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 formerly named “CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-AI Contributor Check-in” from 2025 reconvened today as the “AI Contributor weekly meeting” in 2026 as a weekly video chat for contributors to discuss progress and milestones across the projects maintained by the WordPress AI team. Folks are welcome to join on Wednesday’s at 1700 UTC via Google Meet with in-meeting notes captured in a Slack Canvas and then paired with Gemini meeting notes to help generate this meeting summary post.
This week’s AI Contributor meeting focused on follow-through after the AI Experiments 0.2.0 release, progress on Abilities work targeting core consideration, and the need to tighten coordination ahead of the WordPress 7.0BetaBetaA 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. 1 milestone on February 19. The group also discussed review bandwidth, documentation gaps, and upcoming decision points for the broader AI community chat.
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.
The AI Experiments plugin v0.2.0 was released earlier this week.
The release announcement post is ready and awaiting a final +1 before publishing.
The current iteration of the Abilities Explorer is included in v0.2.0.
Looking ahead to v0.3.0, the group discussed refactoring the Abilities Explorer to TypeScript and exploring tighter integration with Data Views and Forms.
@dkotter noted that several experiment 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. items planned for v0.3.0 are awaiting review feedback from @jason_the_adams.
There was shared agreement that the 0.2.0 cycle took longer than intended, and that improving release cadence and review velocity remains a priority.
Abilities Work
@jorgefilipecosta provided an update on Abilities work targeting WordPress core:
Feedback and reviews on the Settings are nearly complete, and the work is close to being ready for merge.
Feedback and reviews on the Core Post Management Abilities PR is still underway.
After wrapping that effort, @jorgefilipecosta plans to propose a follow-up PR to continue expanding the Abilities surface area.
There was continued discussion around structuring abilities in a more granular way, including per–post type abilities, to allow greater flexibility and extensibility.
The group also reaffirmed the importance of clearly positioning Abilities as part of the AI component in core, to ensure related tickets are visible to the AI team and triaged appropriately.
Introducing integration tests in the PHP AI Client to catch issues earlier, informed by recent bug reports.
Shifting focus to upcoming WordPress AI Client updates.
Continuing preparation for publishing the AI client merge proposal and associated PRs, to allow sufficient discussion within core ahead of the Beta 1 deadline.
There was consensus that these proposals need to land soon to avoid being blocked by the February 19 timeline.
Several PRs are open on 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. to implement the PHP MCP schema.
While the work is progressing, review bandwidth remains the primary bottleneck.
Contributors were encouraged to help review where possible to move the adapter forward.
The group reiterated that the MCP Adapter is expected to remain a 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, separate from the WordPress AI Client being considered for core.
Tooling, Documentation, and Upcoming Decision Points
Meeting timing: There is ongoing confusion around whether weekly and bi-weekly calls occur at 1600 or 1700 UTC. @jeffpaul will confirm and update the calendar to resolve this.
@jeffpaul will publish the AI Experiments v0.2.0 announcement post and outstanding meeting summaries.
@jorgefilipecosta will finalize testing on the Core Post Management Abilities PR, notify @justlevine when ready for another review pass, and prepare a follow-up abilities PR.
@jason_the_adams and @flixos90 will continue coordinating on AI client releases and the core merge proposal.
@jeffpaul will confirm and update the correct meeting times for weekly and bi-weekly calls.
Contributors are encouraged to review MCP Adapter PRs and help test available drafts.
WP Bench and the February 19 Beta 1 milestone will be key topics for the upcoming community Slack chat.
The formerly named “CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-AI Contributor Check-in” from 2025 reconvened today as the “AI Contributor weekly meeting” in 2026 as a weekly video chat for contributors to discuss progress and milestones across the projects maintained by the WordPress AI team. Folks are welcome to join on Wednesday’s at 1700 UTC via Google Meet with in-meeting notes captured in a Slack Canvas and then paired with Gemini meeting notes to help generate this meeting summary post.
This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on wrapping up the AI Experiments plugin 0.2.0 milestone, unblocking progress on Abilities work, and continuing coordination toward potential AI client inclusion in WordPress 7.0. The group also discussed improving review velocity and establishing a more predictable release cadence going forward.
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. (v0.2.0)
@jeffpaul and @dkotter reviewed the remaining items in the 0.2.0 milestone earlier this week. Several PRs have already been merged, with a small number of stragglers being wrapped up or deferred to 0.3.0.
