Felix Arntz @flixos90 (co-Team RepTeam RepA Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.) – Vercel
James LePage @isotropic (co-Team Rep) – Automattic
The AI Contributor group met on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, to discuss the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release, progress on the AI Experimentation pluginPluginA 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., and plans for WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia.
WordPress 7.0 Release & Schedule
With RC1 released yesterday, the team is shifting focus toward the final stretch of the 7.0 cycle.
Current Target:The final release remains scheduled for Thursday, April 9, 2026.
Potential Delays: Discussions regarding real-time collaboration in 7.0 are ongoing. While this shouldn’t delay the final launch, it may impact the timing of RC2. Any official changes will be communicated via Make CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
7.1 Outlook: If the 7.0 window narrows, several items (like advanced connectors filtering) are already being eyed for the 7.1 cycle to ensure they receive proper maturity and testing.
AI Experiments PluginAI Experiments PluginWordPress's AI laboratory bringing all building blocks together. Serves as both a user tool and developer reference implementation. First release (v0.1.0) includes Title Generation experiment. (v0.6 & v0.7)
Version 0.6.0 is now live, featuring major image editing and refinement capabilities in the post editor and media library.
Version 0.7.0:Slated for Tuesday, April 7, just ahead of the WordPress 7.0 release. Development may be slightly slower over the next two weeks due to team PTO.
A lot of potential for including the following (This is from the notes, and @jeffpaul walked us through much of this in the call)
Onboarding flows as necessary in support of the “Try AI” callout in WordPress 7.0
The “v1.0” Debate: The team discussed whether to jump to a 1.0 release for the WordPress 7.0 launch. The consensus is to maintain the “0.x” numbering for now to allow for breaking changes and experimental flexibility, though a 1.0 might be considered if features feel sufficiently “frozen” and stable.
New Experiment: Guidelines: Work is beginning on leveraging the new Content Guidelines (from GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ 22.7) to inform text generation, ensuring AI output aligns with site-specific rules.
MCP, WP AI Client, & AI connectors
Model Context Protocol (MCP): The MCP adapterMCP AdapterTranslates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts. is moving toward being merged into trunk. A Call for Testing will be published soon. There is an ongoing debate about whether to bundle the MCP experiment directly in the AI plugin or distribute it via a separate library/plugin to avoid composer-related hurdles.
Naming Conventions: A brief discussion occurred regarding the naming of the wp_supports_ai function. Some contributors suggested “allows” instead of “supports” to align with other Core naming patterns.
Call for Testing: A specific call for testing for the AI ProviderProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). connector plugins was highlighted. This is a critical piece of infrastructure for cross-plugin AI compatibility.
Contributor Day Lead:@raftaar1191 is organizing the AI table, @justlevine will assist online. @isotropic will be attending in a supporting capacity but won’t be leading the table due to travel timing.
Preparation: The team is finalizing a “Preparation Doc” for contributors and a list of AI providers offering free APIAPIAn 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. tiers (like Google AI Studio’s free tier) to ensure new contributors can test features without cost.
Design & Marketing
Branding Concerns: New plugin icons and banners featuring a “breaking away” WordPress logo were put on hold. There is concern that the visual could be interpreted as AI “breaking” WordPress, which is not the intended sentiment. We have paused the current design update and seek a more “positive” visual direction. Call for designers here who might feel strongly about the direction we can land on.
AI Landing Page:@jeffpaul proposed a dedicated wordpress.org/ai marketing page (similar to the Gutenberg landing page) to showcase the team’s work to non-technical users. This is currently limited by a lack of dedicated design resources.
Decision Points
Experiment Lifecycle: A new document has been drafted to define how an “Experiment” graduates to a “Feature” within the plugin.
UIUIUI 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. Refresh: Two competing PRs are in progress to modernize the settings page—one using Data Views/Forms and another focusing on a “Connectors” style UI.
The WordPress AI Team is excited to invite the community to test a growing collection of community-built AI connector plugins. These plugins extend WordPress by connecting it to additional AI services through the PHP AI Client — the provider-agnosticProvider-AgnosticSoftware design that works with multiple service providers without being tied to one. Recommended for WordPress AI integrations. SDK that is part of the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release (read more about it here).
