neillmcshea 9:09 pm on 18 February 2026
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AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 18 February 2026

The AI Contributor group met on February 18, 2026, to discuss the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release, the evolution of the AI Client, and architectural decisions regarding Abilities.

WordPress 7.0 and the AI Client

The meeting opened with a heavy focus on the uncertainty surrounding the inclusion of the AI Client in WordPress 7.0. @isotropic shared insights from a recent conversation with @matt, noting a shift in focus toward how credentials and APIAPI An 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. keys are managed globally in WordPress, rather than just for AI.

  • Credential Management: There is interest from leadership in a unified “Connectors” screen in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. for various services (AI, Google Maps, etc.).
  • Release Timing: With the BetaBeta A 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 deadline looming, the team expressed concern that there is insufficient time to implement a complex credential system. If clarity isn’t reached immediately, the AI Client may be pushed to 7.1 or remain a canonical pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party for the time being.
  • Developer Impact: The team discussed the friction of making the AI Client a plugin dependency versus a core feature, noting that core inclusion is vital for widespread developer adoption and a seamless “under-the-hood” experience.

Abilities: Deciding on Nested Namespaces

A significant portion of the technical discussion centered on how Abilities (aka, tools that AI can call) should be named and registered (see #64596).

  • The Decision: The team reached a consensus to support nested namespaces (e.g., core/settings/get or core/post-type/update).
  • Rationale: @justlevine and @jorgefilipecosta argued that nesting is an existing WordPress pattern (similar to REST APIREST API The 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/.) and allows for better progressive disclosure and organization as the number of available abilities grows into the hundreds or thousands.
  • Path Forward: Existing single-level abilities (like get_settings) may be reverted or updated to follow the new nested convention to maintain consistency.

Experiments and MCP Updates

  • AI Experiments PluginAI Experiments Plugin WordPress'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 0.3.1 was released today with a fix for image generation. Plans for 0.4.0 are underway, though some features (like DataViews) are on hold until the core AI Client direction is finalized.
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP): @neillmcshea will be diving back into MCP support next week to coordinate with ongoing PRs from the community.

Evolution of Bi-Weekly AI Team Chat (aka SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. Meeting)

The nature of the bi-weekly Thursday Slack meetings is shifting toward a more community-centric, interactive format. Moving away from rigid agendas, these sessions will now serve as an “Office Hours” and “Show-and-Tell” space.

The goal is to foster a dynamic environment where:

  • Community Experiments: Developers can highlight local experiments, like the recently mentioned “Abilities Scout” or MCP integrations, to get immediate feedback.
  • Visual Demos: Contributors are encouraged to share videos or screenshots of AI implementations that might otherwise stay hidden on X (formerly Twitter) or private repositories.
  • Low-Barrier Entry: By removing the formal meeting structure, the group aims to make it easier for new contributors to join the conversation, ask questions, and understand the “building blocks” of the project in real-time.

Upcoming Events: WordCampWordCamp WordCamps 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 and Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor 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/.

The team is preparing for WordCamp Asia in March.

  • @raftaar1191 (in-person) and @justlevine (virtually) will lead AI table efforts.
  • The group aims to overhaul the AI Contributor Handbook by the end of March to provide a lower barrier to entry for new contributors.

Next Steps

  • Community Discussion: All contributors are encouraged to share their thoughts on the Merge Proposal for the AI Client to ensure diverse voices are heard by leadership.
  • Bi-Weekly Slack Meeting: Tomorrow’s Slack chat will pivot toward an “Office Hours” format, focusing on community show-and-tell and engagement rather than a formal agenda.
  • Handbook Audit: Volunteers are needed to review and update specific sections of the AI handbook.

Upcoming meetings

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. All team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Slack discussion is scheduled for 19 February 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 25 February 2026.

Props to @jeffpaul for pre-publish review.

#check-in, #core-ai, #meeting, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 3:57 pm on 12 February 2026
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AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 11 February 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting centered on the proposed WP AI Client inclusion for WordPress 7.0, with significant discussion around review velocity, third-party dependencies, and how to build broader confidence within coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. The group also reviewed Abilities progress, discussed a naming question around namespaces, and touched on AI literacy and knowledge sharing across the project.