@jeffpaul is preparing the 0.2.0 release with the goal of shipping imminently.
A Make/AI post announcing the release and highlighting new experiments is planned shortly after.
Once 0.2.0 ships, the team will move into the next milestone, including deferred items and additional targeted experiments.
There was agreement that release cadence needs to improve; @jeffpaul and @dkotter will likely establish a recurring UAT, merge, and release rhythm (potentially UAT bi-weekly, release monthly) to prevent future milestones from dragging on.
Abilities and Abilities Explorer
Abilities work remains an active area of focus, with several parallel threads:
@justlevine has been leading updates but has been dealing with illness; @dkotter offered to review and test the Abilities Explorer once he finishes remaining 0.2.0 work.
@jorgefilipecosta shared a proposal and PR for Core Post Management Abilities, intended both as a concrete feature and as an example of how third-party plugins could implement richer, schema-driven abilities.
The group discussed versioning and deprecation strategies for abilities, with @jason_the_adams encouraging contributors to engage on the existing track ticket and align on a forward-compatible approach.
There was also discussion around polymorphic abilities versus post-type-specific abilities, with interest in a layered approach that supports both generic, low-level abilities and more specialized ones where appropriate.
The PHP AI client v0.4.0 is expected to ship soon, followed by a new release of the WordPress AI client.
@flixos90 will research and outline a proposal for bringing the WordPress AI client (and its PHP dependency) into core, potentially bundling the PHP client similarly to the Requests library.
The WordPress AI client will likely be broken into smaller, focused PRs for core (for example, prompt building and settings handled separately).
Streaming support will be removed from the PHP client for now due to technical and hosting constraints.
Providers will not ship in core initially; instead, they will live in separate plugins, with a “kill switch” 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. planned to allow sites to disable AI functionality entirely or conditionally.
@isotropic offered to draft the Make/Core proposal post to support the core inclusion effort and help manage review load.
@ovidiu-galatan has opened a series of PRs updating 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., including schema-to-PHP class generation.
Several PRs remain open and are in need of review to move the effort forward.
Next steps
@jeffpaul will finalize and ship the AI Experiments plugin 0.2.0 release and publish a Make/AI announcement post.
@dkotter will review and test the Abilities Explorer after finishing remaining 0.2.0 reviews.
@jason_the_adams will post an update on abilities versioning and deprecation and continue coordinating AI client releases with @flixos90.
@isotropic will draft the Make/Core proposal post for AI client inclusion.
Contributors are encouraged to help review MCP PRs and test the latest 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 ahead of upcoming core discussions.
The AI Contributor weekly meeting reconvened today (Slack archive) to discuss progress, upcoming milestones, and coordination efforts across the projects maintained by the WordPress AI team. This meeting focused on preparation for WordPress 7.0BetaBetaA 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. 1 and tooling improvements for the team.
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 preparation and timelines
@jeffpaul opened the meeting by reminding the team that WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is just four weeks away (February 19th). This timeline constraint was emphasized throughout the discussion as a key factor for planning and decision-making.
Key items identified for the 7.0 milestone:
WP AI Client: a PR or a set of PRs need to be prepared, paired with a merge proposal post on Make/CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
Abilities APIAbilities APIA core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system.: The client-side JS counterpart is intended to ship as part of 7.0
Additional core abilities: @jorgefilipecosta expressed hope to include settings management and user management abilities, with post management abilities also under consideration
Versionless AbilityAbilityA registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. Deprecation: @justlevine advocated for including versionless deprecation and a querying 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. in 7.0, acknowledging the time constraints
Regarding 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/ workflows, @jorgefilipecosta clarified that they remain in early exploratory stages and will not impact the AI team’s efforts. Once shipped, they will simply be another consumer of abilities, with no expected major impact on AI initiatives. The potential for hybrid abilities was acknowledged but remains on hold pending a concrete use case.
WP AI Client updates
@jason_the_adams provided an update on the WP AI Client roadmap:
Planning PHP AI Client v0.4.1 to address a bug before the 7.0 milestone
@flixos90 is exploring the best approach to include PHP AI Client in core, similar to how the Requests library is integrated
@flixos90 will circle back with details on the integration approach
@jason_the_adams mentioned a forthcoming PR that will add 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. to control user access to running AI prompts, allowing site administrators to limit access by user, context, and other criteria
@isotropic to write the merge proposal for the WP AI Client inclusion in WordPress 7.0.