WordPress 7.0 will ship with the PHPPHPPHP (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/preface.php AI Client baked into coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., and connectors for Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI appear as default options in the connector screen — ready to install with a single click. But the real power of the PHP AI Client’s open architecture is that anyone can build a connector for any AI service. The community has already stepped up — and these plugins are ready for testing.
If you’ve been curious about WordPress’s evolving AI capabilities, this is a great opportunity to try them out firsthand and help shape the experience.
What are AI connector plugins?
AI connector plugins act as bridges between WordPress and external AI services. They implement the PHP AI Client’s providerProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). interface, allowing any WordPress pluginPluginA 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. or theme to use AI capabilities — text generation, image generation, function calling, and more — through a unified, provider-agnostic APIAPIAn 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..
Connectors for Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI are featured prominently in the WordPress 7.0 connector screen and can be installed directly from there. The community connector plugins featured in this article expand the ecosystem further, giving users and developers more choice in which AI services power their WordPress sites.
Each connector plugin handles the specifics of communicating with its respective AI service, so developers and users can switch between providers without changing their code or workflow.
Screenshot of the connector screen having a community plugin connected.
Community connector plugins to test
AI Provider for Grok (xAI)
Grok is xAI’s conversational AI, known for its real-time knowledge and distinctive personality.
Capabilities: Text generation, image generation, function calling, vision input, structured output (JSONJSONJSON, 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. schema)
Models: Dynamically discovered from the Mistral API — always up to date with the latest available models, including mistral-medium-2505 for image generation
Ollama lets you run open-source AI models locally on your own hardware — no API key, no cloud, no cost. Perfect for privacy-conscious sites and local development.
Capabilities: Text generation using locally hosted models, automatic model detection, support for both local and Ollama Cloud deployments
Models: Any model available through Ollama’s registry (Llama 3.2, Mistral, Phi, Gemma, and more)
API key: No API key required for local mode — just have Ollama running on your machine. Cloud mode requires an Ollama Cloud API key.
Install: Install from WordPress.org or download from GitHub. For local mode, install Ollama and pull a model (e.g., ollama pull llama3.2).
AI Provider for OpenRouter
OpenRouter is a unified API gateway providing access to 400+ AI models from dozens of providers — including Anthropic, OpenAI, MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress., Google, Mistral, and many more — through a single API key.
Capabilities: Text generation with access to 400+ models, searchable model selection with provider filtering, free-tier model toggle, context length and pricing display
Models: Full OpenRouter catalog — Claude, GPT-4, Llama 3, Gemini, Mistral, and hundreds more
API key: Create an account at openrouter.ai and retrieve your key from Settings > Keys. Configure under Settings > OpenRouter AI in the WordPress admin.
We encourage testers to use WordPress 7.0 which includes the PHP AI Client as part of core. This is the closest you can get to the final WordPress 7.0 experience and helps us catch integration issues before the stable release.
You will also need the AI Experiments plugin, which provides the user-facing features that leverage the AI capabilities these connectors provide.
Prerequisites
WordPress 7.0 (Beta Tester Plugin recommended ahead of the final 7.0 release)
PHP 7.4 or higher (PHP 8.0+ for OpenRouter and Ollama)
An API key for at least one of the AI providers listed above (not required for Ollama in local mode)
Setup steps
Install WordPress 7.0.
Install and activate the AI Experiments plugin.
Install and activate one or more community connector plugins from the list above.
Navigate to the connector settings in your WordPress dashboard to verify the provider appears and is available.
What to test
1. Provider setup and connectivity
Does the connector plugin activate without errors?
Does the provider appear in the connector selection screen alongside the default providers (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI)?
Is the API key configuration straightforward?
Does the availability check succeed when the API key is valid?
2. Text generation
Enable AI experiments in the AI settings.
Open the post editor and and use text generation fetures. Do AI-powered suggestions appear?
Try switching between community connectors and the default providers — does the experience remain consistent?
Screenshot of showing AI Editor Experiments being enabled.
3. Image generation
For connectors that support image generation (currently Mistral):
Can you generate images using “Generate featured imageFeatured imageA featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts.”- feature in the editor?
How does the generation speed compare to the default providers?
4. Error handling
What happens when an invalid API key is provided?
