{"id":124010,"date":"2026-06-19T00:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/?p=124010"},"modified":"2026-06-19T16:02:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:02:42","slug":"roadmap-to-7-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/2026\/06\/19\/roadmap-to-7-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadmap to 7.1"},"content":{"rendered":"

WordPress 7.1 is set to be released on August 19th, 2026. This release advances how people work together in WordPress and opens up new functionality for all to benefit from. New Notes features, including suggestion mode and emoji reactions, make asynchronous feedback richer and more interactive. Meanwhile, real-time collaboration remains an exciting focus area with a few strategic decisions remaining to shape exactly how it\u2019ll show up in the WordPress experience. New options for responsive styling and pseudo-state styling, two longstanding areas of feedback, expand what you can do directly in the Site Editor without needing to use CSSCSS<\/span> Cascading Style Sheets.<\/span><\/span><\/span>. A new Guidelines feature adds a persistent, structured way to encode editorial rules into WordPress, helping you keep your voice and preferences when collaborating with AI. Several new options make it easier to find your way around: see when a blockBlock<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span> inherits its styling from a global setting, set key details about your site in a new Identity section in the Site Editor, find what you need faster with recently used commands and suggestions shown in the command palette, and enjoy the familiarity of the adminadmin<\/span> (and super admin)<\/span><\/span><\/span> bar inside any of the editors. The experience of uploading and using media gets numerous updates, including a new free-form image cropper to get your images just right and client-side media improvements that support more image formats and add resiliency throughout. For those building on top of WordPress, numerous APIs are slated for more features and fixes. Expanded Unicode support is in the works so email addresses, usernames, and slugs can better reflect WordPress\u2019 global audience. Finally, to round out the release are a slew of smaller yet important delights like a new \u201cOn This Day\u201d dashboard\u00a0widgetWidget<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span>, new blocks, and various writing flow improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, what\u2019s shared here is being actively pursued, but doesn\u2019t necessarily mean each will make it into the final release of WordPress 7.1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who want to be involved in the release in a different, more hands on way, there\u2019s a new dedicated outreach effort for WordPress 7.1 to ensure collaborative editing gets the collaborative testing it needs. Learn more here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AI Client iteration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI Client is the foundational piece for running AI programmatically inside WordPress, and for 7.1 the focus stays on empowering 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> authors. Two notable capabilitiescapability<\/span> A\u00a0capability<\/strong>\u00a0is permission to perform one or more types of task. Checking if a user has a capability is performed by the current_user_can<\/code> function. Each user of a WordPress site might have some permissions but not others, depending on their\u00a0role. For example, users who have the Author role usually have permission to edit their own posts (the \u201cedit_posts\u201d capability), but not permission to edit other users\u2019 posts (the \u201cedit_others_posts\u201d capability).<\/span><\/span><\/span> are planned: generation streaming, introduced first in the PHP AI Client<\/a> as an initial effort to unlock full usage in a future release, and embeddings<\/a>, which represent content as vectors to enable meaning-based search across a site. These arrive alongside minor fixes that keep improving the reliability of the AI Client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read this Make Core post<\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectors iteration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After landing a new framework for registering and managing connections to external services in 7.0, work is underway for connectors to gain more ways to authenticate beyond 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> keys. The plan is to start simple with adding username\/application password support similar to the existing API key flow and then explore more general, declaratively-defined connection forms (URLs, a default-models dropdown, and more) in PHPPHP<\/span> The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher<\/span><\/span><\/span>, advancing the DataForm API in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this GitHub issue<\/em><\/a> and<\/em> this Trac ticket<\/em><\/a> for more details, along with the related DataForm issues<\/em> #76544<\/em><\/a> and<\/em> #74865<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"View<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After shipping early as an experiment in GutenbergGutenberg<\/span> 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 \u2018blocks\u2019 to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc.\rhttps:\/\/wordpress.org\/gutenberg\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span> to gather feedback, a new Guidelines feature lets you define writing and content guidelines that tie into AI tooling, with the ability to import\/export guidelines between sites. This brings a persistent, structured system for encoding editorial rules, brand voice, and content standards directly into WordPress. As more collaboration happens directly in WordPress, this brings consistency and personalization to that collaboration when AI is involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this GitHub issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admin<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A more organized command palette<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The command palette now groups results into clear sections for recent, suggested, and matching commands. The recently used list is saved to your preferences so they persist across sessions. The design was also updated to make the list of resulting commands easier to scan and understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review<\/em> this pull request<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admin color scheme reflected in the Site Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Site Editor sidebarSidebar<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span> and overall shell now follow the set WordPress admin color scheme instead of always using a fixed dark background. This ensures broader consistency across all parts of the WordPress experience when personalizing the admin with a color scheme of your choosing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review <\/em>this pull request<\/em><\/a> for more details.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DataViews and DataForms iterations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work is underway to migrate DataViews onto the new Design System primitives for a more consistent look and feel, and to consolidate Quick Edit with the editor inspector so editing a post\u2019s details feels the same wherever you do it. The DataForm API itself is growing more capable, including support for disabling individual controls. The Site Editor\u2019s Pages, Templates, and Patterns screens are also becoming more extensibleExtensible<\/span> This is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software.<\/span><\/span><\/span>, with a new server-side REST endpoint that lets plugin authors register their own view and form configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this iteration issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dedicated Identity section<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dedicated Design \u2192 Identity screen brings the essentials of your site\u2019s identity into one place, with an inline media editor for your logo and favicon and quick editing of your site title and tagline. The aim is to make these foundational settings simple to find and easy to update without digging into templates or needing to go searching in Settings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review <\/em>this pull request<\/em><\/a> for more details.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design System<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work continues on the shared component library in wordpress\/ui and the underlying theming system that powers it. A highlight of this cycle is graduating ThemeProvider from experimental to a stable, public API, alongside finalizing the public token names (background, foreground, and stroke renames), and adding new theme-customization tokens for corner radius and element sizing. In parallel, key parts of the editor UIUI<\/span> User interface<\/span><\/span><\/span> begin adopting improved components, with flyout menus extending to transforms, style variations, and the block ellipsis and transform menus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this tracking issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New \u201cOn This Day\u201d widget<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress dashboard focused on an \"On This Day\" widget showing a post from 10 years ago. <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dashboard is getting a new \u201cOn This Day\u201d widget that resurfaces past content, a popular feature across many different platforms.\u00a0Get motivated by looking back on what you\u2019ve written and write more content today for future reminders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this pull request<\/em><\/a> introducing the \u201cOn This Day\u201d widget for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Persistent admin bar across editors (aka omnibar)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The admin bar is getting some nice polish ahead of being easily accessible in the Site Editor and Block Editor. Having landed as an experiment in Gutenberg first, this work brings the toolbar into the editing experience so the admin bar is with you wherever you are. The design update removes the \u201cHowdy\u201d greeting, replaces the home icon with the site icon, makes the profile avatarAvatar<\/span> An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It\u2019s usually a square box that appears next to the user\u2019s name.<\/span><\/span><\/span> a circle rather than a square, and updates the legacy Dashicons icon font with wordpress\/icons SVGs throughout the admin bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this iteration issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

