[{"id":49027,"post":124315,"parent":0,"author":18346928,"author_name":"Nik McLaughlin","author_url":"https:\/\/nikmclaughlin.com","date":"2026-07-08T18:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:33:45","content":{"rendered":"

We discussed this a bit in the CoreCore<\/span> Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.<\/span><\/span><\/span> AI meeting today, but I\u2019ll reiterate my two main concerns here for visibility:<\/p>\n

1. Aligned with what @<\/span>justlevine<\/a> raised above, the canonical AI pluginPlugin<\/span> 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\/<\/a> or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.<\/span><\/span><\/span> gives us an opportunity to test out these new APIAPI<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span> surfaces to 30k+ users who are likely to consume Abilities without taking on the backward-compatibility burden of marching directly to Core.\n<\/p>\n

Settings, users, and posts are about as basic as WordPress gets, so my starting point is that core should have abilities to read (and write) them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I fully and strongly agree that Core should have these abilities, which is why we should be figuring this all out. But given the current lack of clarity around naming, structure, conventions, etc., I don\u2019t think we\u2019re ready to commit to backward-compatibility for these abilities. Those API design issues will not result in bugs being reported during a betaBeta<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span> period, the Abilities you describe should work well, but that won\u2019t help us get the design right. Moving these to the AI plugin gives us a space to iterate at the design level.<\/p>\n

2. Re: the 7.2 abilities, I\u2019m not clear why we\u2019ve opted for a single `manage` ability instead of separate `create_`, `update_`, and `delete_` abilities for each entity. On the call today, @<\/span>jorgefilipecosta<\/a> mentioned that a single `manage` ability was introduced to avoid proliferating tools in an LLM context. Also in the thread above:<\/p>\n

it was suggested that including a verb on the read version may help LLMs, and that\u2019s where the read name originated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This proposal seems to be conflating Abilities and Tools in a problematic way. I don\u2019t have strong opinions on whether we use \u201cget\u201d or \u201cread\u201d so others can chime in there, but we shouldn\u2019t be defining Abilities specifically for LLM consumption. As you also mentioned in that reply, the Abilities API is:<\/p>\n

a first-class, cross-context functional API that other tools and applications can use to interface with WordPress<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Therefore Abilities need to be defined with that \u201cfirst-class, cross-context\u201d functionality in mind. They are atomic functional primitives defined, registered, and consumable anywhere within WordPress. Concerns with how those are exposed to any particular transport layer (REST, CLICLI<\/span> Command Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress.<\/span><\/span><\/span>, MCP, etc.) are valid and important, but that comes after the definition\/registration itself.
\nSo to put that in an active phrasing: I\u2019d propose that we break out the `manage` abilities into individual actions following a CRUDCRUD<\/span> Create, read, update and delete, the four basic functions of storing data. (More on Wikipedia<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/span> framework. That gives a more granular surface area that all integrating transports can operate upon. The WooCommerce team has a good write-up about their approach to this in this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n"},"link":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/2026\/07\/02\/merge-proposal-expanding-wordpress-core-abilities\/#comment-49027","status":"approved","type":"comment","author_avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c41829ee2155a7e4fed87fdb63e8e661541004af8c7dc9ab25db3d905c1a8b43?s=24&d=mm&r=g","48":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c41829ee2155a7e4fed87fdb63e8e661541004af8c7dc9ab25db3d905c1a8b43?s=48&d=mm&r=g","96":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c41829ee2155a7e4fed87fdb63e8e661541004af8c7dc9ab25db3d905c1a8b43?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"meta":{"_wp_note_status":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/49027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18346928"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"post_type":"post","href":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124315"}]}},{"id":49026,"post":124413,"parent":49024,"author":8504741,"author_name":"Marin Atanasov","author_url":"http:\/\/marinatanasov.com\/","date":"2026-07-08T12:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:07:10","content":{"rendered":"

Sharing a perspective of what is likely not a complete list, but still helpful to see the areas with gaps and issues. Some of those are being worked on today in CoreCore<\/span> Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Others have historically been solved through pluginPlugin<\/span> 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\/<\/a> or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.<\/span><\/span><\/span> alternatives, and a few of those could be worth considering for inclusion in Core in the future.<\/p>\n

Inline rich-text formatting<\/h2>\n