What’s new in Gutenberg 23.1? (07 May)

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/ 23.1? (07 May)

“What’s new in Gutenberg…” posts (labeled with the #gutenberg-new tag) are posted following every Gutenberg release on a biweekly basis, showcasing new features included in each release. As a reminder, here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Editor.

What’s New In
Gutenberg 23.1?

Gutenberg 23.1 has been released and is available for download!

This release introduces two new experiments aimed at managing content inside the editor. A Custom Taxonomies management screen lets you create and edit taxonomies from Settings, and a new Media Editor brings better image manipulation into the WordPress media flow. Outside of the editor, the @wordpress/ui package gains new compound primitives, Drawer and Autocomplete, alongside overlay polish. Other changes include an experiment to hide the classic 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. from the inserter, parallel thumbnail uploads, an early developer preview of @wordpress/grid, and a batch of real-time collaboration reliability fixes.

Faster image upload finalization

Sideload requests for an image’s generated thumbnail sizes used to run sequentially within a single upload. They now run in parallel up to the existing concurrency limit, which speeds up upload completion. (#75888)

The speed improvement is most noticeable on bulk uploads via the Gallery block, large images, and slower connections.

@wordpress/ui primitives

The @wordpress/ui package gains two new primitives and polish across overlay components.

Two new compound primitives ship in 23.1:

  • Drawer, for slide-in side panels and bottom sheets. (#76690)
  • Autocomplete, a low-level form primitive for combobox-style inputs. (#77642)

Other polish across overlay components:

  • The Dialog component gains a new Description subcomponent, plus several tweaks to its spacing and typography to align it better with Drawer. Additionally, its Backdrop only dims the page when the Dialog is modal. (#77194)
  • Dialog, AlertDialog, and Drawer now support sticky headers and footers when their content scrolls vertically. (#77559)
  • All overlays *.Popup subcomponents gain a new portal prop which, combined with new optional *.Portal subcomponents, allows for better customization of the portaling behavior. (#77452)

Other Notable Highlights

  • Custom Taxonomies management (Experiment). An experimental UIUI User interface for managing custom taxonomies inside WordPress adminadmin (and super admin). With the “Content types: manage custom taxonomies” experiment enabled, a new Taxonomies screen lets you create, edit, activate or deactivate, and delete taxonomies without writing PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Enable it via Gutenberg → Experiments → “Content types: manage custom taxonomies”, then visit Settings → Taxonomies. (#77497, #77524, #77657, #77697)
  • Image Editor with Freeform Cropper (Experiment). A new experimental Image Editor modal for image manipulation in the Block Editor. The modal enables freeform cropping and other manipulation tools for Image and Site Logo blocks. To test it out, enable the experiment via Gutenberg → Experiments → Media Editor Modal, then, in the editor, click on the Crop icon in the block toolbar. (#77479, #77537, #77540, #77585, #77641)
  • Disable Classic Block from the inserter. The “Disable TinyMCE” experiment was refocused and landed to disable the Classic block from the inserter. The reason for the change is that removing TinyMCE everywhere broke too many existing flows. Existing Classic block instances continue to work normally, since the change only affects the inserter. A new wp_classic_block_supports_inserter 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. was introduced to allow controlling this behavior. (#77747, #77838, #77840, #77845, #77911)
  • @wordpress/grid package (developer preview). A new @wordpress/grid package introduces DashboardGrid, a two-dimensional grid component with drag-to-reorder and resize handles for dashboard-style surfaces. The package is in active development, and 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. is expected to evolve in upcoming releases. (#77562)
  • Real-time Collaboration reliability improvements. Several fixes improve RTC reliability and load behavior. The “Connection Lost” dialog no longer appears when a page registers more sync rooms than the server’s per-request cap. A client/server size-check mismatch that could reject large Yjs updates has been corrected. When two offline users reconnect and both push compactions, they no longer end up in a divergent state. Sync observers also attach after the persisted CRDT document is hydrated, which avoids redundant block re-parsing during editor load. (#77631, #77669, #77980, #77966)