For Ollama: what happens when the local Ollama service is not running?
Are error messages clear and actionable?
Known issues
Image generation is currently only available on select providers and models.
Questions to consider
When testing, we’d appreciate your thoughts on:
Setup experience: Was the installation and configuration process clear? What could be improved?
Provider switching: Did switching between community connectors and default providers feel seamless?
Response quality: How did the AI responses compare across different community providers and the defaults?
Performance: Did you notice latency or performance differences between providers?
Local AI (Ollama): If you tested local models, how did the experience compare to cloud providers? Was setup straightforward?
Error messages: When something went wrong, were the error messages helpful?
Documentation: Was there enough information to get started? What was missing?
Testing is open from 25 March2026 through 2 April 20268 April 2026.
Want to build your own connector?
The PHP AI Client makes it straightforward to build a connector for any AI service. If your preferred AI provider isn’t listed above, consider building one! The PHP AI Client documentation and the community connector plugins listed here are great starting points. At a high level, connector plugins need to:
Extend AbstractApiProvider from the PHP AI Client.
Implement model metadata discovery and model classes for supported capabilities.
Register the provider with AiClient::defaultRegistry() on the WordPress init hook.
We welcome new community connectors and would love to include them in future testing rounds.
Thank you for helping test and improve WordPress’s AI capabilities. The more providers the community builds and tests, the more choice WordPress users will have when AI features land in WordPress 7.0.
AI 0.6.0 has been released and is available for download! “What’s new in AI Experiments…” posts (labeled with the #aiex-release tag) are posted following every AI release, showcasing new features included in each release.
What’s New In AI 0.6.0?
We’re pleased to announce the release of AI v0.6.0, the latest update to the canonical pluginPluginA 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. powering experimental AI-powered features in WordPress. This release builds on recent work aligning with WordPress 7.0 by introducing image editing and refinement workflows, along with continued improvements to how AI Features and Experiments are structured and surfaced throughout the plugin.
What’s new in 0.6.0?
Image Editing and Refinement Workflows
Version 0.6.0 introduces the next phase of AI-powered media workflows by expanding beyond image generation into image editing and refinement.
Users can now:
Refine generated images through an iterative prompt-based workflow
Edit existing images directly within the Media Library
Apply preset editing actions, such as expanding or removing backgrounds and removing or replacing elements within an image
Together, these updates begin to establish a more complete AI-assisted image editing experience inside WordPress, allowing authors to not just generate images, but actively refine and adapt them without leaving the editor or admin.
Improvements to AI Feature Structure
This release also includes an important internal shift in how functionality is organized within the plugin.
Experiments have been refactored to be treated as a type of Feature, helping create a clearer structure for how AI capabilities are registered, surfaced, and evolved over time. This lays the groundwork for promoting more mature Experiments into stable Features in future releases.
As part of this evolution, the plugin has also been renamed from AI Experiments to simply AI, reflecting its growing role as the central place for AI-powered functionality in WordPress.
Editor and Workflow Enhancements
Several improvements have been made to the editor experience to make AI features easier to discover and use:
The Generate Alt Text action has been moved to the Content tab for improved visibility
UIUIUI 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. labels and interactions have been refined for greater consistency
AI abilities, such as title generation, have been standardized for more predictable behavior
These updates continue the effort to make AI features feel like a natural part of the WordPress editing experience, rather than separate or experimental add-ons. The AI plugin continues to serve as a laboratory for exploring how AI can support real publishing workflows, combining capabilities like content generation, editorial review, and media creation into a unified experience.
Stability and Developer Improvements
Version 0.6.0 also includes a number of fixes and developer-focused updates, including:
Improved error handling in the Generate Alt Text workflow
Refactoring of upgrade routines and migrationMigrationMoving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. handling
Updates to plugin constants and hook naming conventions
These changes help improve reliability and make it easier for contributors and developers to extend and build on the plugin.
What’s next in 0.7.0?
Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for v0.7.0, including:
Onboarding flows as necessary in support of the “Try AI” callout in WordPress 7.0
Contextual Tagging experiment that suggests post tags and categories based on post content, title, and excerptExcerptAn excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox., helping authors apply consistent, relevant taxonomyTaxonomyA taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. directly in the editor
Your help and feedback are what make these experiments possible.
