket and its history.

#6-9-1, #7-0, #core, #dev-chat