WP AI Client and WordPress 7.0

A large portion of the meeting focused on feedback from recent core discussions regarding the WP AI Client merge proposal.

Key themes included:

  • Code review and confidence building: Contributors emphasized the need for broad, visible code review to ensure the proposal reflects consensus beyond the immediate AI working group. Building public confidence in maturity and technical rigor was seen as essential.
  • Third-party dependencies: Questions raised in devchat centered on precedent for bundling third-party dependencies in core. Updates to reduce footprint and address CI/CD concerns have already been made, but deeper review of implementation details is still needed.
  • Core vs. pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party debate: Some concerns raised suggested that rapid iteration could continue through a canonical plugin dependency rather than core inclusion. In response, contributors discussed the practical benefits of core inclusion, including accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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), clearer defaults for users, and avoiding long-term maintenance stacks.
  • Timeline pressure: With WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 approaching (Thursday, February 19th), several contributors noted the short review window. While there has not yet been outright rejection of core inclusion, observers are still evaluating the proposal, and more discussion is expected.

Contributors were encouraged to:

  • Test the PR using one of the providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). plugins (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI).
  • Leave concrete, experience-based feedback directly on the PR.
  • Help surface real-world use cases to demonstrate stability and utility.

@jason_the_adams will meet with the 7.0 Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release., @matveb, to better understand expectations and next steps, and will report back so the team can adjust accordingly.

Abilities Update

@jorgefilipecosta provided an update on Abilities work targeting 7.0:

  • The get settings abilityAbility A 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. has been merged (though naming may change depending on namespace decisions).
  • The update settings ability is in progress and represents the first write-capable ability, marking a significant milestone.
  • The more complex post ability is still under development. Given its scope and the introduction of new query capabilities beyond what the REST APIREST API The 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/. currently exposes, contributors agreed it is likely a 7.1 target rather than 7.0.

Ability Namespaces Discussion

A request was raised to revert the current nested namespace approach (e.g., core/settings/get). The discussion centered on:

  • WordPress precedent, which generally avoids nested namespace structures.
  • Discoverability for LLMs and agent-based usage, where nested naming may provide clearer contextual signals.
  • The importance of getting naming right early, as it affects all future abilities.

No final decision was made, but contributors agreed further discussion is needed before renaming existing merged abilities.

AI Experiments PluginAI Experiments Plugin WordPress'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.

@jeffpaul shared a brief update:

  • AI Experiments 0.3.0 has been released, along with an announcement and a Call for Testing post.
  • Development toward 0.4.0 is purposely slowed until after the 7.0 BetaBeta A 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 process.
  • Contributors are encouraged to review the Call for Testing post and provide community feedback before roadmap features are pulled into active milestones.

AI Literacy and Shared Practices

The group discussed a broader challenge: how to improve AI literacy across contributors and leadership as the landscape evolves rapidly.

Suggestions included:

  • Blogging experiments and learnings publicly to create durable knowledge.
  • Contributing to a shared handbook or lexicon on Make sites.
  • Adding a lightweight “Show and Tell” section to weekly meetings to share experiments, confusing articles, or lessons learned.
  • Avoiding absolute language when discussing AI capabilities, given the pace of change.

@neel33 volunteered to explore existing handbook structures to identify where shared AI practices could live.

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps 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 Day Contributor 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/.

@isotropic will arrive after Contributor Day, so the team requested volunteers to lead the AI table.

@raftaar1191 volunteered to help lead the AI table at WordCamp Asia Contributor Day. Additional volunteers are welcome and encouraged.

Next steps

  • Broader testing and review of the WP AI Client PR to support core discussion ahead of 7.0.
  • Continued discussion on ability naming conventions.
  • Progressing update settings toward merge for 7.0 consideration.
  • Publishing and amplifying learnings through Make posts and handbook contributions.
  • Preparing materials and coordination for the WordCamp Asia AI table.

Upcoming meetings

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. All team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Chat SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. discussion is scheduled for 19 February 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 18 February 2026.

Props to @jason_the_adams for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 5:48 pm on 9 February 2026
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What’s new in AI Experiments 0.3.0 (9 FEB 2026)?

AI Experiments 0.3.0 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 v0.3.0, the latest update to the canonical pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party powering experimental AI-powered features in WordPress. This release introduces new experiments with real editor UIs, refines settings behavior, and improves documentation and tooling to support both users and developers.

