Review Process

Theme Review Process

Every theme that is uploaded for inclusion in the 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/ theme directory goes through this process:

  1. A theme gets uploaded.
  2. A theme goes to the new theme queue.
  3. A theme gets allocated a theme reviewer.
  4. The reviewer does a review by checking the required items and noting any recommendations.
  5. Once the review is done the review is added to the theme ticket.
  6. If all the required items aren’t met, the theme should not be approved and left open in reviewing status for updates.
  7. If a theme ticket has no update from the theme author for 7 days it may be closed due to inactivity.
    If a theme ticket has no update from the theme reviewer within the first 48 hours after assignment, the author can request that the theme is returned to the queue.
  8. Once a theme passes all required checks, the reviewer marks the theme as approved.
  9. Once a theme is approved the ticket will move to a new queue where a key reviewer will do the final review.
  10. If issues are found during the final review, the ticket will be reopened and the theme author and reviewer asked to continue the review.
  11. When no issues are found the ticket is marked live and the theme shows up on the WordPress.org repo and all updates to it from then on are done in the update queue.

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Theme Upload Limit

  1. You are allowed to have only one theme in the queue at all times. You have to wait until your existing ticket is either live or closed before you submit a second theme.
  2. Above rules will not be applied to updates of themes that are already in the directory.

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Timeframes

There are no exact time frames for the queues. In short, the more people we have reviewing, the shorter the queues – you can find out more about becoming a reviewer here.

Allocated tickets without a response from either the theme author or reviewer will be closed or reallocated to a new reviewer. Even if you just update to say you will be unable to take action for a few days, it’s important to keep communicating in tickets.

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The Review

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Required

There are certain checks that all themes need to pass before they can be put on the WordPress.org theme repository. You can find all the required items here.

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Items that are recommended but does not affect the outcome of the review.

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Notes

Reviewers are encouraged to add extra information. For example commenting on design recommendations.

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Case by case

In some instances themes need consideration apart from the requirements. When this is the case, one of the team representatives will review in addition to a reviewer. An example of this may be a licensing issue or possible cloning of themes.

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