The WordPress coreCoreCore 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 bugbugA 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.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@spacedmonkey asked whether commits to trunktrunkA 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. are currently allowed or if only RTC-related changes should be committed. @westonruter clarified that trunk is still frozen, except for 7.0-specific fixes that get back-ported, and testing commits.
@spacedmonkey said they would hold off committing any performance-related changes for now and asked others to pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” them if anything needs review or commit.
@westonruter added that @pbearne already has a few PRs for testing changes that could be moved forward for commit now, though not performance-related.
@pbearne mentioned that there are more PRs to come.
@westonruter shared that there is about a 10% regressionregressionA software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. in TTFB in WordPress 7.0 compared to 6.9, based on benchmarking noticed by @mukesh27. @westonruter mentioned that TTFB-LCP does not show a regression, so this appears to be additional PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher processing slowing things down, but no single cause has stood out yet.
@westonruter also shared ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#65165, which was recently opened, about script modules depending on classic scripts. @westonruter noted that this is related to performance because it can reduce the amount of scripts loaded on the page thanks to dynamic imports, which are non-blocking, and mentioned that the ticket had just come in and had not yet been reviewed in depth.
@westonruter further pointed out ticket #64696, which focuses on improving the scalability of real-time collaboration via HTTPHTTPHTTP 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. polling and its impact on persistent post caches, noting that things seem to have gone a bit quiet on that ticket.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@westonruter shared that PR #2461 which updates @wordpress/scripts and related packages while fixing backward compatibility issues, is currently top of mind.
Open Floor
@westonruter shared a LinkedIn post highlighting that appending <link rel="preload"> tags late in the <head> can be too late for optimal performance if an initial chunk of HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. is sent without those tags, which can happen when a lot of CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. is inlined. @westonruter noted that this is relevant for Optimization Detective, since it currently appends these preload tags to the end of the head.
@westonruter mentioned that HTTP Link headers are also being sent, so in practice this might not be an issue. However, @westonruter pointed out issue #2304, where large Link headers can exceed NginxNGINXNGINX is open source software for web serving, reverse proxying, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more. It started out as a web server designed for maximum performance and stability. In addition to its HTTP server capabilities, NGINX can also function as a proxy server for email (IMAP, POP3, and SMTP) and a reverse proxy and load balancer for HTTP, TCP, and UDP servers. https://www.nginx.com/. limits and cause 502 errors.
The Presence API is an experimental feature pluginFeature PluginA plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins that provides a system-wide awareness layer — who is logged in, what adminadmin(and super admin) screens they are on, and which posts they are editing.
This idea of presence I think is really cool and seeing where people are… you log into your WordPress, I see oh Matias is moderating some comments, Lynn is on the dashboard maybe reading some news… that idea of like you log in and you can kind of see the neighborhood of like who else is also there.
There is currently no way to see who else is logged into the WordPress admin at the same time.
Posts being actively edited by another user are only surfaced when a lock collision occurs, by which point work may already overlap.
The post list provides no indication of which posts have active editors until a user tries to open one.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Try it yourself in WordPress Playground:5-user blueprint. The blueprint creates 5 editor accounts with live presence spread across admin screens and posts, so the widgets, admin bar, and post list are populated the moment Playground boots — no second browser or incognito window needed.
See it at scale:40-user blueprint. Same setup, 40 seeded editors — useful for seeing how the widgets, admin bar, and post list handle density.
What the pluginPluginA 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. provides
Dashboard widgets: “Who’s Online” and “Active Posts”
Admin bar online indicator with avatarAvatarAn avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name. stack for on-screen presence
Post list “Editors” column
Users list “Online” filterFilterFilters 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.
REST endpoints and WP-CLIWP-CLIWP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ commands
Post-lock bridge (coexists with existing _edit_lock behavior)
All features are gated on the edit_postscapabilitycapabilityA 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).. Full technical details are in the GitHub repository.
Background
During WordPress 7.0 development, discussion in #64696 identified that storing high-frequency ephemeral data in shared tables causes persistent cache invalidation site-wide. This feature plugin was built to test that workload independently using a dedicated ephemeral data table with a 60-second TTL. Data flows through the existing Heartbeat API. The plugin was presented at a coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. dev chat and subsequently transferred to the WordPress GitHubGitHubGitHub 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/ organization. It was submitted to the WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ plugin directory on April 6, 2026.
Feedback welcome
This plugin is experimental. Feedback on the following is especially helpful:
Are the UIUIUser interface surfaces (widgets, admin bar, post list) useful as presented?