Get involved
As always, we welcome feedback, testing, and contributions from the community. Whether you are interested in editor UXUXUX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it., APIs, accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), performance, or AI ethics and policy, there are many ways to participate.
Content Guidelines is now available as a GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ experiment — a single place in WordPress to define the content standards that shape how your site’s content is written, edited, and managed.
Background
In early February, we proposed Content Guidelines as a Gutenberg experiment. The idea: give site owners a first-class place in WordPress to capture editorial voice, tone, image preferences, and other content standards — so every actor in the ecosystem, whether human or automated, works from the same source of truth. While the original proposal framed this as “Content Guidelines,” we realised during development that the concept extends well beyond content — to design guidelines, coding standards, and more — so we dropped “Content” from the public-facing naming before release.
A dedicated Settings page for defining site-wide guidelines across multiple categories (#75164, #75420)
BlockBlockBlock 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.-level guidelines for setting content rules on individual block types (#76187)
Import, Export, and Revision History to keep guidelines portable and recoverable (#76155)
How to try it
Guidelines is behind the Gutenberg experiments flag. To enable it:
Go to Gutenberg > Experiments in your WordPress admin
Check “Guidelines”
Save changes
A new “Guidelines” submenu will appear under Settings.
The page organizes guidelines into expandable accordion sections:
Site — Your site’s goals, personality, target audience, and industry. Foundational context that any tool or contributor can reference.
Copy — Tone, voice, brand personality, and vocabulary preferences. An editorial style guide, living inside WordPress.
Images — Preferred image styles, colors, moods, and subjects to include or avoid.
Blocks — Per-block-type rules for content blocks. For example, specifying that Paragraph blocks should favour short sentences, or that Image blocks should always include descriptive alt text.
Additional — Anything else: accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) requirements, linking practices, formatting conventions, or rules that don’t fit the categories above.
Import, Export, and RevisionsRevisionsThe 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.
An Actions section at the bottom of the page provides:
Export — Download guidelines as a guidelines.json file for backup or sharing across sites.
Import — Upload a previously exported JSONJSONJSON, 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. file to replace the current guidelines.
Revision History — Browse and restore previous versions, powered by WordPress’s built-in revision system.
Architecture overview
For developers and pluginPluginA 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. authors interested in building on top of Guidelines, here’s a brief overview. The full technical discussion is tracked in #75258.
Storage — Guidelines uses a Custom Post TypeCustom Post TypeWordPress can hold and display many different types of content. A single item of such a content is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. Custom Post Types gives your site the ability to have templated posts, to simplify the concept. (wp_content_guideline) with each guideline categoryCategoryThe 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. stored as post metaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. with revision support. This gives us atomic updates, native revision history, flexible schema evolution, and simple import/export.
REST APIREST APIThe REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”)
https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/ — The feature exposes endpoints at /wp/v2/content-guidelines for retrieving, creating, and updating guidelines. You can filterFilterFilters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. by category (?category=copy) or block type (?block=core/paragraph), making it straightforward for any plugin to retrieve only the guidelines it needs. All endpoints require the manage_options capability.
Integration surface — Guidelines intentionally focuses on capture and retrieval. It doesn’t enforce rules or generate content on its own. Instead, it creates a shared foundation that other features can build on — whether that’s AI-powered tools from the AI Experiments plugin, style checkers, linting plugins, or onboarding wizards.
What’s next
This is the first iteration. We’re exploring several directions as the experiment evolves:
AI Experiments integration — Making guidelines available to experiments like Generate Review Notes, so AI-generated feedback reflects your site’s actual standards
Plugin APIAPIAn 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. for custom categories — PHPPHPPHP (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/preface.php filters and registration hooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. so plugins can extend the default categories with their own (e.g., “SEO Guidelines”, “Product Descriptions”)
Richer guideline structure — Support for more structured formats within categories, such as DOs and DON’Ts, examples, and nested sub-sections
WordPress 7.1 proposal — We’re considering proposing Guidelines for inclusion in WordPress 7.1, moving it from an experiment toward a coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. feature that the broader ecosystem can build on.
