Feature Projects are intended to concentrate a group of people together, to explore potential ideas for WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. They are similar to the previously used “feature plugins” in many ways (including in name) but may take any necessary form other than a 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 specifically.

Many start simply as ideas that need more exploration, to become fully-formed before implementation can begin. Other Feature Projects may become discrete patches on tickets, or may turn into multiple plugins – breaking finished parts into patches for core (while iterating on the unfinished parts separately.)

Feature Project contributors may gather in a dedicated channel, form in a dedicated 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 be the repository owner. https://github.com/ Project, or be worked on directly inside of an existing Project. For example, 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/ Project often uses experimental flags in the code to allow Features to be optionally toggled on or off. Depending on the desired outcome, either an entire feature, or just some parts of it, may be merged into WordPress Core. This is done either through WordPress Core patches or via Gutenberg package releases.

The Feature Projects below are not guaranteed to be merged into WordPress Core. They are listed here as an inventory of what is (and has been) worked on.

For more information, please read: Iterating on Feature Plugins

These statuses show the state of completion for each Feature:

active idea merged closed

For more information about each status, here’s a quick guide:

  • Active: Catch all for a generally active status. 
  • Active: Experimental: work has begun but it’s in very early stages, is not in a place of wide consumption, and is in a place of needing feedback. 
  • Active: Not started: work has not started as a whole but is an active area of interest and exploration.
  • Active: Ongoing: work is actively underway and there are likely both opportunities to help test and work that has not yet started. 
  • Idea: exploratory experimental work that is outside the scope of current project direction but that is still being explored. 
  • Merged: work has been merged. 
  • Closed: work is no longer active.

Active Projects

Features that are current areas of focus. You are encouraged to participate in them.

active ongoingSite Editor/Templates Experience [Phase 2]
The Site Editor/Template experience allows you to edit all parts of your site with blocks by offering access to various templates, a Styles system, navigation features, and more. The largest amount of remaining work is around clarifying the user experience of editing global concepts (styles, templates, navigation) from specific site content, aligning page editing features in the Site Editor and Post Editor, and ensuring simple site setup actions are properly surfaced.
active ongoingBlock Themes [Phase 2]
With the foundation of 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. themes set, efforts are focused on improving theme switching, expanding design tools, and expanding functionality, like the ability to save drafts and schedule changes.
active ongoingNavigation Block/Menu Management [Phase 2]
The Navigation block seeks to replicate and expand what’s possible for visually building your navigation for your site. Included in this effort is a way to preserve navigation while switching themes, the ability to set a custom menu for smaller devices, the option to style current menu item styles, more.
active ongoingQuery Loop Block [Phase 2]
The Query 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. block is an advanced block that allows you to display posts based on specified parameters; like a PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher loop without the code. Since it needs to balance both usability and functionality, work remains to refine and expand the current experience.
active ongoingStyles Engine [Phase 2]
The goal of this project is to have a consistent 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. for rendering styling for blocks, across both client-side and server-side applications. Currently, it offers a single, centralized agent responsible for generating block styles, and, in later phases, it will also assume the responsibility of processing and rendering optimized frontend CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.. The initial package was introduced in WordPress 6.1.For more information about the roadmap, please refer to Block editor styles: initiatives and goals and the Github project board.
active ongoingGradual Adoption
As folks step into site editing, various pathways need to be built to make it easier to adopt these new features. The work involved here is vast including offering more curation options (ex: Locking API), allowing classic themes to have access to Patterns, adding support for appearance tools, and more.
active ongoingFonts API  [Phase 2]
This API’s job is to provide the backend capabilities to support the “font library” to include font management and dynamic building of the @font-face styles. The “font library” feature will continue to be built, refined, stabilized, and tuned over multiple WordPress releases.
active ongoingPatterns [Phase 2]
Patterns are collections of predefined blocks that you can insert into posts and pages and then customize with your own content. Similar to blocks, they touch on many different parts of the current editor experience. As a result, this work includes exploring patterns as sectioning elements, scaling the experience of managing many patterns, leveling up WordPress.org patterns, pattern overrides (formerly referred to as “partially synced patterns”), unifying patterns and template parts, and more.
active ongoingDesign tools [Phase 2]
Design tools encompass all tools related to the appearance of blocks and ranges from colors, typography, alignments, and positioning, to filters like duotone, cropping, and background media. This work involves both the creation of shared tools and the consistent application across blocks, as makes sense.
activePerformance