Are there admin screens or workflows where presence would be valuable?
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@mukesh27 shared that @westonruter discussed the Auto Sizes feature during WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia and opened issue #2449 to outline next steps for further work. @mukesh27 mentioned plans to review the issue and pick it up again when possible, and invited others to contribute in the meantime.
@mukesh27 also noted that resolving the sizes issue for the Gallery blockBlockBlock 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. would put the feature in a good position to be proposed for WordPress CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
@ravikhadka replied expressing interest in working on the feature.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@westonruter shared ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#64823, which was filed as a companion to various GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ issues related to fetchpriority=high being added incorrectly to IMG tags hidden in blocks. A coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.patchpatchA special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. is needed to both backportbackportA port is when code from one branch (or trunk) is merged into another branch or trunk. Some changes in WordPress point releases are the result of backporting code from trunk to the release branch. the changes from Gutenberg and make additional refinements to the wp_get_loading_optimization_attributes() and wp_maybe_add_fetchpriority_high_attr() functions to handle the new core use of fetchpriority=auto and fetchpriority=low.
PR #11196 is ready for review. @mukesh27 has started reviewing it, and @westonruter shared that it would benefit from additional Performance team review.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@westonruter shared that there hasn’t been any feedback from users on the proposal to sunset Web Worker Offloading, even though there were apparently 6000+ updates to the version that includes the inline warning notice about the intended sunset. @westonruter speculated that it could be because users haven’t seen it yet or they don’t care.
Open Floor
@westonruter shared about traveling for the next two weeks, so joining the next two meetings will not be possible.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@westonruter shared a newly opened ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#64696 and noted that if real-time collaboration ends up disabling object caching for posts on the frontend, this would be a serious concern.
@pbearne responded that they look like duplicates and shared that the patchpatchA special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. should fix both issues.
@westonruter replied that he asked the reporter of the other ticket to test the patch.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@westonruter shared that a security issuesecurity issueA security issue is a type of bug that can affect the security of WordPress installations. Specifically, it is a report of a bug that you have found in the WordPress core code, and that you have determined can be used to gain some level of access to a site running WordPress that you should not have. had been responsibly disclosed for the Embed Optimizer plugin and that a fix was released the previous Friday.
@westonruter also mentioned that there are several updates across the Performance Lab plugins that would be good to include in a new release.
@westonruter suggested targeting a release for Thursday and proposed wrapping up any issues and pull requests that are nearly ready before then.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@spacedmonkey replied that the current implementation does not account for password-protected posts, but functionally behaves the same as before, while now benefiting from using WP_Query.
@spacedmonkey added that switching to WP_Query opens up additional possibilities beyond caching, including filters and extensibility.
@westonruter also highlighted that the PR #9260 appears ready for commit and shared plans to commit it later that day.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@westonruter shared that there had been no responses yet on the Performance Lab CODEOWNERS audit issue #2374.
@b1ink0 shared that they would like to be added as a CODEOWNER for the Modern Image Formats plugin, as well as for Site Health tests they had added or updated.
@westonruter replied that this sounded good and asked @b1ink0 to update the CODEOWNERS file directly in the PR to add themselves as appropriate.
@westonruter mentioned interest in merging the PR #2352 to better observe Copilot’s impact in practice.
@westonruter pointed out that there are several open View Transitions plugin PRs that still need review.
@b1ink0 shared that they plan to address recent feedback on PR #2336 by the end of the week.
Open Floor
@westonruter raised a question about whether the GitHubGitHubGitHub 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ integration for the Performance repository is proving helpful or if it is becoming too noisy, noting a personal impression that it may be more noise than signal.
@b1ink0 shared that the integration feels noisy, particularly due to Dependabot pull requests.
@westonruter experimented during the meeting with subscribing and unsubscribing from the GitHub integration and observed that Slack does not currently support filtering out Dependabot notifications.
@westonruter suggested that creating a separate “firehose” channel could be an option if the team wants to preserve visibility without overwhelming the main channel, while also noting that they are already subscribed to all issues and pull requests directly in the repository.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@westonruter shared a Trac query covering performance-related tickets milestoned for WordPress 6.9.1 and 7.0.
@westonruter shared that for ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#61500, some work was done recently as part of the CodeMirror upgrade effort.
@westonruter explained that ideally there would be a declarative way to add script modules as dependencies for classic scripts, and noted that a workable approach is to register an empty script module that declares module dependencies, and then enqueue that module whenever the classic script is enqueued. @westonruter shared reference to example diffs demonstrating this workaround and mentioned being glad to find a quick solution.