Get involved
We’d love your feedback as this experiment evolves. If you’d like to try it:
Enable the experiment under Settings > Gutenberg Experiments
Head to Settings > Guidelines and start defining your content standards
The most helpful feedback right now:
What content standards do you wish tools would consistently follow?
Does the category structure (Site, Copy, Images, Blocks, Additional) cover your needs?
If you’re a plugin author, how would you use the REST API?
As always, we welcome feedback, testing, and contributions from the community. The tracking issue is #75171, and feedback is welcome there or in the comments below.
The AI Contributor group met on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, to discuss the final push for WordPress 7.0, upcoming pluginPluginA 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. releases, and critical architecture decisions regarding the MCP (Model Context Protocol) and the AI “Master Switch.”
AI Experiments PluginAI Experiments PluginWordPress's AI laboratory bringing all building blocks together. Serves as both a user tool and developer reference implementation. First release (v0.1.0) includes Title Generation experiment.
Version 0.5.0 Released: This version aligns the plugin with the AI client in WordPress 7.0 CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
Version 0.6.0 Scheduled: Targeting a release tomorrow. The primary focus is Image Editing, which has been identified as a Feature (notably not an Experiment) for the 7.0 cycle.
Refine from Notes: A new experiment is underway allowing AI to action comments within post notes to update content.
Contextual Tagging: Work is beginning on AI-suggested categories and tags, though it may land in a post-7.0 release.
UIUIUI 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. and Design Concerns
Settings Refactor: There is a push to align the AI settings page with the modern “Connectors” UI.
Banner Design Feedback:@jeffpaul raised concerns regarding the new “WordPress in bits” banner design, noting that the floating elements could be interpreted as AI “breaking up” or destroying WordPress. Designers are encouraged to provide feedback on the Trac ticket by the end of the week.
The AI “Off Switch”
A significant portion of the meeting focused on the implementation of a global constant to disable AI features.
The Conflict: There is a debate between using a filterFilterFilters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. (allowing plugins to override) versus a strict constant (an “Off Switch”).
Decision: To meet the RC1 deadline tomorrow, the team will merge the current implementation but continue the discussion during the RCRelease CandidateA beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. phase. The goal is to ensure users have a transparent way to opt-out of AI entirely without plugin interference.
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
Plugin vs. Package:Discussion continued on whether the MCP adapterMCP AdapterTranslates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts. should be a standalone plugin on WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ or bundled as a package.
Stability: @dlevine emphasized that if AI becomes user-facing in 7.0, the MCP infrastructure must be considered stable.
Action: @ovidiuiulian is working to get version 0.5.0 of the MCP adapter out to stabilize the codebase before any further refactoring.
Community & Documentation
WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia Resources:@raftaar1191 presented a draft for a Core-AI welcome and resource list for contributors. The team is encouraged to review and provide feedback directly in the document.
Open SourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Providers: The group discussed the lack of a prominent “Open Source” model providerProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). on the initial connector screen. While Local-LLM options like Ollama are in development, they may not be approved by the Plugins team and released in time for the WP 7.0 launch.
Weekly Goals
Merge the AI Off Switch into Core for RC1 by tomorrow.
Release AI Experiments 0.6.0 featuring Image Editing.
Publish PHPMCP Schema to Packagist (needs admin assistance).
Gather Design Feedback on the AI banner imagery to avoid negative connotations.
AI Experiments 0.5.0 has been released and is available for download! “What’s new in AI Experiments…” posts (labeled with the #aiex-release tag) are posted following every AI Experiments release, showcasing new features included in each release.
What’s New In AI Experiments 0.5.0?
We’re pleased to announce the release of AI Experiments v0.5.0, the latest update to the canonical pluginPluginA 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. powering experimental AI-powered features in WordPress. This release focuses on preparing the plugin for the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release, simplifying dependencies and aligning the plugin with the AI functionality now landing in coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. with the Connectors screen.
What’s new in 0.5.0?
Aligning with WordPress 7.0
One of the major goals of this release is aligning the plugin with WordPress 7.0’s built-in AI capabilities, specifically the shift of the WP AI Client from a standalone, canonical Composer package to bundled in WordPress core.
