Writable storage behind ps.w.org / s.w.org?

We’re fixing a stale-thumbnail bug on the 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. directory (wordpress.org#693) by generating resized screenshot thumbnails (300/600/900px) at ingest time instead of routing them through Photon.

ps.w.org currently serves files straight out of plugin SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/., so we don’t have anywhere writable to store the generated thumbnails. Does a writable path already exist behind ps.w.org or s.w.org for this kind of generated asset, or do we need one set up?

Context: https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress.org/pull/693#issuecomment-5022981540

Barry 5:55 pm on July 20, 2026

It’s a proxy to SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. and I would like to keep it that way. The “writable storage” is the SVN repo.
Samuel Wood (Otto) 6:19 pm on July 20, 2026

The question is, is it really worth generating these thumbnails at all? How much space/bandwidth is it really going to save to have smaller images here?

Just use the original sizes and don’t generate thumbnails. We know that works.
Barry 6:51 pm on July 20, 2026

I don’t think this PR does the right thing. It should drop ps.w.org, not Photon.

Having multiple layers of caching results in incorrect/stale results as you mention.
The URLs should be created with the last updated revision in the query string to ensure the cache is correct. I think we already do that in other places and the plugin directory already knows about this in the context of the request.
Not resizing the images results in poor UX.

Example: `https://i0.wp.com/plugins.svn.wordpress.org/0-day-analytics/assets/banner-1544×500.png?size=100×200&q=last_updated_revision`
Dan Zakirov 7:40 pm on July 21, 2026

Thanks, this makes sense. I reworked https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress.org/pull/693 in this direction. Photon now uses plugins.svn.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ with the revision passed through the source query, while the direct ps.w.org src and lightbox URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org remain unchanged. The updated branch is pushed, all checks pass, and it is ready for sandbox testing.

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