The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in the bug tracker.
WordPress 6.9 is scheduled to be released on December 2nd, 2025. Though initially only one release seemed feasible for 2025, project leadership reevaluated this plan when contributor capacity increased in recent months and decided an additional release was achievable. The release turns its attention to evolving the Site Editor with a simplified editing mode and more intuitive template management, enabling collaborative content creation through 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 commenting, extending developer capabilitiescapabilityA capability is permission to perform one or more types of task. Checking if a user has a capability is performed by the current_user_can function. Each user of a WordPress site might have some permissions but not others, depending on their role. For example, users who have the Author role usually have permission to edit their own posts (the “edit_posts” capability), but not permission to edit other users’ posts (the “edit_others_posts” capability). with updates to the 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. and the introduction of the Abilities API, and improving performance with faster page transitions and smarter resource handling. Of note, there will not be a new default theme in 6.9, a decision shaped by the pace of this release and the maturity of block themes over recent years.
As always, what’s shared here is being actively pursued, but doesn’t necessarily mean each will make it into the final release of WordPress 6.9.
The Site Editor encompasses the interface and tools used to customize templates, pages, and styles across an entire site. Various key areas of improvements are slated for this release.
Simplified site editing
Now that the site editing experience has matured in capabilitycapabilityA capability is permission to perform one or more types of task. Checking if a user has a capability is performed by the current_user_can function. Each user of a WordPress site might have some permissions but not others, depending on their role. For example, users who have the Author role usually have permission to edit their own posts (the “edit_posts” capability), but not permission to edit other users’ posts (the “edit_others_posts” capability)., the focus is turning towards adding a simplified site editing option that centers content editing over the full suite of design tooling, with the ability to switch back and forth between the two depending on what edits one wants to make. This option preserves the full power of advanced styling tools when needed, yet empowers users who simply want to update copy or imagery to do so without distraction or overwhelm. By separating these experiences, it’s clearer and more intuitive when stepping into the deeper design toolkit available.
Template management is being overhauled to make templates more flexible and intuitive, solving some longstanding points of feedback. This includes adding support for multiple templates per slug, with the ability to activate or deactivate them for easy switching between theme and custom templates. Users will be able to draft new templates before publishing and activating them, preserve custom templates when switching themes, and take advantage of simplified management through standard 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/. endpoints.
This feature aims to provide a way for users to temporarily hide blocks from the frontend while keeping them editable in the backend. It’s perfect for staging content, trying out alternate designs, or holding space for sections that aren’t quite ready. By supporting non-destructive workflows, it encourages experimentation and smoother collaboration. It also lays the groundwork for future improvements with the ability to hide blocks based on screen size.
WordPress, from its earliest days, has enabled millions of people to share countless perspectives in their own words and in their own way. Relentlessly refining how it feels to write with WordPress to make it as unobtrusive and powerful as possible remains a key focus. This includes a more direct and obvious drag and drop of key blocks, expanded block transforms, keyboard improvements, numerous block settings updated to a more modern and unified UIUIUser interface, and more.
New blocks
To expand customization options and align with modern design standards, several new blocks are planned for this release, including the Accordion block, Terms Query block, Stretchy Type block, Icon block, and potentially more. Each of these blocks will be explored with the goal of enhancing expressiveness and providing stronger defaults, so that building modern websites feels more seamless and flexible.
There are multiple workflows that rely on asynchronous collaboration, like a newsroom needing an editor to review a post for a writer before publishing. Adding the ability to leave comments at a block level begins the steps towards a truly collaborative experience within WordPress. This work includes adding, viewing, and resolving comments in a way that feels truly baked into the WordPress writing experience. The scope for this release will focus on block level commenting.
6.9 aims to bring the Command Palette into all parts of the WordPress experience, offering a quick and universal way to navigate all parts of your site and take different actions. Expanding the scope of where the Command Palette can be used also lays the groundwork for future AI integration points, like with the Abilities API.