What’s new in 0.3.0?

Content Summarization Experiment

The Content Summarization experiment introduces an editor-integrated way to generate concise summaries of longer posts. Authors can generate a summary directly in the editor and display it via an AI Summary blockBlock Block 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., making it available for use in themes, feeds, and future editorial workflows. This experiment helps explore how AI can assist with content review and clarity without replacing the author’s voice. It also lays groundwork for future features like editorial notes, content quality checks, and automated summaries for distribution channels.

Featured ImageFeatured image A 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. Generation Experiment

The Featured Image Generation experiment allows authors to generate featured images directly from the post editor sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.. Images are created based on prompts derived from post content, with alt text generation (if that experiment is enabled) and clear AI attribution metadata. This experiment explores how AI can assist with visual content creation for sites that may not have dedicated design resources. It also helps test end-to-end workflows that combine multiple abilities, including prompt generation, image generation, and media handling.

Alt Text Generation Experiment

The Alt Text Generation experiment focuses on improving accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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) by helping authors generate descriptive alt text for images. AI-generated descriptions are available directly in the Image block and Media Library, making it easier to add meaningful alt text as part of normal editing workflows notably in a human-requested manner and not automated by default. This experiment explores how AI can reduce friction around accessibility best practices while keeping authors in control of final content. It also helps validate how image-related abilities can be reused across multiple features and contexts in WordPress.

Developer-facing improvements

For developers, v0.3.0 improves how the plugin handles missing or invalid asset files, reducing warnings and improving reliability in both the admin and editor. The Abilities Explorer also received missing strict typing for better type safety and consistency.

Quality-of-life and tooling updates

v0.3.0 includes direct action links on the Installed Plugins screen for “Experiments” and “Credentials,” so you can get where you need to go faster. The global “Enable Experiments” checkbox has been replaced with a button that submits automatically, reducing steps when turning experiments on or off.

What’s next in 0.4.0?

Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for v0.4.0, including:

  • Additional work on image generation to go beyond the new feature image generation and support image generation elsewhere within the post editor and Media Library
  • Contextual Tagging experiment that suggests post tags and categories based on post content, title, and excerptExcerpt An 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 taxonomyTaxonomy A 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.
  • A refactor of the Abilities Explorer to TypeScript, leveraging DataViews and DataForms for a more consistent, scalable, and modern WordPress UIUI UI 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.
  • A refactor of the Settings experience to similarly adopt @wordpress/build tooling and DataForms, aligning it more closely with modern WordPress admin patterns

Several early prototype experiments are also being explored, including type-ahead suggestions, content moderation assistance, Markdown feed workflows, extended providerProvider An 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 0.4.0.

Thanks to contributors!

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release, including:

@dkotter, @jeffpaul, @juanfra, @tinfl, @flixos90, @theaminuldev, @huzaifaalmesbah, @omcodes23, @pbearne, @lwoodmansee, @rachaelcortellessa, @isotropic, @thisisandrewpalmer, @karmatosed, @joedolson, @andreizanik, @linawiezkowiak, @prabinjha, @mokhaled, @webdevmattcrom, @jason_the_adams, @kurtrank, and others involved in review, testing, and 246 commits between 0.2.0 and 0.3.0.

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 UXUX UX 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.

You can explore the v0.3.0 release today, review open issues and pull requests, and help shape what comes next.

Props to @dkotter and @psykro for reviewing this post.

#ai-experiments, #aiex-release, #canonical-plugins, #core-ai

Jeffrey Paul 6:12 pm on 6 February 2026
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AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 4 February 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused heavily on final preparation for the WordPress AI Client merge proposal, including providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). separation, coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. integration strategy, and controls for disabling AI functionality. The group also reviewed progress across Abilities, MCP, and the AI Experiments pluginAI Experiments Plugin WordPress'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., with an eye toward unblocking work ahead of the WordPress 7.0 BetaBeta A 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.

WP AI Client Merge Proposal

@jason_the_adams shared a detailed update on the WordPress AI Client merge proposal and next steps toward core inclusion.