WP Bench and benchmarking tooling
@jeffpaul introduced discussion around WP Bench, an AI benchmarking tool developed by the team. @jason_the_adams provided an overview:
WP Bench evaluates various language models against WordPress-specific challenges, providing metrics on model performance in terms of WordPress knowledge and code execution
The goal is to motivate AI providers to improve their models for WordPress contexts, while also helping AI consumers select the right model for specific WordPress tasks
The tool is written in Python, with dataset tests defined in 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. format for easy contribution
Contribution is welcome, particularly in building out additional tests and datasets
@johnbillion asked whether WP Bench is running anywhere where results can be publicly viewed, or if it’s primarily a local-first tool; @shadyvb shared a test run for inspection
@raftaar1191 offered to update the WP Bench documentation to clarify that it can be tested locally, particularly with Ollama, and to ensure users understand how to run it on their local machines
Observability, tracing, and evaluation
Several contributors raised questions about observability and evaluation methodologies:
@justlevine asked whether there has been discussion about using WP Bench to evaluate changes to AGENTS.md or prompts in 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.
@jorgefilipecosta suggested that WP Bench could be used to evaluate AGENTS.md changes by running benchmarks and measuring score improvements
@shadyvb inquired about existing plans for supporting observability and tracing with tools like LangSmith or LangFuse
The group acknowledged that datasets are currently very limited, and current benchmark scores should be taken with a grain of salt. There was general agreement on the value of moving beyond manual evaluation and anecdotal experience toward more systematic testing approaches.
Given that integration tests require API keys, @jason_the_adams clarified that for now they are limiting execution to himself and @flixos90 running locally at their discretion before merging PRs or releasing, noting that there isn’t a precedent for WordPress storing API keys as GitHubGitHubGitHub 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 be the repository owner. https://github.com/ secrets for this type of automation.
Next steps
@flixos90 will explore and report back on the best approach to include PHP AI Client into core, similar to the Requests library pattern
@isotropic will write the WP AI Client merge proposal for Make/Core
@raftaar1191 will update WP Bench documentation to include guidance on local testing, particularly with Ollama
The team will continue inviting contributors to test the WP AI Client
Discussion on versionless Ability Deprecation should continue toward consensus on a solution
Editor’s note (@jeffpaul): These notes were sitting in draft, and while dated do capture prior discussions, decisions, and other updates so I’m publishing this meeting summary (in a condensed format) for transparency purposes.
TLDR; The team met to review progress across the coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI initiatives, primarily focusing on the integration of the Abilities APIAbilities APIA core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system. into WordPress core, the immediate feature development for 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 the strategic prioritization of the WordPress AI client. Key updates included reaffirming the Abilities API’s presence in the WordPress 6.9 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., plans to ship an initial 0.1 version of the AI Experiments plugin with core functionality, and a concentrated effort to release a foundational version of the WordPress AI Client to unblock feature development.
Key Highlights
Abilities API in WordPress 6.9 Beta
The server-side Abilities API has successfully landed in the latest WordPress 6.9 Beta 2 release, with the team’s immediate focus shifting to encouraging extensive testing and iteration based on community feedback.
Development Homing: Future development and iteration of the 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. will happen within WordPress Core, and the original Abilities API repository is likely to be archived following the 6.9 release.
Client-Side Move: The JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/.abilityAbilityA registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. registration (front-end component) did not make the core merge deadline and will be moved to the 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/ repository. It will be released as a standalone NPM package to allow developers to easily incorporate it into their projects.
AI Experiments Plugin Progress
The 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 is moving past the scaffolding phase and is nearing its first feature release, which is expected to prompt broader community testing.
First Feature Release Target: The team plans to ship a 0.1.0 release once the admin settings screen PR and the first experimental feature, title generation, are merged.
Post-Release Testing: The 0.1.0 release will be accompanied by a call for testing to ensure the plugin’s architecture is sound across varied WordPress environments before more experimental features are built.
Technical Cleanup: Verbose documentation PRs (some possibly AI-generated) were merged with a plan to simplify them later. GitHubGitHubGitHub 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 be the repository owner. https://github.com/ Actions for linting/coding standards and a playground link for PR testing were merged to streamline the development process.
WordPress AI Client Update
The team is focusing development resources on releasing the first version of the WordPress-specific client to support the new features being built.