The Performance Lab plugin from the core performance team is a collection of plugins focused on enhancing performance of your site, with the goal of eventually merging them into WordPress core. The plugin allows one to individually enable and test the plugins to get their benefits before they become available in WordPress core, and to provide feedback to further improve the solutions. Currently focused on JavaScript, Images, Infrastructure, Object Caching, Measurement, and Site Health. 2024 roadmap. GitHub Project. Make posts.

active experimentalCollaborative editing [Phase 3]
One of the pillars of phase 3 of the Gutenberg roadmap, there are a few aims in this effort: to allow multiple users to simultaneously collaborate on content, enable offline editing and synchronization of data, and offer a great developer experience where developers are freed from thinking about collaborative editing needs. An experimental and minimal sync package has been merged to further this work with the option to enable it as an experiment in the Gutenberg plugin.
active ongoingCommand Palette [Phase 3]
WordPress 6.3 introduced a global search & command component that’s extensibleExtensible This is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software. and can accommodate navigating across the Site Editor (example: edit About page), Post Editor (example: toggle on distraction free mode), and running contextual commands (example: create new post; insert pattern; etc). Work remains to explore navigating to adminadmin (and super admin) sections (example: go to WooCommerce orders) and expose the command palette across the WordPress experience. As AI tools are taking the world by storm, this could also play an important role in letting plugin authors integrate novel solutions that are prompt based in nature.
active in progressAdmin Redesign [Phase 3]
Early design ideas and thoughts have been shared to begin the process for an admin design update and navigation work, with plugins and customized user flows in mind. Admin notices and the UIUI User interface library of design components will be a major part of this effort to ensure use cases are supported while respecting the user experience. This work also includes improving the admin list views (those used in posts, pages, categories, templates, comments, and by hundreds of plugins) with a more modern design and refined extensibility support for interactivity. Efforts are underway to improve these views and provide customized flows, starting in the Site Editor and expanding outward from there.
active in progressMedia Library [Phase 3]
Another pillar of phase 3 of the Gutenberg roadmap, there are a few aims in this effort: Expand and improve media management capabilities, unify interfaces, and improve overall media flows.  
active not startedAsynchronous collaboration & Workflows [Phase 3]
Work in this area of phase 3 centers around the need to provide seamless collaboration in the editorial process, from draft to publication, and currently exists in very early stages with key areas scoped out. This involves features like comments, peer review, and customizable publishing workflows, easy sharing of various content types while controlling access through permissions, and the ability to mark incomplete elements for team members. The tools developed should support a range of use cases, from individual authors seeking feedback to larger editorial teams managing complex workflows. Please read the introductory post about the scope of this effort for more information.
active not startedRevisions [Phase 3]
Collaboration workflows as part of phase 3 efforts require 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. and edit history to be clear, usable, and performant. The design of the traditional post revisions interface needs to evolve to become fully aware of blocks with visual comparisons and easy mechanisms for spotting changes regardless of the content type being shown. The bulk of the work has not started beyond initial efforts to improve style revisions in the Site Editor. Please read the introductory post about the scope of this effort for more information.
active in progressBlock Library [Phase 3]
Building on phase 2 and the way blocks can be used to express all parts of a site, attention needs to turn for phase 3 to improve the way blocks can be organized, listed, and installed by users.  The overall goal is to improve how block management works outside the editors — for example, by allowing the disabling of blocks globally across a site, not just as user preferences. This work also includes a current focus on formalizing a connection between blocks and meta fields to empower building flexibility while retaining user clarity. Please read the introductory post about the scope of this effort for more information.
active ongoingInteractivity API
The Interactivity API aims to be a standard way to allow developers to add interactivity to the frontend of their blocks. A standard makes it easier for developers to create rich, interactive user experiences, from simple cases like counters or popups to more complex features like instant page navigation, instant search, or carts and checkouts. For more context on the API, please read the prior proposal.
activePreferred Languages
The initial project will cover an extensible backend implementation as well as a single frontend use case. Lead: @swissspidy. Make posts.
activeWP Notify
The WP Notify project is working towards creating a new (better) way to manage and deliver notifications to the relevant audience. Traditionally, WordPress core and theme/plugin developers have been using the admin_notices hook for this purpose, but this solution is lackluster at best and comes with a lot of disadvantages. WP Notify strives to solve those problems. Lead: @psykro. Make Posts, #feature-notifications Slack channel
active2FA
Two-Factor Authentication is an exploration of how we can build a stable, extensible functionality for enhancing WordPress login pages via various providers. Lead: @georgestephanis. GitHub repo, Make posts, #core-passwords Slack channel.
activeRollback Update Failure
When a core auto-update fails, core has long had the ability to automatically attempt a “rollback” to the latest stable release (in the branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". that the site is running). Note: for core auto-updates, “rollback” is not attempted for certain failures (e.g. “disk full”). This project aims to extend this capability to be available for plugin and theme updates. Join the Call for Testing and check out ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #51857.
activePlugin Dependencies
Some plugins require other plugins. When the required plugin isn’t available/installed, site owners are often presented with notices or other indications. The implementation of these notices changes depending on the plugin author. This project aims to provide a unified approach to indicate plugin dependencies and any installed and active dependent plugins. Follow the development in ticket #22316.