Changelog

Features

  • Upload Media: Enable concurrent sideload uploads. (75888)
  • Experimental Image Cropper: Tweak the keyboard interactions with drag handles and canvas. (77639)
  • Admin UI: Change default heading level from h2 to h1. (77617)
  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Data: Remove redundant memoization wrapper from ‘getQueriedItems’. (77483)
  • I18Ni18n Internationalization, or the act of writing and preparing code to be fully translatable into other languages. Also see localization. Often written with a lowercase i so it is not confused with a lowercase L or the numeral 1. Often an acquired skill.: Polyfill script module translations for WordPress < 7.0. (77214)

Enhancements

  • Storybook: Add global preview styles for @wordpress/ui overlays. (77451)
  • Widgets: Add widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.-types data layer. (77752)

Components

  • Admin UI: Add visual prop to Page headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. component. (76469)
  • Admin UI: Ensure consistent header spacing with and without actions. (76683)
  • Admin UI: Use UI Text component in header. (77372)
  • DataForm: Render field description as help text in the array control. (77554)
  • ExternalLink: Align appearance with Link from @wordpress/ui. (77790)
  • Link: Honor openInNewTab consistently. (77422)
  • Menu popover render + surface/motion split. (77460)
  • Refactor Admin UI / Breadcrumbs to use DS components and design tokens. (77012)
  • UI: Add Drawer primitive. (76690)
  • UI: Portal prop and Portal subcomponents for overlay Popups. (77452)
  • UI: Upgrade title validation to cleanup-based re-validation. (77165)
  • UI: Use Text in Notice.ActionLink typography. (77332)
  • FormTokenField: Add help prop to render additional help text below the field. (77552)
  • design-system-mcp: Add new package for design system MCP tooling. (77159)
  • ui/Dialog, ui/AlertDialog, ui/Drawer: Support sticky header and footer. (77559)
  • ui: Forward style and className on *.Popup to inner Base UI Popup. (77693)
  • ui: Uniform title and description styles across overlays. (77692)
  • ui: Unify hairline border across overlay popups. (77691)

Post Editor

  • Notes: Compute note positions centrally in useFloatingBoard. (77433)
  • Notes: Refactor internals into smaller components. (77614)
  • Notes: Refactor to use new ‘wordpress/ui’ components. (77589)

Block Library

  • Ensure Post Template fallback styles don’t apply when minimumColumnWidth is defined. (77411)
  • Tabs: Handle duplicating tabs. (76449)
  • Tabs: Rename tabs blocks to follow WCAGWCAG WCAG is an acronym for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These guidelines are helping make sure the internet is accessible to all people no matter how they would need to access the internet (screen-reader, keyboard only, etc) https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/. Tabs pattern. (77418)

Block Editor

  • Embed: Restore paragraph with URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org when undoing paste-to-embed transform. (77551)
  • UI: Add Autocomplete primitive. (77642)

New APIs

  • Add @wordpress/grid package. (77562)

Guidelines

  • Extract initial public API methods. (77643)
  • Split singleton 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/ into dedicated /content-guidelines route. (77734)

Bug Fixes

  • Core Abilities: Export initialization promise as ready. (77254)
  • Disable Custom CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. command for non-block themes. (77685)
  • Grid: Fix width: 'fill' when tiles span multiple rows. (77769)
  • Tests: Connectors point to the right page. (77272)
  • 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.: Gutenberg Experiments: Ensure the experiment is active before outputting flags. (77728)
  • Connectors: Treat networknetwork (versus site, blog)-active plugins as active. (77661)
  • Command Palette: Fix macOs label for sites unable to determine UA via PHP. (77638)
  • Design Tools: viewport visibility — use ‘key’ instead of ‘value’ for device type. (77410)
  • Layout: Ensure layout classnames are applied to the inner blocks wrapper and not to its siblings. (77408)
  • Global Styles: Fix pseudo selector block style rendering in the editor. (76879)
  • Data Layer: Media — move image output format filtering to upload response. (75793)
  • Media Upload Modal: Fix pagination and search. (77872)

Block Library

  • Embed: Fix variation upgrade undo trap. (77546)
  • Accordion: Add missing dimension controls and limited customization. (77780)
  • Featured ImageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts.: Change toggle label to ‘Make image a link’. (71931)
  • Image: Preserve aspectRatio and scale when switching to wide/full alignment. (76914)
  • Form blocks: Update block categories for form, form-input, form-submission-notification, and form-submit-button. (61916)
  • Image: Fix non-local image ID removal undo trap. (77367)
  • Latest Comments: Fix uneven padding causing mis-alignment. (77379)
  • Tabs: Add classic theme styles to reset button defaults. (77607)
  • Tabs: Lock top-level structure and disable visibility controls. (77370)
  • Video Block: Update z-index for tracks popover to ensure proper stacking context. (77517)

