WordPress Playground no longer supports PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php 7.2 and 7.3. The minimum PHP version is now 7.4.

Your existing Blueprints will continue to work. If a Blueprint requests PHP 7.2 or 7.3, Playground automatically upgrades it to PHP 7.4 and displays a warning. No action is required, but you should update your Blueprints when convenient.

Why now?

Three factors drove this decision:

• WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. is moving forward. WordPress 7.0 (releasing April 2026) drops support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3. These versions now power less than 4% of WordPress sites combined—well below the 5% threshold the project uses for version support decisions.
• These versions don’t work reliably in Playground. PHP 7.2 crashes after a minute or two of use. PHP 7.3 runs noticeably slower than newer versions. These issues existed for months without user reports, confirming low adoption.  Also, they don’t seem to work with the PROXYFS mmap implementation. 
• Maintenance takes time away from improvements. Supporting older PHP versions requires workarounds that delay features everyone can use—like fixing the intl extension crash.

What you need to do

For most users: nothing. Playground handles the migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. automatically. Blueprint compilation requires PHP 7.4 or later; a warning will be displayed to remove it and update your Blueprint to load a supported version. If you are using the modular loaders, versions 7.2 and 7.3 will not receive updates.

Supported PHP versions

Playground now supports PHP 7.4 through PHP 8.5:

Use latest In your Blueprint, always get the most recent stable PHP version.

Timeline

This change takes effect immediately in WordPress Playground. The automatic upgrade ensures backward compatibility—your existing Blueprints won’t break.

WordPress Core follows in April 2026 with WordPress 7.0, which sets PHP 7.4 as the minimum required version.

Questions?

Reach out in the #playground channel on WordPress.org Slack or open a GitHub issue.

The Playground team listened to your feedback and rolled out three UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. improvements this month: one-click saving for playground instances, quick access to frequently visited pages, and a dedicated view for managing WordPress instances.

1. A Dedicated panel for better management

Saved playgrounds moved from the settings panel to a dedicated dashboard with its own landing page at playground.wordpress.net.

When you visit playground.wordpress.net, clicking on the icon with four squares on the top-right, you’ll find a clean, organized dashboard that allows you to:

• Start Fresh: Launch a vanilla WordPress site or test specific Pull Requests (PRs) from WordPress or 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/.
• Import Easily: Use the “Import .zip” button to upload projects via .zip files, 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/ URLs, or Blueprint URLs.
• Explore Blueprints: Browse a library of blueprints with pre-configured setups like “Art Gallery” or “Coffee Shop.”
• Manage Your Work: View your saved playgrounds listed at the bottom with creation dates and storage status.

2. Remembering to save your progress

WordPress Playground runs client-side in your browser, so refreshing or closing a tab before saving can erase your work. Playground now displays an “Unsaved Playground” warning in the top navigation bar to prevent this.

Click the ‘Save’ button next to the warning to store your work in browser storage and resume exactly where you left off.

3. Faster navigation via Quick Access Links

Navigating the WordPress admin area usually requires multiple clicks or manual typing of URLs. The latest update introduces a Quick Access dropdown integrated directly into the Playground’s internal address bar.

By clicking the address bar, you now get instant shortcuts to the most common areas of your site:

• Homepage
• Dashboard
• Site Editor
• New Post
• Plugins
• Themes

This small change significantly speeds up the testing workflow, allowing you to jump from the front end to the backend editor in a split second.

Give it a try!

These updates are designed to make WordPress Playground more user-friendly and efficient. Head over to playground.wordpress.net to test them out for yourself.

Have feedback? The team wants to hear from you! You can leave a comment below or join the conversation via the #playground 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.

The github-proxy.com was created previously to Blueprints, load branches, pull requests, and commits on 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/ without CORS issues and add a dynamic packaging functionality. This service is hosted and maintained by a community contributor, Christoph Khouri, and he will end this service at the beginning of 2026 (but your Blueprints are safe).

The good news: The Playground team has introduced an automatic migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. layer in WordPress Playground. If your Blueprints currently rely on github-proxy.com, they will continue to work automatically.

What is changing?

When Playground encounters a github-proxy.com URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org in a Blueprint, it will now automatically rewrite it to use native Playground resources like git:directory.

Your Blueprints will continue to work, but you’ll see a console warning to update them. Update your Blueprints to use native resources for future compatibility and to remove these warnings.

How to migrate

The automatic migration handles several patterns:

Here is how you can update your Blueprints to match the native implementation:

1. Repositories, Branches, and Pull Requests

The old proxy returned a ZIP file of a repository. You can now achieve this natively using the git:directory resource.

Old:

{
    "resource": "url",
    "url": "https://github-proxy.com/proxy/?repo=user/repo&branch=main"
}

New:
Use the git:directory resource directly in your steps (like installPlugin or installTheme).

{
    "step": "installPlugin",
    "pluginData": {
        "resource": "git:directory",
        "url": "https://github.com/my-user/my-repo",
        "ref": "main"
    }
}

You can target specific commits or pull requests using the ref property:

• Pull request: "ref": "refs/pull/123/head"
• Commit: "ref": "abcdef123456..."

2. Release Assets

If you were using the proxy to fetch a specific asset (like 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. zip) from a GitHub release, you can now use the resource zip with an inner object.