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 Release: Version 0.2.0 of the core PHP AI client was released about a week and a half ago, including various fixes and enhancements.
WP AI Client Focus: The priority is now a rapid release of the WordPress AI Client (WP AI client) to prevent it from blocking the AI Experiments plugin development.
Initial Feature Set (0.1.0): The proposed WP AI client 0.1.0 release will include the WordPress-specific Prompt Builder, the credentials management settings screen, and the WordPress HTTPHTTPHTTP 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. client/transporter.
Server-Side Only MVPMinimum Viable Product"A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia: The initial WP AI client release will only support LLM querying on the server side. The 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/. endpoint, which enables client-side querying, will be deferred to a subsequent release.
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. Milestones
Following a major refactor, the focus is on resolving immediate follow-up issues to unblock internal adoption.
Major Refactor Merged: The large Major Refactor PR was merged, moving the MCP Adapter into its 0.3.0 series.
Immediate Fixes: Small, subsequent PRs were opened to address remaining technical feedback, as the priority was to merge the large refactor and allow work on smaller, more manageable fixes.
Release Priority: The team plans to quickly review remaining issues and release version 0.3.0 immediately, as the older version (0.1.0) is now unusable due to changes in the shape of the abilities. The adapter is actively being used on internal Automattic projects, making a quick release essential.
Editor’s note (@jeffpaul): These notes were sitting in draft, and while dated do capture prior discussions, decisions, and other updates so I’m publishing this meeting summary (in a condensed format) for transparency purposes.
Thank you @justlevine for keeping things lit remotely
PHP AI Client SDKPHP AI Client SDKA platform-agnostic library providing unified access to LLMs and embedding models from any major AI provider. Developed collaboratively with the PHP community. The WordPress AI Client SDK is the WordPress-specific package that adds REST API endpoints, API key management, and integrations through `AI_Client::prompt()`. is now available in its first release: https://github.com/WordPress/php-ai-client/releases/tag/0.1.0
Focus on updates from each of the projects (Project Facilitator + Lead)
Review next Milestone – and tasks to support that milestone
Blockers and Opportunities
From @justlevine: Review mcp-adapter status and next steps.
Align on immediate fixes and workflows.
Update v0.1.0 release notes to prevent user confusion.
Badges for CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI – For now contributors need to request themselves as per the instruction noted here. @jeffpaul working on being able to add link himself.
Reminder From @karmatosed: As we fix roadmaps, let’s also reflect those in the projects. We will do that but I want to ensure they get logged into traceable formats that can take action also.
AI Experiments 0.2.0 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.
We’re pleased to announce the release of AI Experiments v0.2.0, the latest update to the coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds 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 powering experimental AI-powered features in WordPress. This release focuses on practical editorial improvements and developer tooling that move the plugin closer to a useful, real-world set of experiments for authors, editors, and developers. Where v0.1.0 introduced the initial framework and the first experiments, v0.2.0 prioritizes deeper user-facing features while continuing to lay the groundwork for what comes next.
What’s new in 0.2.0?
AI-powered 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. generation
The most significant user-facing addition in v0.2.0 is AI-powered excerpt generation. This release introduces a dedicated Excerpt Generation experiment, allowing authors to generate concise, neutral excerpts directly from post or page content.
Excerpt generation is a small but meaningful workflow improvement. Excerpts are widely used across archives, feeds, and previews, yet are often skipped or written last. This experiment explores how AI can assist by producing a first draft that is clearly derived from the content and easy for authors to review, edit, or replace as needed.
Abilities Explorer
v0.2.0 also introduces the Abilities Explorer, a new admin screen that surfaces all registered AI Abilities within the plugin. The Explorer provides a clear view into what AI-powered actions are available, how they are defined, and how they are exposed within the system.
This is a key step in making the Abilities framework more understandable and extensibleExtensibleThis is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software.. As more abilities are added over time, having an inspectable, centralized view helps developers reason about existing capabilities and how new ones should fit in.
Additional user-facing refinements
Alongside excerpt generation, this release includes several refinements to existing editorial interactions. These changes focus on improving how AI output is presented and reviewed, reinforcing patterns around transparency, user control, and iterative editing rather than one-click replacement.
While these updates are less visible than a new feature, they help establish consistent expectations for how AI-assisted workflows should behave inside WordPress.
Developer-facing improvements
For developers, v0.2.0 continues to mature the Abilities system as a core abstraction within the plugin. Abilities are becoming more clearly defined, easier to register, and more consistent in how they are surfaced across the 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..