In previous versions, the AI Experiments pluginAI Experiments PluginWordPress's AI laboratory bringing all building blocks together. Serves as both a user tool and developer reference implementation. First release (v0.1.0) includes Title Generation experiment. included its own dependencies for AI client functionality. With 0.5.0, those dependencies have been removed and the plugin now relies on WordPress core’s AI infrastructure instead. This helps ensure the experiments remain compatible with the direction of AI development in core and reduces duplication between the plugin and WordPress itself.
As part of this shift, the plugin now sets WordPress 7.0 as its minimum supported version, reflecting the move toward using the AI features provided directly by WordPress which are only available from WordPress 7.0 onward. If you’re using the plugin with WordPress 6.9, then you’ll need to wait for the release of WordPress 7.0 on April 9th to upgrade the plugin (or alternatively can upgrade to a betaBetaA 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./RCRelease CandidateA beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. version of WordPress 7.0 to continue testing).
Improved Connector Integration
The plugin has also been updated to better align with the connector-based architecture used in WordPress for connecting AI providers.
Credentials previously stored through the plugin’s AI Credentials screen are now migrated to the Connectors screen, ensuring compatibility with the broader ecosystem of AI provider plugins and the connector APIs in core.
This change makes it easier for experiments to interact with whichever AI providers a site has configured, while keeping providerProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). management centralized in WordPress.
What’s next in 0.6.0?
Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for v0.6.0, including:
Onboarding flows as necessary in support of the “Try AI” callout in WordPress 7.0
Content Provenance tracking for text and images via C2PA
Contextual Tagging experiment that suggests post tags and categories based on post content, title, and excerptExcerptAn excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox., helping authors apply consistent, relevant taxonomyTaxonomyA taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. directly in the editor
Your help and feedback are what make these experiments possible.
Get involved
As always, we welcome feedback, testing, and contributions from the community. Whether you are interested in editor UXUXUX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it., APIs, accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), performance, or AI ethics and policy, there are many ways to participate.
This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on final preparations for WordPress 7.0, specifically addressing critical compatibility issues between the AI Experiments pluginAI Experiments PluginWordPress's AI laboratory bringing all building blocks together. Serves as both a user tool and developer reference implementation. First release (v0.1.0) includes Title Generation experiment. and coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. The group also discussed a potential rebrand of the experiments pluginPluginA 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., the introduction of “Capital F” features, and initial coordination for the upcoming WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.
AI Experiments Plugin & Rebranding
@jeffpaul shared major updates regarding the roadmap for the experiments plugin as it transitions toward the WordPress 7.0 release.
Version 0.5 and 0.6: The upcoming 0.5 release will shift the plugin to leverage the AI client now bundled in WordPress core, raising the minimum supported version to 7.0. This allows the team to remove technical debt by dropping support for 6.9.
“Capital F” Features: Following feedback from Matt, the team is identifying “Features” (stable) versus “Experiments” (testing). Image Editing is slated to be the first official “Feature” elevated within the plugin.
Rebranding Discussion: With the mix of stable features and experiments, the name “AI Experiments” may no longer fit. Early suggestions include WordPress AI, AI, or AI Labs.
A significant portion of the meeting addressed a “fatal error” risk for users testing WordPress 7.0 with the current version of the AI Experiments plugin.
Fatal Error Alert:@jorgefilipecosta noted that the current plugin release crashes on WordPress 7.0 due to conflicts with the now-core AI Client.
Immediate Patching: @darinkotter confirmed the fix is already in develop. The team is working to push version 0.5 immediately to ensure that when the “Try AI” call-out appears in the next WordPress BetaBetaA 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., users land on a functional experience.
AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility):Several accessibility issues in GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ related to AI features were identified. @jorgefilipecosta and @raftaar1191 are coordinating to ensure these are patched before the RC1 milestone.
Technical Updates: Core & MCP
Kill Switch (Trac 64706):@davidlevine presented a PR for a single switch to disable all LLM-related features in core, providing site owners with high-level control over AI functionality.
APIAPIAn 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. Key Masking (Trac 64819): Progress continues on validating and masking API keys. While merged in Gutenberg, work remains to ensure it is properly backported to core.
MCP AdapterMCP AdapterTranslates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts.:@neillmcshea reported that the 0.5.0 release of the MCP (Model Context Protocol) adapter is currently in testing and awaiting final feedback.