  • The WordPress AI Client will be fully provider- and model-agnostic when proposed for core.
  • Embedded providers are being removed from the PHPPHP PHP (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, with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic providers moving into separate pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party repositories on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/.
  • @jason_the_adams plans to submit the core work as multiple PRs rather than a single all-or-nothing proposal, starting with the PHP AI Client, WordPress AI Client, and prompt builder.
  • Integration of the PHP AI Client into core remains the largest open question due to Composer dependencies and build considerations. The group discussed approaches similar to GutenbergGutenberg The 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/’s sync/build process, and @jason_the_adams plans to follow up with @youknowriad for guidance.

There was consensus that publishing a technical PR soon is critical to allow meaningful core review before Beta 1.

Disabling and Controlling AI Functionality

The group discussed approaches for disabling or restricting AI usage in WordPress.

  • @jason_the_adams introduced an initial filterFilter Filters 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.-based approach that allows site owners to disable AI entirely or restrict usage to certain capabilities.
  • @justlevine raised concerns that filters alone are insufficient, as they can be overridden by plugins, and suggested introducing a constant to represent an explicit site-level decision.
  • @jason_the_adams agreed to add a constant-based control mechanism, while the group aligned that adding UIUI UI 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.-level “kill switches” would be premature at this stage.

The goal is to make it easy for sites to opt out without introducing unnecessary UI or policy complexity.

AI Experiments Plugin

@jeffpaul shared updates on the AI Experiments plugin and near-term priorities.

  • Work is wrapping up on Featured ImageFeatured image A 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. Generation, Content Summarization, and Alt Text Generation in preparation for a 0.3.0 release.
  • Data Views and Data Forms UI work is being deferred until after the 7.0 Beta 1 window to keep focus on the AI Client merge proposal.
  • A Call for Testing post covering several experimental features has been published, and the team will track feedback before deciding whether any of those concepts should be milestone candidates.
  • Markdown-related work will remain in the experiments plugin for now to gather feedback and usage data before considering core or Gutenberg integration.

Abilities Update

@jorgefilipecosta provided a status update on Abilities work:

  • A PR allowing deeper nesting of abilities namespaces has been approved.
  • Updates to settings abilities and a new user abilityAbility A 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. (without metaMeta Meta 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. support) are nearing readiness.
  • A revised post-finding ability that works across post types is in progress and may require additional discussion.
  • The group expressed optimism that settings and user abilities could land in WordPress 7.0.

This work also helps reduce immediate pressure around formal versioning by allowing namespacing patterns to evolve organically.WordPress well-positioned for future developments such as embedded models or host-managed AI offerings.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

@jason_the_adams requested review on the final PR in a six-part MCP adapterMCP Adapter Translates 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. update.

  • The work introduces a generated PHP schema layer derived directly from the MCP JSONJSON JSON, 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.
  • The update decouples component registration from abilities, allowing MCP components that do not need to exist as abilities.
  • @jorgefilipecosta offered to review the remaining PR to help move the adapter forward.

Provider Discovery, Documentation, and Guidelines

Several forward-looking topics were discussed:

  • Provider discovery and validation: The group discussed how AI provider plugins should be discoverable without overwhelming users, including possible use of tags and compatibility checks rather than curated lists.
  • Documentation: Two documentation tracks were identified as necessary—one for plugin developers using the AI Client and prompt builder, and another for provider and host integrations.
  • Guidelines and disclosure: Contributors were encouraged to review @isotropic’s draft disclosure statement for agent skills as early prior art for applying the newly published AI Guidelines.

Next steps

  • @jason_the_adams will submit core PRs for the PHP AI Client and WordPress AI Client and add a constant-based mechanism for disabling AI.
  • @jeffpaul will continue coordinating the AI Experiments 0.3.0 release and track feedback from the testing call.
  • @jorgefilipecosta will review the remaining MCP adapter PR and continue advancing Abilities work.
  • Contributors are encouraged to review the MCP PRs and provide feedback on the agent skills disclosure draft.
  • Follow-up discussions on documentation, WP Bench, and provider discovery will continue in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Upcoming meetings

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. All team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Chat Slack discussion is scheduled for 5 February 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 11 February 2026.