This release also includes backend groundwork for future experiments, including content summarization and image-related features. While these capabilities are not yet fully exposed, the underlying support helps ensure upcoming experiments can be built in a more predictable and reusable way.
Quality-of-life and tooling updates
v0.2.0 includes a number of smaller improvements across documentation, demo setups, and tooling. These changes improve onboarding, align demos and Playground blueprints with 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/ conventions, and make experiments easier to explore even when AI credentials are not yet configured.
What’s next in 0.3.0?
Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for v0.3.0, including:
Alt Text Generation, helping improve 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) workflows through contextual image descriptions
A refactor of the Abilities Explorer to TypeScript, leveraging DataViews and DataForms for a more consistent and scalable UI
A refactor of the Settings experience to similarly adopt @wordpress/build tooling and DataForms, aligning it more closely with modern WordPress admin patterns
Together, these efforts continue to push toward clearer patterns, stronger foundations, and more realistic experiments that can inform future core AI discussions.
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.
How well do language models actually understand WordPress? To answer this, we’re introducing WP-Bench – the official WordPress AI benchmark.
WP-Bench evaluates how well AI models understand WordPress development, from coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. APIs and coding standards to 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 architecture and security best practices.
Why WP-Bench Matters
WordPress powers over 40% of the web, yet AI models are typically evaluated on general programming tasks. WP-Bench fills this gap by measuring WordPress-specific capabilities.
Understanding today’s models. Whether you’re building AI-powered plugins or using coding assistants, knowing which models excel at WordPress helps you make better tooling decisions.
Shaping tomorrow’s models. We want WP-Bench to become a standard benchmark that AI labs use when developing new models. When providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google run pre-release evaluations, we want WordPress performance on their radar – not as an afterthought. This creates incentive to optimize for the millions of developers and site owners who depend on WordPress.
Building an 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. leaderboard. We’re working toward a public leaderboard tracking model performance on WordPress tasks. This will provide transparent results for the community, inform how the WordPress project engages with AI providers, and help developers choose the right tools for their projects.
How It Works
WP-Bench measures AI capabilities across two dimensions:
Knowledge – Multiple-choice questions testing WordPress concepts, APIs, 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., security patterns, and coding standards, with an emphasis on modern additions like Abilities APIAbilities APIA core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system. and Interactivity 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..
Execution – Code generation tasks graded by a real WordPress runtime with static analysis and runtime assertions.
The benchmark uses WordPress itself as the grader, running generated code in a sandboxed environment. This ensures we measure both theoretical understanding and practical abilityAbilityA registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. to produce working, standards-compliant code.
Current State & Known Limitations
WP-Bench is an early release, and we’re being transparent about where it needs work:
Dataset size – The current test suite is relatively small. We need more test cases across WordPress APIs and patterns to make this a comprehensive benchmark.
Version coverage – The benchmark currently skews toward WordPress 6.9 features like the Abilities API and Interactivity API. This is partly intentional (newer APIs are where models genuinely struggle) but also creates a bias since these features post-date most models’ training data. We need more coverage of established WordPress patterns to create a balanced evaluation.
Benchmark saturation – Early testing showed models scoring very high on older WordPress concepts, which means those questions aren’t providing strong signal. The challenge is finding problems that are genuinely difficult, not just new.
These limitations are exactly why we’re releasing now rather than waiting. We know that the WordPress community is uniquely positioned to help build a robust, representative benchmark.
Quick Start
# Install
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ./python
# Start the WordPress runtime
cd runtime && npm install && npm start
# Run the benchmark
cd .. && wp-bench run --config wp-bench.example.yaml
Configure your model providerProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). API keys in a .env file, and results are written to output/results.json. The harness supports running multiple models in a single pass for easy comparison.
Supporting the AI Building Blocks
WP-Bench complements the other AI Building Blocks for WordPress by measuring how well AI models work with WordPress. As we build out the Abilities API, 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., and other infrastructure, a standardized benchmark helps ensure these tools integrate with the best available models.
Get Involved
WP-Bench needs your help. The benchmark is only as good as its test cases, and the WordPress community has decades of collective knowledge about what makes WordPress development challenging.
Ways to contribute:
Add test cases – Know a tricky WordPress pattern that trips up developers? It probably trips up AI too. We need coverage across more APIs, hooks, and real-world scenarios.