Onboarding Materials:@raftaar1191 suggested a video overview or a “TL;DR” of the AI team’s progress over the last six months to help new contributors get up to speed.
Task Identification:@jeffpaul will work on identifying “Good First Issues” across the PHPPHPPHP (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/preface.php AI Client, WordPress Core, and the Experiments plugin to give new attendees clear entry points.
Pre-event Communication: The team discussed drafting a Make post or email for registered attendees to provide pre-contributor day “homework” or context.
Next Steps
Release AI Experiments 0.5:@jeffpaul and @darinkotter to tag and release the compatibility fix to prevent fatal errors on WP 7.0.
Feature Graduation Docs:@jeffpaul to draft a PR outlining the conceptual requirements for an experiment to graduate to a “Feature.”
Accessibility Patches: Review and merge accessibility fixes for the connectors interface.
WordCamp Asia Planning:@raftaar1191 to draft a welcome message/resource list for Contributor Day.
AI Experiments 0.4.0 has been released and is available for download! “What’s new in AI Experiments…” posts (labeled with the #aiex-release tag) are posted following every AI Experiments release, showcasing new features included in each release.
What’s New In AI Experiments 0.4.0?
We’re pleased to announce the release of AI Experiments v0.4.0, the latest update to the canonical pluginPluginA 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. powering experimental AI-powered features in WordPress. This release introduces new editor and admin capabilities focused on content refinement and media generation, while continuing to improve the developer experience and overall UIUIUI 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. polish.
What’s new in 0.4.0?
Generate Images in the Editor
Version 0.4.0 introduces a new Generate Image workflow, allowing authors to create images from prompts directly within the editor. The new modal provides a streamlined creative flow where users can:
Generate an image from a prompt
Edit the prompt and try again
Generate alternative variations
Insert the selected image directly into the blockBlockBlock 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.
This reduces the friction of sourcing or creating visuals and allows authors to stay focused within the writing experience.
Generate Images in the Media Library
Version 0.4.0 also introduces Generate Image support within the Media Library, enabling prompt-based image creation with the WordPress admin and outside the post editor. Using the new Generate Image modal, users can create images from a text prompt and immediately insert them into their site’s media collection. The workflow allows authors to:
Generate an image from a prompt
Generate additional variations
Save the selected image directly to the Media Library
This makes it easier to create visual assets without leaving WordPress, while keeping generated images available for reuse across posts and pages.
Generate Review Notes
A new Generate Review Notes experiment brings AI-assisted editorial review into the block editor. Authors and editors can ask AI to analyze content and generate Notes-based suggestions for improvements. These suggestions appear directly in the editor and may include:
AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) improvements (e.g., missing alt text)
Review Notes can be generated for an entire post or individual blocks, making it easier to refine content iteratively during the editorial process.
UI and Editor Improvements
This release also includes improvements and polish across several areas of the plugin, including refinements to the image generation workflow, editor integration, Abilities Explorer, and internal APIs used by the experiments.
What’s next in 0.5.0?
Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for v0.5.0, including:
Updating the WP AI Client to utilize what’s available in WordPress 7.0
Onboarding flows as necessary in support of the “Try AI” callout in WordPress 7.0
Refining Experiments to potentially elevated to Feature within the plugin, while renaming the plugin from AI Experiments to WordPress AI
Contextual Tagging experiment that suggests post tags and categories based on post content, title, and excerptExcerptAn excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox., helping authors apply consistent, relevant taxonomyTaxonomyA taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. directly in the editor.
Several early prototype experiments are also being explored, including type-ahead suggestions, content moderation assistance, extended providerProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). support, AI request logging, and tools like the AI Playground and deeper MCP integration. These concepts are still exploratory, but they help test how AI could support real workflows across WordPress. We encourage users and developers to review and test these ideas and share feedback so the most valuable experiments can mature and land in upcoming releases like 0.5.0.
Thanks to contributors!
A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release, including:
Your help and feedback are what make these experiments possible.
Get involved
As always, we welcome feedback, testing, and contributions from the community. Whether you are interested in editor UXUXUX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it., APIs, accessibility, performance, or AI ethics and policy, there are many ways to participate.
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