Title: WordPress 5.8 Development Cycle
Author: Francesca Marano
Published: March 9, 2021
Last modified: April 5, 2023

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#  WordPress 5.8 Development Cycle

[Dev Chat Agendas](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/agenda+5-8/) | [Dev Chat Summaries](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/summary+5-8/)
| [Bug Scrubs](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/bug-scrub+5-8/) | [Dev Notes](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-notes+5-8/)
| [Field Guide](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/)
| [All Posts Tagged 5.8](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-8/) | [5.8 Release Leads Channel](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C01VACX5E2W)

[WordPress 5.8](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/03/30/5-8-pre-planning/) will
be the second [major release](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/releasing-major-versions/)
of 2021.

## Release team

[Matt Mullenweg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/) is the Release leadRelease
Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release., [Jeff Paul](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/)
and [Jonathan Desrosiers](https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/) are the Release
Coordinators, [Luke Carbis](https://profiles.wordpress.org/lukecarbis/) is the Triagetriage
The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity,
and other factors. Lead, [Helen Hou-Sandí](https://profiles.wordpress.org/helen/)
is the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core 
Development Team builds WordPress. Tech Lead, [Riad Benguella](https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad/)
the Editor Tech Lead, [Josepha Haden-Chomphosy](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/)
is the Marketing and Communication Lead, [Milana Cap](https://profiles.wordpress.org/milana_cap/)
the Documentation Lead, [Mary Job](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mariaojob/) the
Support Lead and [Piotrek Boniu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/boniu91/) the Testing
Lead.

All release decisions will ultimately be this release teams’ to make and communicate
while gathering input from the community. There will not be a new bundled theme 
included in 5.8.

## Release Schedule

| 23 February 2021 | Alpha Begins. [Trunk is open for business](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/50427) | 
| 30 March 2021 | [5.8 Pre-planning post](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/03/30/5-8-pre-planning/) | 
| 25 May 2021 | **Feature freeze/Bug Fixes period**. During the following two weeks, there will be no commits for new enhancements or feature requests. Core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. [https://core.trac.wordpress.org](https://core.trac.wordpress.org) will focus on defect work (aka outstanding bugs)  | 
| 8 June 2021 | **[Beta 1](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-1/)**. From this point on, core contributors will focus on testing and fixing bugs discovered during the three weeks of 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. testing. Begin writing Dev Notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. and the About page. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1623201390087000), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-beta1.zip)) | 
| 15 June 2021 | **[Beta 2](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-2/)**. Test the beta release, fix bugs discovered during beta testing, continue writing Dev Notes and the About page. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1623777208454500), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-beta2.zip)) | 
| 22 June 2021 | **[Beta 3](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-3/)**. Test the beta release, fix bugs discovered during beta testing, continue writing Dev Notes and the About page, [soft string freeze](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#soft-freeze). ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1624411207484700), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-beta3.zip)) | 
| ~24~ 25 June 2021 | [**Beta 4**.](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-4/) Test the beta release, fix bugs discovered during beta testing, continue writing Dev Notes and the About page. _**Note:** This beta was not part of the original schedule and was added after beta 3._ ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1624639179281300), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-beta4.zip)) | 
| 29 June 2021 | **[Release candidate 1](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate/)**. Publish the Field GuideField guide The field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the [WordPress release cycle](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/). The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. with Dev Notes, commit the About page, begin drafting the release post, and [hard string freeze](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#hard-freeze). ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1625021257048000), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC1.zip)) | 
| 06 July 2021 | **[Release candidate 2](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-2/)**. Update the About page images and continue drafting the release post. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1625617811311000), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC2.zip)) | 
| 13 July 2021 | **[Release candidate 3](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/)**. Finalize the About page and the release post. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1626222460493400), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC3.zip)) | 
| 15 July 2021 | **[Release candidate 4](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/15/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-4/)**. The RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see [alpha (beta)](https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/?output_format=md#alpha-beta). we did not plan for but are so very happy to have ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1626384197221200), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC4.zip)). | 
| 19 July 2021 | **Dry run** for release of WordPress 5.8 and 24-hour code freeze ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1626703320289800)). | 
| 20 July 2021 | **[WordPress 5.8 is released](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/)** ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1626795307434000), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8.zip), [amplification pack](https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2021/08/11/share-about-wordpress-5-8-on-social-media/))! |

## How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to TracTrac An open source
project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management
tool for WordPress., and [pick a 5.8 ticket.](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/6)
Need help? **Check out the [Core Contributor Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/)**.

Get your patches done and submitted as soon as possible, then help find people to
test the patches and leave feedback on the ticketticket Created for both bug reports
and feature development on the bug tracker.. Patches for enhancements will not be
committed after the dates posted above so that we can all focus on squashing bugs
and deliver the most 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.-free WordPress ever 😉

If you want to dive deeper into 5.8, join the weekly meetings in the [#core](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core)
SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/).
The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/)
channel, which occur next at [Wednesday at 05:00 UTC](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20260422T0500)
and [Wednesday at 20:00 UTC](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20260422T2000).

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