Old:

{
    "resource": "url",
    "url": "https://github-proxy.com/proxy/?repo=user/repo&release=v1.0&asset=plugin.zip"
}

New:

{

  "resource": "zip",
  "inner": {
    "resource": "git:directory",
    "url": "https://github.com/owner/repo",
    "ref": "main"
  }
}

Why is this better?

The proxy was vital in Playground’s early days. Recent infrastructure improvements, Playground’s built-in CORS proxy, and GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/ over 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. support now enable native GitHub repository access. This removes the dependency on third-party services and improves stability.

A huge thank you to Christoph for keeping this service running and stable over the past years. It played a massive role in making Playground useful early on.

Please check your Blueprints today. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Playground Team via the #playground 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.

We are excited to announce a significant update to the WordPress Playground that completely improves the developer experience: a brand-new Blueprint Editor.

While the ability to edit Blueprints has existed previously, this update brings a polished, cohesive interface that combines a powerful code editor directly with the file browser. This new functionality is designed to streamline your workflow, making it easier than ever to prototype, test, and share WordPress configurations.

Key Features

1. Intelligent Auto-Completion
Writing 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. schemas just got a lot faster. The new editor features built-in auto-completion that guides developers as they type. Whether you are adding a new step or defining a specific configuration, the editor helps you generate valid Blueprints without constantly referring to documentation. It also includes full support for Blueprints v2.

2. Live “Auto-Recreate” Functionality
This is the game-changer. We have introduced an “Auto-recreate Playground from the Blueprint” toggle.

When enabled, any change you make in the code editor is immediately reflected in the WordPress instance on the right. You no longer need to manually reload or restart the instance. As seen in the demo, you can simply type a command to install 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. (like 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/), and watch the site update in real-time.

Faster Iteration

This update is perfect for developers who need to iterate quickly. You can easily copy a Blueprint from another environment, load it into Playground, and tweak it live. It creates an immediate feedback 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 that drastically reduces development time. The Blueprint Editor also provides a validation that can guide your blueprint creation.

Try It Out

We invite you to explore the new editor features today. We want to hear your thoughts. Please let us know what you think about this new workflow in the comments below, or share your feedback directly with us in the Playground 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.

The WordPress Playground CLICLI Command Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress. version 3.0.20 is live! This update introduces powerful new PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php extensions (ImageMagick, SOAP, and AVIF GD Support) that enhance the capabilities of your in-browser WordPress instances, making the playground compatible with plugins and themes that utilize these extensions. Let’s dive into what’s new.

ImageMagick: Your All-in-One Image Processing

Many developers rely on ImageMagick for advanced image manipulation, and now you can use it directly within WordPress Playground. The new ImageMagick extension supports a wide range of formats, including: JPG, PNG, GIF, WEBP (for PHP 8.0 and newer).

This addition increases the PHP bundle size by approximately 4.39MB, a worthwhile trade-off for the power and flexibility it provides. We are also exploring the possibility of shipping ImageMagick in the browser in the future for even better performance.

SOAP Extension: Connecting to Web Services Made Easy

The SOAP extension now supports all PHP builds, allowing you to connect your Playground instances to SOAP-based web services.

Getting started is simple. Here’s a quick example of how you can use the SOAP client to convert temperatures:

<?php
try {
    // Create SOAP client that in theory Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit
    $client = new SoapClient('<your SOAP endpoint>');
    
    // Submit the values to the client
    $celsius = 25;
    $params = array('Celsius' => $celsius);
    $response = $client->CelsiusToFahrenheit($params);
    
    echo "Input: {$celsius}°C\n";
    echo "Result: {$response->CelsiusToFahrenheitResult}°F\n";
    
} catch (SoapFault $e) {
    echo "SOAP Error: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
}

In the previous version of @wp-playground/cli, this code, it triggered a Fatal Error, and now it executes successfully. 

AVIF Support in the GD Extension

The GD extension in WordPress Playground now supports AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) for PHP 8.1 and newer. This enables you to convert images to and from the AVIF format, which provides higher compression, smaller file sizes compared to JPEG, and also supports transparency.

Now WordPress Playground compiles the libaom (AV1 codec) and libavif libraries (version 0.8.2) to WebAssembly, this is a significant technical achievement that brings modern image processing directly to your browser.

Two new functions are available for builders on WordPress Playground from the GD extension:

• imagecreatefromavif: Reads an AVIF image and returns a GdImage instance for manipulation.
• imageavi: Outputs or saves an image in AVIF format. With the possibility of setting quality and speed compression as parameters.

For more information, check the imageavif and imagecreatefromavif guides.

Practical Example

Convert a JPEG to AVIF:

<?php
// Load JPEG image
$image = imagecreatefromjpeg('photo.jpg');

// Save as AVIF with custom quality
imageavif($image, 'photo.avif', quality: 85);

// Clean up
imagedestroy($image);

echo "Converted photo.jpg to photo.avif\n";

Conclusion

These additions enhance the WordPress Playground’s compatibility with a broader range of plugins and themes. Is there another 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. you feel is essential to the WordPress ecosystem? Please let us know in the comments. 

To use the WordPress Playground’s latest version, run the command:

$ npx @wp-playground/cli@latest server

To learn more about @wp-playground/cli at the Playground CLI guide. You create! Share your projects and feedback with us in the  #playground Slack channel.