Inactive Projects

Features that have been merged into WordPress Core, are no longer relevant, dormant, or abandoned.

Expand inactive projects
merged WP Auto-updates
This work expanded automatic updates to major core versions, plugins, and themes.
merged Block-based Widget Editor
This work added block functionality to the Widgets editor, to make it easier to build the site you want using the power and flexibility  of blocks. Leads: @noisysocks, @andraganescu. Overview, GitHub project, #feature-widgets-block-editor 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.
merged Servehappy
The servehappy project is an initiative that seeks to educate WordPress site owners about the value of having the latest version of PHP powering their WordPress site. This supports the overall goal of increasing the percentage of WordPress installs running modern PHP versions. Leads: @flixos90, @schlessera. GitHub repo.
merged Lazy Loading
Enabling lazy-loading for images in WordPress content was first proposed nearly two years ago, however the 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/. implementation at the time would potentially have introduced many edge cases and failures. Using the new loading attribute removes these concerns. Leads: @azaozz, @flixos90. GitHub repo, WordPress.org plugin.
merged XML Sitemaps
Generating and exposing XML sitemaps for search engines as part of WordPress core. Leads: @tweetythierry, @swissspidy. GitHub repo, WordPress.org plugin.
merged WP REST API
WordPress is moving towards becoming a fully-fledged application framework, and we need new APIs. This project was born to create an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand and well-tested framework for creating these APIs, plus creating APIs for core. This plugin provides an easy to use 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/., available via HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.. Grab your site’s data in simple 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. format, including users, posts, taxonomies and more. Retrieving or updating data is as simple as sending a HTTP request. Leads: @rmccue, @rachelbaker. GitHub repo, WordPress.org plugin.
merged Shiny Updates
Shiny Updates strives for a simplified and more streamlined experience by maintaining the context of the workflow when installing, updating, and deleting plugins and themes.
merged Font Natively
Switch to system fonts for faster loading and a more native-feeling experience.
merged Customize Preview Responsiveness
Add a user-friendly way to preview site responsiveness in the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings.. Lead: @celloexpressions. Flow posts. See also #31195. Merged in 4.5 release.
merged Customize Partial Refresh
Customizer: Add framework for selective refresh (partial preview refreshes). Lead: @westonruter. Make posts. See also #27355. Merged in 4.5 release.
merged oEmbed
This plugin allows anyone to embed posts from your site by just pasting its URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.orgLead: @swissspidy. Final Proposal, Make posts, GitHub repo. See also #32522. Merged in 4.4 release.
merged RICG Responsive Images
Bringing automatic default responsive images to WordPress. Lead: @mike. Final Proposal, Make posts. Merged in 4.4 release.
merged Menu Customizer
The purpose of the Menu Customizer project is to move navigation menuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. management from the WordPress admin to the Customizer. Lead: @celloexpressions. Final Proposal, Make posts. Merged in 4.3 release.
merged Customizer Theme Switcher
The goal is to bring theme-browsing and theme-switching into the Customizer to streamline the themes experience. Lead: @celloexpressions. Final Proposal. Merged in 4.2 release.
merged Press This
Press This is a little tool that lets you grab bits of the web and create new posts with ease. Lead: @michael-arestad. Final Proposal, Make posts, GitHub repo. Merged in 4.2 release.
merged x1f4a9