Props to @psykro for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 6:11 pm on 6 February 2026
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AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 28 January 2026

This week’s AI contributor meeting focused on progress toward a proposed WordPress AI Client merge for WordPress 7.0, contributor capacity ahead of the February 19 BetaBeta A 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, and a live demonstration of an AI-powered GatherPress workflow built on the Abilities APIAbilities API A 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 WP AI Client. The group also discussed tradeoffs between different AI integration approaches and where contributors can most effectively help in the coming weeks.

WP AI Client and 7.0 Timeline

The group revisited the status of the WordPress AI Client and the urgency of moving the work forward ahead of the mid-February Beta 1 deadline.

  • @jeffpaul confirmed that the WP AI Client is being proposed for inclusion in WordPress 7.0, with the understanding that LLM providers will live outside of coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. as separate packages or plugins.
  • @justlevine emphasized the importance of shipping a strong technical implementation early to avoid unnecessary scrutiny and technical debt.
  • While a Make/Core proposal draft exists, the group agreed that publishing a concrete technical PR to wordpress-develop is the most important next step.
  • Contributors agreed to check in with @flixos90 and @jason_the_adams in the Core AI channel to identify immediate gaps where help is needed.

There was alignment that, while 7.0 remains the goal, deferring to 7.1 is acceptable if more iteration time is required.

GatherPress AI Assistant Demo

@jmarx75 shared a live demonstration of an AI assistant built into GatherPress, a WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ project intended to replace MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area.-style functionality for WordPress events.

The demo showcased:

  • Creating events and venues using natural language prompts
  • Date calculation handled via a dedicated abilityAbility A 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.
  • Stateful conversations that allow follow-up updates (e.g., refining event descriptions)
  • Direct use of the Abilities API mapped to PHPPHP PHP (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. functions exposed via REST

@jmarx75 noted that the implementation currently prioritizes functionality over polish and highlighted areas for future improvement, including UIUI UI 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. refinement, link handling, and prompt cost optimization. The group agreed the demo was a strong real-world example of how the Abilities API and WP AI Client can be used to build embedded, task-focused AI experiences within WordPress.

WPAI Client vs. MCP AdapterMCP Adapter Translates 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. Discussion

A detailed discussion followed comparing approaches for building AI-powered workflows:

  • @raftaar1191 suggested using the MCP adapter with external AI tools to reduce implementation complexity.
  • @justlevine and others noted that while MCP can be useful in some scenarios, using the WP AI Client and Abilities API offers better control over context, multi-step workflows, and future compatibility with embedded or host-provided models.
  • @jmarx75 clarified that GatherPress requires AI functionality embedded directly in the WordPress admin experience, making the WP AI Client approach the best fit for current goals.

The group agreed there is no single “correct” approach, and that experimentation across both models is valuable as the ecosystem evolves.

Cost, Providers, and Future Flexibility

Cost and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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) considerations were also discussed:

  • @jmarx75 raised concerns about token costs for casual users and the complexity of managing APIAPI An 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. keys.
  • Contributors suggested using smaller or cheaper models where possible and noted that MCP-based approaches may be cost-effective for users on flat-rate subscriptions.
  • @jeffpaul reiterated that providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). integrations will not ship in core and will instead be distributed separately, allowing flexibility without coupling WordPress core to specific vendors, and that open sourceOpen Source Open 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. and free models are ones he hopes to most strongly advocate for.

There was general agreement that the current direction keeps WordPress well-positioned for future developments such as embedded models or host-managed AI offerings.

Next steps

  • Contributors will ask @flixos90 and @jason_the_adams in the Core AI channel where immediate help is needed on the WP AI Client.
  • @jmarx75 will continue refining the GatherPress AI assistant and address feedback from the demo.
  • Contributors are encouraged to help push the WP AI Client technical PR forward to allow meaningful review ahead of the February 19 Beta 1 deadline.

Upcoming meetings

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. All team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Chat SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. discussion is scheduled for 5 February 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 4 February 2026.

Props to @psykro for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary

Jeffrey Paul 1:27 am on 4 February 2026
Tags: , call for testing, , needs testing   

Call for Testing: Exploring New AI Experiments

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been experimenting with a handful of AI-powered concepts in the AI Experiments pluginAI Experiments Plugin WordPress'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.. These concepts are intentionally exploratory. Some are rough, some may not stick, and all of them need feedback from folks actually using WordPress in the real world.