For both the DataViews and DataForm components, updates are planned to make them more powerful and enable new use cases. This includes the following:
New field types (ex: media, boolean, email and array field type definitions).
New 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. operators (ex: lessThan, greaterThan, lessThanOrEqual, greaterThanOrEqual, contains, notContains, startsWith, between, on, notOn, before, after, inThePast, over, beforeInc, and afterInc.).
This new API provides a registry of callable functions with defined descriptions, inputs, and outputs. It’s designed to make WordPress functionality accessible to AI systems particularly and developers alike through a unified registry of resources and tools.
WordPress 6.9 will introduce a new algorithm for the client-side navigation of the Interactivity API that replaces not only the HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. but also the CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets., and loads any 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/. required by blocks appearing on the new page. This new algorithm will address prior limitations and enable experiences not possible today, like:
Support for client-side comment form submissions.
Support for showing “No results” blocks in instant search or filters.
Supporting the Post Content block within regions.
Support for conditional CSS/JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. (blocks that enqueue different CSS/JS assets based on attributes/content).
It also paves the way for an opt-in full-page client-side navigation feature in the future.
The Block Bindings API connects coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks to dynamic data sources, like custom fields or external APIs, without needing to create custom blocks. Building on this current foundation, 6.9 aims to evolve the current API by adding support for more blocks, improving the UI, and making the API more extensibleExtensibleThis is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software..
The HTML API provides a set of tools for developers to reliably and efficiently interact with HTML within the WordPress environment. Work is underway to greatly increase the speed of the HTML processor, cover support for more edge cases, introduce safe composable HTML templating, and develop block attribute sourcing.
While not explicitly a part of 6.9, a few different major initiatives are planned for launch alongside the release either as canonical plugins or as experimental features 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/.
New WordPress Adminadmin(and super admin) experience
A modular and extensible redesign of the WordPress admin is being mapped out, with a strong emphasis on flexibility, customization, and a coherent user experience. Early exploration centers on defining foundational primitives, building blocks that separate structure from presentation to support broad reusability across admin surfaces.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. In WordPress, the MCP Adapter (GitHub) implements this open standard, exposing Abilities to AI assistants, while also connecting to other MCP servers. MCP’s applications are transformative for various users. Content creators can manage their WordPress sites conversationally, while developers can automate complex workflows across systems. Agencies can build sophisticated integrations, from content migrationMigrationMoving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. to performance optimization. Around the 6.9 release, 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 is expected to be launched.
PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher AI Client
The PHP AI Client SDK (GitHub) aims to offer a unified, provider‑agnostic interface for integrating AI into WordPress and other PHP projects. It centralizes credential management so site admins configure their preferred AI service in one place, enabling any AI‑enabled plugin to work seamlessly without requiring duplicate setup. Developers benefit from a ready‑made framework that handles model selection, streaming, multimodal capabilities, error handling, and provider quirks—letting them focus on features rather than rebuilding the same foundational pieces. It’s modular too: a core PHP package supports broad use cases, while a WordPress‑specific add‑on delivers admin UI, REST API 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., and Abilities API integration, all poised to adapt as AI evolves. This shared infrastructure lets WordPress plugins and other PHP projects integrate AI capabilities rapidly and flexibly. Around the 6.9 release, a canonical plugin is expected to be launched.
If you have something you’re working on that you don’t see reflected in this post, please share a comment below so we can all be aware! If you’re reading this and want to help, a great place to start is by looking through each issue associated with each area or by diving into the Polish board where a curated set of issues are in place that anyone can jump in on.
The following notes the date and type of change made to this post in order to keep it as accurate as possible ahead of the release.
September 4th, 2025:
Added in a “New blocks” section under “Refining Content Creation”.
Removed “An initial experimental version is planned in the Gutenberg plugin, where contributors can opt-in and offer feedback” under “New WordPress Admin experience” as that’s no longer planned.
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