Components

  • CollapsibleCard: Prevent focus ring clipping by content overflow. (77667)
  • Add cursor pointer to the ariakit menu item component. (70412)
  • Link: Remove underline from unstyled icon links. (77420)
  • Storybook: Fix ‘Open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. file’ links for storybook-local stories. (76758)
  • Storybook: Fix component descriptions in manifest files. (77112)
  • Text: Apply both heading and paragraph CSS defenses unconditionally. (77461)
  • UI: Fix focus-trap broken by ThemeProvider’s display: contents. (77381)
  • UI: Update @base-ui/react from 1.4.0 to 1.4.1. (77520)

Block Editor

  • Fix blockGap fallback handling for nested var() fallback values. (77750)
  • Block-mover: Fix button tooltip position. (77588)
  • Block-mover: Fix horizontal tooltip position. (77597)
  • Strip per-block custom CSS on save for users without edit_css. (76650)
  • Writing Flow: Fix arrow keys skipping paragraph containing link. (77474)

Post Editor

  • Edit-post: Fix back button tooltip position. (77587)
  • Lock post saving during media uploads. (76973)
  • Template parts: Make ‘Detach’ context menu item consistent across patterns and template parts. (77581)

Client Side Media

  • Deduplicate client-side image sizes with matching dimensions. (77036)
  • Declare convert_format as boolean arg on sideload route. (77565)
  • Upload Media: Use .jpg extension for HEIC-to-JPEG client conversion. (77506)

Collaboration

  • RTC: Fix “Connection Lost” dialog when too many entities are loaded. (77631)
  • RTC: Fix connection-lost error on large updates caused by mismatch between update size bounds check and expanded base64 update size. (77669)
  • RTC: Fix divergence when two offline users reconnect. (77980)

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)

  • RevisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision.: Improve screen reader accessibility for diff markers region and slider. (77660)
  • Fix accessibility issues in admin Font Library. (77482)

Connectors

  • Add role="list" wrapper to connector cards for valid ARIA structure. (77689)
  • Keep focus on action Button during install. (77544)

Components

  • CollapsibleCard: Fix missing keyboard focus ring on the header chevron icon when rendered inside wp-admin. (77468)
  • Tabs: Fix missing keyboard focus ring on the panel in Windows High Contrast mode when rendered inside wp-admin. (77469)

Performance

Post Editor

  • Notes: Extract floating notes state into a dedicated store. (77424)
  • Notes: Reduce passes in useBlockComments memo and rename outputs. (77440)
  • RTC: Attach sync observers after hydrating persisted CRDT doc. (77966)

Experiments

  • Add custom taxonomies. (77497)
  • Add delete action to taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. management. (77524)
  • Dashboard: Register admin page route + sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. menu (shell). (77573)
  • Fix console errors/warnings for taxonomies. (77601)
  • Follow up improvements on taxonomies (#77497). (77567)
  • Improve taxonomies DataViews height. (77603)
  • Improve taxonomy edit action. (77605)
  • Render taxonomy status as a Badge. (77635)
  • Split status action to two actions, make them bulk-capable. (77637)
  • Taxonomies: Implement auto-fill labels. (77786)
  • Taxonomies: New package and add/edit screens. (77657)
  • Taxonomies: Add spacing above Add Taxonomy modal actions. (77523)
  • Taxonomies: Declare @wordpress/base-styles dependency. (77543)
  • Taxonomies: Warn when editing an existing taxonomy’s slug. (77527)
  • User Taxonomies: REST controller. (77697)
  • User Taxonomies: Show Public field in create/edit form. (77802)
  • Disable Classic block: Control inserter support via filter. (77845)
  • Register gutenberg-dashboard-widgets flag. (77569)