RevisionsRevisions<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span> iterations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After landing visual revisions in 7.0, this release focuses on making them even easier to read and navigate between. Planned improvements include a spark line view in the scrubbing toolbar to better visualize the history of changes, persistent URLs to allow sharing a link to a particular revision, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this iteration issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

APIs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Abilities API iteration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Abilities API gives developers and AI tooling a structured, queryable way to expose what a WordPress site can do. This cycle advances querying and filtering of abilities and implements a curated set of coreCore<\/span> Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.<\/span><\/span><\/span> abilities (including site settings, current-user info management, and general site awareness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review <\/em>this trac query<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Block Bindings iterations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Block Bindings expands with new support for binding list-item blocks and inner blocks, letting more of your content connect to dynamic data sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow this iteration issue<\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enforced iframed editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post editor has been moving toward always running inside an iframeiframe<\/span> iFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and\/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user\u2019s browser.<\/span><\/span><\/span>, which isolates the editing canvas from the admin\u2019s styles and lets viewport-relative units and media queries work against the canvas instead of the browser window. Today the editor still drops back to a non-iframed mode whenever a block using Block API version 2 or lower is present. To make the rollout gradual, the current plan is to enforce iframing for block-based themes in this release, then extend it to all themes in a future release. In both cases, blocks need to be on Block API version 3 to work in the iframed editor, and a migrationMigration<\/span> Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies.<\/span><\/span><\/span> guide is available to help extenders get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the<\/em> dev note on the 7.0 changes<\/em><\/a> and the <\/em>block migration guide<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extended Unicode support in email addresses, usernames, and slugs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This release is looking to broaden Unicode support so email addresses, usernames, and slugs better reflect WordPress\u2019 global audience. This work centers around allowing storing Unicode email addresses (Core-31992<\/a>) so functions like is_email()<\/code>, sanitize_email()<\/code> and antispambot()<\/code> can be extended to support non-ASCII addresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read<\/em> this Make Core post<\/em><\/a> and follow<\/em> this Trac ticket<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ReactReact<\/span> React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces.\rhttps:\/\/reactjs.org<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span> 19 Upgrade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress is upgrading from React 18 to React 19. This update will first be merged into the Gutenberg plugin ahead of an eventual pathway to Core. In this upgrade, there are several new APIs, major updates to TypeScript types, changed behaviors and more. Plugin and theme developers, please help test<\/a> and review what\u2019s coming<\/a> as early and as much as possible. To help with testing, install and activate the latest version of Gutenberg, head to the experiments page, and turn on the \u201cReact 19\u201d experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> <\/em>this tracking issue<\/em><\/a> and read<\/em> <\/em>this Make Core post<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blocks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Icon API expansion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After WordPress 7.0 introduced the foundations of the SVG Icon API (the icon registry, a REST endpoint, and the core Icon block), 7.1\u2019s iteration centers on opening the API up to third parties with new public functions like register_icon()<\/code> and unregister_icon()<\/code>, core-icons theme support, SVG sanitization and namespace validation, and collection support (similar to the Font Library) so agencies and product makers can ship their own branded icon sets. The work also explores a reusable icon picker modal for any block, Icon block enhancements like flip and rotate, and making the hardcoded icons in blocks such as Navigation, Breadcrumbs, and Details selectable through the Icon API. Alongside the API work, the core icon set itself is getting a visual refresh, with prominent icons redrawn as stroke-based designs<\/a> for a more consistent, modern look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this iteration issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lazy loading the Classic block<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To improve performance, the Classic block is planned for deprecation in 7.1, with TinyMCE no longer loaded by default when it isn\u2019t needed. This work improves migration and conversion paths and moves the freeform block into its own package, so sites that don\u2019t rely on the classic experience get a lighter, faster editor. To help with testing, install and activate the latest version of Gutenberg, head to the experiments page, and turn on the \u201cClassic block deprecation\u201d experiment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow<\/em> this tracking issue<\/em><\/a> for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Core blocks and block improvements\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every new block added to Core means new possibilities for all, without needing to rely on third party blocks. 7.1 has a few new Core blocks slated for inclusion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n