This post is a Call for Testing, with less interest in “is this perfect?” and more interested in:

  • Does this feel useful or confusing?
  • Would you expect this to exist where it does?
  • What would you change about the UXUX UX 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. or flow?
  • Does it behave as expected in your testing?

Below you’ll find a set of user-facing experiments, developer-focused tools, and one hybrid feature that cuts across both. Each section includes a short description, steps to test and a screencast example, a WordPress Playground link to utilize for testing, and a link back to the PR for feedback.

Please test what you’re curious about. You don’t need to try everything.

User-Facing Experiments

These experiments focus on AI features that surface directly in the WordPress admin or content workflows.

Type Ahead Suggestions

This experiment explores AI-powered type-ahead suggestions while writing. The goal is to understand whether inline suggestions help with flow and clarity, or whether they feel distracting or overly prescriptive.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • Does the timing of suggestions feel right?
  • Do suggestions feel helpful or noisy?
  • Where would you expect controls or settings for this to live?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Credentials and add an APIAPI An 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 to one of the AI clients listed, then click Save Changes
  4. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check Type-ahead Text, and click Save Changes
  5. Navigate to Posts > All Posts and either edit the Hello world! post or click Add Post to open the post editor
  6. Start typing content and observe type-ahead suggestions
  7. Press Tab to accept or Escape to dismiss suggestions

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/151

Comment Moderation Assistance

This experiment explores using AI to assist with comment moderation. Rather than fully automating decisions, the focus is on providing helpful context or signals to moderators.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • How do you feel about the AI Reply and Analyze with AI functionality?
  • Does this feel like assistance or automation?
  • Is the information presented at the right moment?
  • What would increase or decrease trust here?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Credentials and add an API key to one of the AI clients listed, then click Save Changes
  4. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check Comment Moderation, and click Save Changes
  5. Navigate to Posts > All Posts, view the Hello world! post, and leave some sample comments on the post
  6. Navigate to Comments and utilize the AI Reply row action on a sample comment, select a suggested reply to use, and then Reply to the comment
  7. Utilize the Analyze with AI option in the Bulk actions dropdown menu
  8. Review Sentiment and Toxicity scores for Comments

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/155

Markdown Feeds

This experiment looks at consuming and working with Markdown-based feeds using AI. The goal is to explore new content ingestion workflows and how AI might help interpret or transform structured text.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • Does this unlock workflows you care about?
  • Is Markdown the right abstraction here?
  • What would you expect next if this were expanded?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check Markdown Feeds, and click Save Changes
  4. Navigate to Posts > All Posts and view the Hello world! post
  5. Change the end of the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org to /hello-world.md and confirm text/markdown output

Note additional testing options:

  • Visit /?feed=markdown and confirm text/markdown output
  • Request a post with Accept: text/markdown and confirm Markdown output
  • Optional: use the new section filters to inject custom fields into output: npm run test:php -- --filter Markdown_Feeds

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/194

Extended AI Providers

This experiment expands the set of available AI providers, making it easier to test and compare different models and services.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • Is the providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI). selection UX understandable?
  • Do the abstractions make sense from a user point of view?
  • What information would help you choose between providers?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Credentials and add an API key to one of the three default AI clients listed, then click Save Changes
  4. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check Extended Providers, and click Save Changes
  5. Return to the Settings > AL Credentials screen and explore the additional nine providers and configuration options
  6. Add an API key for at least one cloud provider (e.g., Groq, DeepSeek) and verify it saves
  7. Try the same task across multiple providers

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/148

Developer Experience Experiments

These experiments focus on developers building with, extending, or debugging AI features in WordPress.