If only there was a consistent emoji experience for WordPress. That would be 😎👍. This was an experimental plugin to develop Emoji support in WordPress. Lead: @pento. Make posts, GitHub repo. Merged in 4.2 release.
merged User Session Manager
Session management for WordPress. Lead: @johnbillion. GitHub repo. Merged in 4.1 release.
merged Focus v2
A re-think of Distraction Free Writing. Lead: @iseulde. Final Proposal, Make posts. Merged in 4.1 release.
merged Media Grid
When browsing your media, why limit yourself to a list with tiny thumbnails? The Media Grid plugin gives you a nice grid view of your media items. Lead: @ericlewis. O2 posts, Make posts. Merged in 4.0 release.
merged Focus
Focus on editing, while editing. Lead: @iseulde. Final Proposal. Merged in 4.0 release.
merged Widgets Customizer
Changes made when using the Customizer are not visible to site visitors until you hit Save & Publish. So what if widgets could be edited in the Customizer? That’s what the 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. Customizer plugin makes possible. No longer do you have to edit your widgets blind! Lead: @westonruter. Final Proposal, Make posts. Merged in 3.9 release.
merged DASH
While functional, WordPress’ dashboard page hasn’t kept up with the rest of WordPress. We mean to improve the experience of the first page of WordPress. Streamline it, clean it up looking at all the widgets, and make it responsive. Leads: @lessbloat, @joen. Final Proposal, Make posts. Merged in 3.8 release.
merged MP6
Simplify and modernize the design of the admin, with a focus on the rapidly growing user base using HiDPI, touch, and small-screened devices. Lead: @iammattthomas. Final Proposal, Make posts. Merged in 3.8 release.
merged THX38
Re-imagine a theme experience that is beautiful, visually focused (able to display more/bigger screenshots), fast, and mobile-ready. Lead: @matveb. Final Proposal, overview, Make posts. Merged in 3.8 release.
merged Widgets Area Chooser
Re-imagine a theme experience that is beautiful, visually focused (able to display more/bigger screenshots), fast, and mobile-ready. Lead: @shaunandrews. Final Proposal, make/ui posts, make core posts. Merged in 3.8 release.
merged Widgets
Improve the WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. experience of widgets through non-destructive live previews. The current approach of making some changes immediately live but not others breaks users’ expectations and trust.
closed Customize Posts
This is a feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. intended to implement #34923: Introduce basic content authorship in the Customizer. Lead: @westonruter. GitHub repo.
closed Consent API
A standard way for WordPress core, plugins, and themes to obtain consent from users should be established to provide a consistent and stable experience for administrators, developers, and users of all kinds. Leads: @rogierlankhorst, @garrett-eclipse, @xkon. GitHub repo, WordPress.org plugin.
closed Toolbar Experiments
The toolbar is not a consistent experience in a number of ways, including behavior on touch vs. pointer and its content as you flip between the front end and admin contexts. It should be a consistent experience with the best possible behavior on various devices so that users can use it to its best effect without being disrupted by inconsistencies. Lead: @helen. GitHub repo. See also #32678.
closed Fields API
The WordPress Fields API can be used by developers to build forms with a common structure. It makes it possible to efficiently build settings pages, 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. boxes, profile fields, and other elements in WordPress. Lead: @sc0ttkclark. GitHub repo, Make Posts.
closed Background Image Cropper
This plugin is a WordPress core feature-plugin that adds cropping to background images for parity with 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. images. Lead: @celloexpressions.
inactive Block-based Navigation Editor
Similar to the Widget editor work, this project hopes to expand what’s possible with navigation by bringing the familiar block editing experience to this screen. Leads: @andraganescu, @noisysocks. GitHub project.