Media

  • Image editor: Fix locked-ratio resize driver-axis on non-square images. (77664)
  • Image editor: Formalize cropper contract. (77668)
  • Image editor: Hold Shift while resizing to lock current aspect ratio. (77663)
  • Image editor: Reserve inner gutter so crop handles stay accessible. (77547)
  • Media Editor Modal: Render cropper in canvas for images. (77537)
  • Media Editor Modal: Save via Core’s /edit modifiers. (77641)
  • Media Editor Modal: Surface save failures as scoped snackbar notices. (77733)
  • Media Editor experiment: Add experimental image editor and cropper. (77479)
  • Media Editor: Add cropper controls to the media editor modal. (77540)
  • Media Editor: Add zoom control and hide fine rotation on narrow viewports. (77585)
  • Media editor modal: Add interactive grid. (77771)
  • Media editor: Avoid double-mount flicker on open. (77732)
  • Media editor: Confirm before discarding unsaved changes. (77730)
  • Update labels for media experiments to better clarify what they do. (77536)
  • Media Upload Modal: Add MIME type filtering to support text/vtt tracks. (77550)
  • Experimental Image Cropper: Ensure focus is on canvas when dragging. (77591)

Block Library

  • Disable TinyMCE: Warn instead of redirecting directly. (77747)
  • Site Logo Block: Enable the media editor modal experiment for the crop button. (77548)
  • Classic Block: Unwrap experiment to hide it from inserter. (77911)
  • Disable Classic block: Always register, hide from inserter conditionally. (77840)
  • Disable TinyMCE: Repurpose experiment as Classic block removal. (77838)

Post Editor

  • Image Editor experiment: Pass theme aspect ratios to media editor. (77665)
  • Media Editor Modal: Add a media editor modal experiment. (77480)

Documentation

  • Base styles: Update changelog to be clearer. (77767)
  • Docs: Add ESLint v10 migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. guide and polish documentation. (77217)
  • Docs: Update parameter type from number to int. (77519)
  • UI/Docs: Clarify package setup for custom WP Admin pages. (77338)

Code Quality

  • Adopt --wpds-cursor-control design token across the codebase. (77373, 77335, 77368, 77369, 77360, 77376, 77357, 77354, 77358)
  • Test (Integration): Migrate test/integration into @wordpress/integration-tests workspace. (77556)
  • Base Styles: Remove stale z-index entries. (77714)
  • ComplementaryArea: Inline z-index values. (77717)
  • ESLint: Consolidate configuration into tools/eslint/ workspace package. (77215)
  • Env: Minor refactoring of cacheDirectoryPath evaluation. (77799)
  • GlobalStylesUI: Remove unused CSS rule. (77456)
  • Grid: Add @types/jest devDependency. (77801)
  • Media editor: Remove unused dependency. (77438)
  • Blocks: Port over type information for @wordpress/blocks from DefinitelyTyped. (77393, 77437)
  • Refactor: Migrate tests/unit to npm workspace @wordpress/unit-tests. (77063)
  • Experiments: Declare @wordpress/base-styles dependency. (77684)
  • Data: Export and consolidate onSubKey helper. (77364)
  • Remove ZebulanStanphill from CODEOWNERS. (77586)
  • ESLint Plugin: Recommend EmptyState from @wordpress/ui. (77765)
  • Experiments: Rebuild the wp-admin Experiments screen on the wp-build routes pattern. (77443)

Components

  • Add no-unsafe-render-order ESLint rule. (77428)
  • ButtonGroup: Inline z-index. (77621)
  • Card: Remove unused CardContext. (77463)
  • CircularOptionPicker: Inline z-index values. (77715)
  • FormToggle: Inline z-index. (77619)
  • ResizableBox: Inline handle z-index. (77620)
  • Theme: Update Terrazzo packages to 2.0. (77432)
  • Tooltip: Fix flaky unit testunit test Code written to test a small piece of code or functionality within a larger application. Everything from themes to WordPress core have a series of unit tests. Also see regression.. (77751)
  • UI: Recommend Link component for use. (77505)
  • UI: Start recommending new Card components. (77423)
  • UI: Use shared style-imports types. (77388)
  • VisuallyHidden: Recommend @wordpress/ui and migrate usages. (77575)
  • ui/Tabs: Fix act() warnings in tests. (77319)
  • ui: Align WithCustomZIndex Storybook examples across overlays. (77648)