@westonruter replied that the comment had been seen the night before and initially mentioned not having a patchpatchA special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. yet, then noted that a PR already existed and shared PR #10799. @westonruter reviewed the PR, said it looked good, and approved it.
@westonruter brought up #64066 and shared that @gilbertococchi is actively working on collecting data to support switching to moderate prefetch by default on sites with caching.
@westonruter referenced a Slack thread where LCP passing rates for conservative versus moderate prefetch were discussed and noted that additional data is being gathered by flipping a few CrUX-eligible sites from conservative to moderate to compare LCP passing rates and page hit increases over time.
@westonruter added that landing #64066 is related to #64370, noting that the latter needs to land to ensure reliable detection.
@westonruter replied that the PR had just been closed.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@westonruter shared recent experience using GitHubGitHubGitHub 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/ Copilot together with Gemini CLICLICommand Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress. locally, describing it as immensely useful both for review and implementation work. @westonruter described Copilot as significantly better than a traditional linter during reviews and noted that it can provide strong first-pass implementations. @westonruter shared PR #10778 as an example of using Gemini CLI during the CodeMirror upgrade and explained that a detailed historical and technical specification was provided to the tool.
@westonruter also shared that Copilot was used to draft a Performance Lab fix while on public transit using only a phone, referencing PR #2346.
@dmsnell cautioned that Copilot can sometimes reintroduce defects during PR reviews, sharing an anecdote where Copilot repeatedly flagged and reintroduced a PCRE-related bugbugA 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. even after it had been fixed.
@justlevine added that this behavior can indicate ambiguities in code and suggested that improving self-documentation helps both humans and LLMs.
@dmsnell emphasized the need for extra care when LLMs introduce defects, as they can confidently repeat mistakes if the surrounding code does not change enough.
@westonruter agreed, noting that while hallucinations occur, the tools still provide good feedback most of the time and help shift focus away from minutiae like coding standards toward higher-level problem solving.
@dmsnell raised the topic of memoizing wp_normalize_path, noting observed performance improvements of roughly 1ms during WordPress startup in certain environments. @dmsnell explained that while this is a micro-optimization, it can have meaningful impact at scale and shared that @josephscott has been investigating early startup costs using production measurements. @dmsnell mentioned having tested earlier versions without caching and discussed trade-offs between caching and alternative approaches, including replacing PCRE calls and addressing what may be a latent bug.
@westonruter asked whether similar performance benefits were observed across different approaches.
@dmsnell replied that while direct testing had not yet been done for all variants, prior comparisons suggested the cache provided most of the benefit at a fraction of the cost, and that both approaches could potentially coexist.
@westonruter summarized this as a “both/and” situation rather than an either/or choice.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@westonruter shared that an issue related to Modern Image Formats in coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. had surfaced, pointing to #60480.
@westonruter highlighted #64066 as potentially the most impactful open ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker., which proposes changing Speculative Loading’s default eagerness from conservative to moderate when caching is detected. @westonruter noted that no negative feedback has been received so far but acknowledged the change could be controversial and planned to ask for additional feedback in the #hosting channel.
@mukesh27 asked about the status of the Adminadmin(and super admin) View Transitions work. @westonruter replied that this is tracked in #64470, with an active PR #10699 opened by @flixos90.
@westonruter shared that the change looks close to being ready, but an unexpected E2E test failure still needs investigation. @mukesh27 shared that the implementation looks solid overall, and @westonruter mentioned he had merged the latest trunktrunkA 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. changes and planned further debugging, including testing behavior with unminified scripts if the failure persists.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@SarthakJaiswal shared that he has been working on PR #2321, plans to review feedback, and will implement required changes soon, while also asking whether there are additional polishing improvements worth considering.
Open Floor
@mukesh27 asked who would be attending WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia this year. @westonruter shared that he is looking forward to the Core Performance table at Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ and noted that, since the conference will correspond with WordPress 7.0, either team could land some very early things for WordPress 7.1 or focus on Performance Lab.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
View Transitions to CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
@westonruter kicked off the discussion by referencing plans to graduate the View Transitions plugin into core for WordPress 7.0, noting it pairs well with the adminadmin(and super admin) refresh and introduces theme support for configuration.
@mikewpbullet raised concerns about potential clashes with plugins or custom code and suggested a UIUIUser interface checkbox or update splash screen guidance, while @schmitzoide proposed a general “Activate Advanced Features” checkbox.