Run benchmarks – Test models you’re using and share your findings.
Improve grading logic – Help make the evaluation more rigorous.
Submit results – Contribute to the public leaderboard.
If you work at an AI lab, we’d love to collaborate on integrating WP-Bench into your evaluation pipeline.
Our goal is for WP-Bench to become the standard evaluation AI providers use when releasing new models – creating a virtuous cycle where WordPress performance improves with each generation. Join us in #core-ai to discuss, share results, and help shape the future of AI in WordPress.
The formerly named “CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-AI Contributor Check-in” from 2025 reconvened today as the “AI Contributor weekly meeting” in 2026 as a weekly video chat for contributors to discuss progress and milestones across the projects maintained by the WordPress AI team. Folks are welcome to join on Wednesday’s at 1700 UTC via Google Meet with in-meeting notes captured in a Slack Canvas and then paired with Gemini meeting notes to help generate this meeting summary post.
This week’s discussion focused on unblocking near-term work and clarifying priorities as the group looks ahead to WordPress 7.0 by identifying work that can continue to move forward now, while acknowledging areas that may temporarily slow down.
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. status and upcoming release
A significant portion of the meeting centered on the AI Experiments plugin and the path to a v0.2.0 release later this month:
@jeffpaul plans to review open PRs from @dkotter and @isotropic to identify what is close to ready and help move those items to completion for v0.2.0.
For the Abilities Explorer feature, the group aligned on prioritizing a solid V1 for the upcoming release rather than blocking on 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. improvements like converting to Data Views. @jeffpaul suggested exploring the Data Views update as a follow-up PR, though @justlevine shared interest in potentially making those updates during his updates to the PR.
Roadmap visibility and communication
@jeffpaul raised the idea of moving the AI Experiments roadmap out of a static markdown file and instead relying on the project board as the primary source of truth, linking to it from the README. @karmatosed suggested pairing upcoming releases with blog posts and reopening regular Make/AI publishing for the year to support ongoing education and awareness of the team’s work.
There was shared agreement that clearer communication and consistent outreach are needed, both to gather feedback and to help the broader community better understand what the AI team is building and why.
Feedback, outreach, and community engagement
@isotropic clarified that several of his open PRs are exploratory and intended to spark discussion rather than represent finalized features. The group agreed to shift away from active code review and testing on those PRs and towards confirming the feature is desired in the 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 whether the 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. and technical implementation are aligned with team expectations.
Ideas for broader engagement included:
Publishing a Make/AI post with screenshots or short screencasts to invite community feedback on @isotropic‘s exploratory concepts.
Exploring formats like Hallway Hangouts to surface what contributors are working on and where help might be useful.
@jeffpaul will coordinate the follow-up Make/AI post for the broader AI team to continue these conversations.
Core inclusion and WordPress 7.0 considerations
@justlevine asked about the WordPress 7.0 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. 1 timeline, noting that decisions around core inclusion will need to be made ahead of that milestone. While the exact date is still TBD while the release squad gets assembled, the group acknowledged that it is likely approaching quickly with February 19th as the currently targeted date.
Key points discussed:
The need to prioritize versionless deprecation in Abilities to maintain forward compatibility.
Alignment from @isotropic on proposing inclusion of the WP AI client for WordPress 7.0.
@jason_the_adams and @flixos90 will coordinate on outlining a formal merge proposal post on Make/Core and and opening the appropriate ticket and PR to prepare for community review.
Event dispatching support for actions and filters.
A full rewrite of the Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI providers using the latest APIs.
Plans to extract providers into separate repositories and plugins for 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/ distribution.
An in-progress caching layer.
Local AI providers and future exploration
@raftaar1191 asked about support for local AI providers such as Ollama. While the PHP and WP AI clients do not currently support browser-based or local providers, @jeffpaul noted that the ClassifAI plugin does and can be used as an example for those service providerProviderAn AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). integrations for now. @raftaar1191 expressed interest in experimenting with an Ollama integration and potentially presenting learnings at 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. Kolhapur, with some discussion around the UX challenges of local providers on multi-user sites.
Next steps
@jeffpaul will review AI Experiments plugin PRs and aim to ship a v0.2.0 point releaseMinor ReleaseA set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. this month.
@justlevine will review and help finish the Abilities Explorer PRs and assist with additional code reviews where desired.
Contributors will provide feedback on @isotropic’s exploratory PRs over the coming week.
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