Block Library

  • Accordion: Remove invalidinvalid A resolution on the bug tracker (and generally common in software development, sometimes also notabug) that indicates the ticket is not a bug, is a support request, or is generally invalid. isBlock prop from ToggleControl. (77776)
  • Paragraph: Refactor replacement logic in useOnEnter hook. (77383)
  • Stylelint: Add cursor-pointer rule and block-library override. (77501)
  • Tabs: Clean up Edit components. (77426)
  • Tabs: Remove redundant version field from block.json. (77417)

Post Editor

  • ESLint: Add use-import-as rule. (77389)
  • Notes: Refactor and extract offset calculation logic. (77414)
  • TypeScript: Share ReactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org CSS custom properties typing. (77394)
  • TypeScript: Migrate keyboard-shortcuts to TS. (76287)
  • Admin UI: Move to CSS modules and implement logical properties. (77088)

Block Editor

  • Fix import order in block-editor custom-css.js. (77566)
  • Remove stale reusable block z-index styles. (77774)

Site Editor

  • Edit Site: Move show-icon-labels handling to specific edit-site call sites. (77287)
  • EditSite: Remove unused CSS rule. (77494)

Build Tooling

  • Build: Skip sourcemaps for WASM-inlined script module workers. (75993)
  • ESLint: Introduce bulk suppressions workflow. (77392)
  • Add descriptive name for docker container images. (67827)
  • ESLint: Improve design token linting for CSS declaration strings. (77384)
  • Externalize react-dom/client. (77326)
  • Use node_modules/.bin/stylelint to avoid npm warnings on Node 24. (77512)
  • Jest setup: Remove unneeded rAF and URL polyfills. (77378)
  • Revert tsgo update (#77177) that broke trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision.. (77680)
  • wp-build: Widen optional peer dependency ranges. (77568)

Testing

  • Menu: Fix flaky submenu focus test. (77430)
  • Tests: Remove duplicate mentions spec. (77593)
  • e2e: Shorten visit-site-editor canvas-loader visible wait. (77725)
    Connectors: Stop end-to-end capabilitycapability capability is permission to perform one or more types of task. Checking if a user has a capability is performed by the current_user_can function. Each user of a WordPress site might have some permissions but not others, depending on their role. For example, users who have the Author role usually have permission to edit their own posts (the “edit_posts” capability), but not permission to edit other users’ posts (the “edit_others_posts” capability). restriction from leaking across specs. (77857)
  • Fix PHP multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site tests. (77825)
  • RTC: Fix compaction unit test. (77986)

First-time contributors

The following PRs were merged by first-time contributors:

  • @adithya-naik: Image: Preserve aspectRatio and scale when switching to wide/full alignment. (76914)
  • @danluu: RTC: Fix connection-lost error on large updates caused by mismatch between update size bounds check and expanded base64 update size. (77669)
  • @hi0001234d: Connectors: Add role="list" wrapper to connector cards for valid ARIA structure. (77689)
  • @rajanarahul93: Featured Image: Change toggle label to ‘Make image a link’. (71931)
  • @vishnupprajapat: Taxonomies: Add spacing above Add Taxonomy modal actions. (77523)
  • @wwahammy: TypeScript: Migrate keyboard-shortcuts to TS. (76287)

Contributors

The following contributors merged PRs in this release:

@adamsilverstein @Adi-ty @adithya-naik @aduth @alecgeatches @amitraj2203 @andrewserong @CGastrell @ciampo @danluu @DarkMatter-999 @dpmehta @ellatrix @glendaviesnz @gziolo @hbhalodia @hi0001234d @himanshupathak95 @jameskoster @jorgefilipecosta @joshualip-plaudit @jsnajdr @juanmaguitar @kraftbj @Mamaduka @manzoorwanijk @mcsf @mikachan @mirka @Mustafabharmal @ntsekouras @peterwilsoncc @R1shabh-Gupta @rajanarahul93 @ramonjd @retrofox @SainathPoojary @shrivastavanolo @simison @Soean @t-hamano @Takshil-Kunadia @tellthemachines @tyxla @USERSATOSHI @vishnupprajapat @westonruter @wwahammy @yogeshbhutkar @yuliyan @ZebulanStanphill

#block-editor, #core-editor, #gutenberg, #gutenberg-new