@westonruter clarified that sites could opt out via code toggles like filters or theme support, aligning with WordPress philosophy of decisions over options.
@westonruter highlighted ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#64066 to shift default eagerness from conservative to moderate when caching is detected, aiding View Transitions by reducing link click delays.
@mikewpbullet raised concerns about page caching rarely helping admin performance and noted that server-side caching via nginxNGINXNGINX is open source software for web serving, reverse proxying, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more. It started out as a web server designed for maximum performance and stability. In addition to its HTTP server capabilities, NGINX can also function as a proxy server for email (IMAP, POP3, and SMTP) and a reverse proxy and load balancer for HTTP, TCP, and UDP servers. https://www.nginx.com/. or Varnish often runs without WordPress plugins that Site Health could detect.
@westonruter explained that core’s Site Health test already accounts for proxy caches beyond just plugins and remains extensibleExtensibleThis is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software. for improvement.
@adamsilverstein acknowledged that comprehensive coverage is impossible but emphasized WordPress’s advantage in rendering detection rules dynamically.
@schmitzoide asked whether Site Health could diagnose performance issues.
@westonruter added that Performance Lab includes additional tests for excessive blocking scripts and styles.
@westonruter responded to @mikewpbullet‘s earlier admin concerns with two ideas: enabling bfcache in the admin for smooth back/forward transitions #63636, and considering speculative loading for admin menu items on sites with object caching enabled.
@mikewpbullet raised concerns that users may not want cached admin pages when hitting back, and that object caching is unlikely to help with page load times in admin where slowness comes from 3rd party background requests.
Admin and Dashboard Performance
@adamsilverstein shared that tackling the Dashboard landing page is a priority for the new year and mentioned an existing performance ticket. @westonruter later identified ticket #55344 and suggested the Dashboard could leverage preload links for commonly-used resources like the edit post screen assets.
@westonruter connected this to ticket #57548 about retiring script and style concatenation in wp-admin, explaining the benefit would be effective preloading but noting that concatenation might still offer better performance without a primed cache, which requires benchmarking. This discussion led to exploring Compression Dictionaries, a newer capabilitycapabilityA 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). that @westonruter explained allows browsers to reuse intersecting portions of different concatenated bundles.
@mikewpbullet questioned the need given server-side Brotli compression already exists.
@westonruter clarified this isn’t about PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher-based gzip but about the new compression dictionary transport standard that enables reusing cached bundle portions across different pages, particularly beneficial for blockBlockBlock 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 enqueue block styles on-demand based on page content, and in WordPress 6.9 this also applies to classic themes, so compression dictionaries would allow concatenating these varying bundles while enabling browsers to cache and reuse individual styles across pages with different bundles, significantly reducing CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. downloads for both logged-in and logged-out users.
Roadmap and Future Planning
@schmitzoide asked about the team’s roadmap. @westonruter linked to the 2024 roadmap and explained this meeting serves to shape 2026 priorities, noting they’ll likely use milestoned TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets rather than a full roadmap post given fewer active contributors currently.
@schmitzoide asked about graduating additional Performance Lab features and shared plans to propose ideas from block theme optimization work via repository tickets. @adamsilverstein encouraged opening issues for any PerfNow conference ideas worth experimenting with in the pluginPluginA 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..
@sirlouen asked about integrating performance testing activities similar to GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/’s approach, including GitHubGitHubGitHub 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/ Actions tagging and handbook expansion. @westonruter welcomed aligning testing strategies with other core teams in the new year.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@westonruter shared that he is still working through fixes for a CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. issue introduced in WordPress 6.9 related to loading separate blockBlockBlock 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. styles on demand in PR #10601.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA 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. (and other performance plugins)
@westonruter noted that several PRs needs to be reviewed.
@b1ink0 asked for feedback regarding the planned sunsetting of the Web Worker Offloading plugin issue #2284.
Open Floor
@westonruter shared that Safari now supports measuring the LCP metric, which he said will meaningfully improve URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org Metric collection for Optimization Detective
@spacedmonkey wondered whether the team could begin running the performance coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. e2e tests against Safari now that the browser includes this capabilitycapabilityA 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)..
@westonruter added that he is interested in exploring Compression Dictionaries after learning they can be implemented in PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher with relatively little effort referenced article.
@b1ink0 shared information regarding the final 2025 meeting to discuss the 2026 roadmap, scheduled for December 23, 2025.