AI Playground

The AI Playground is a developer-focused space to experiment with prompts, providers, and responses without wiring everything into a full feature.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • Does this feel useful during development?
  • What’s missing that would make this part of your AI configuration process?
  • Are there any missing features or elements that you expected to find based on you understanding of “AI Playground”?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Credentials and add an API key to one (or more) of the AI clients listed, then click Save Changes
  4. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check AI Playground, and click Save Changes
  5. Navigate to Tools > AI Playground and test out different prompts, providers, models, capabilities, and options
  6. Observe outputs from different provider, model, and option configurations

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/140

MCP (Model Context Protocol) Integration

This experiment explores MCP (Model Context Protocol) support, aiming to improve how context is shared and managed across AI interactions.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • Does the MCP integration function as you would expect?
  • Is this solving a real pain point for you?
  • What documentation or examples would help adoption?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check MCP, and click Save Changes
  4. Navigate to the top level MCP menu item and view the MCP screen to ensure that Enable MCP and Enable Server are toggled on and that the server shows as 🟢 Running
  5. Toggle the Expose via MCP item for various abilities to test
  6. Use the Test connection feature in the Connection test section to verify endpoint
  7. Copy a Client configuration and test in Claude Desktop or Cursor

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/152

Hybrid Experiment

AI Request Logging

This experiment adds logging for AI requests (provider, model, tokens, duration, cost estimate) that can be viewed from the Admin Dashboard as well as configurable retention period and automatic cleanup to help with debugging, cost tracking, and usage analysis.

We’re especially interested in feedback on:

  • Is the level of detail appropriate?
  • Who do you think this is for: site owners, developers, or both?
  • How should this data be surfaced or stored?
  • How would you want to filterFilter Filters 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., hide, or export this data?

How to test:

  1. Launch using this WordPress Playground link
  2. Open the WP Admin dashboard
  3. Navigate to Settings > AI Experiments, check Enable Experiments, click Save Changes, check AI Request Logging, and click Save Changes
  4. Enable other Experiments (and necessary, related AI Client Credentials via Settings > AI Credentials) and perform actions that trigger AI requests (e.g. Title Generation, ExcerptExcerpt An 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)
  5. Navigate to Settings > AI Request Logs and view the AI Request Logs screen showing requests, tokens, and other data
  6. Review logged requests and metadata
  7. Test filtering by provider, status, and date range
  8. Verify “Purge logs” clears all entries
  9. Disable the experiment and confirm no new logs appear

Screencast:

Share feedback / leave comments: https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/149

How to Give Feedback

Feedback directly on the PRs is ideal, but broad impressions are also valuable (e.g. as comments on this post, messages in #core-ai). You don’t need to review code to participate, high-level product, UX, and architectural feedback is just as valuable here. If you’re short on time, even answers to one or two of these questions help:

  • Would you use this if it shipped tomorrow?
  • What’s the first thing you’d change?
  • Where does this feel surprising, in a good or bad way?

These experiments are about learning in public. Your perspective can help us decide what to refine, what to pause, and what to drop entirely. Thanks for helping shape what AI in WordPress could become.

Props to @dkotter for helping with content for this post and @justlevine for pre-publish review.

#ai-experiments, #call-for-testing, #core-ai, #needs-testing

James LePage 10:33 pm on 3 February 2026  

Content Guidelines: A Gutenberg Experiment

A single place in WordPress to capture site-wide content standards and context, so publishing tools can manage content that stays on-brand and consistent.

Summary

We’d like to explore Content Guidelines as a GutenbergGutenberg The 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. The goal is to give site owners a first-class place in WordPress to capture the rules and context that shape how content should be written, edited, and managed.

A Gutenberg experiment is well-suited for this kind of work:

  • It intersects with multiple editor surfaces (post editor, site editor, and potentially admin views)
  • It enables early feedback from pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and host ecosystems before committing to a stable APIAPI An 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., while allowing us to design interfaces that dogfood modern WordPress components, wordpress/build, and other elements
  • It de-risks future AI integrations in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. by establishing the right foundations now
  • It defines a new kind of site-level configuration that doesn’t have a clear precedent in WordPress

Gutenberg experiments let us validate whether this concept belongs in core, how it should be modeled, and where it should live in the admin experience before committing to a long-term API.

The initial PR is up at #75164 (we’ll continue to iterate there), and the tracking issue for broader discussion is at #75171.

Why this matters

Most sites already have content standards: voice and tone, structural rules, image guidance, accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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) expectations, linking practices, and more. Today, those guidelines often live outside WordPress in documents, PDFs, wikis, or institutional knowledge. That makes them harder to find while writing and harder for any tool, human or automated, to apply consistently.

Content Guidelines isn’t an AI-only feature. It doesn’t depend on AI, but AI should depend on it. A unified store of guidelines makes standards discoverable, portable, and reusable, whether the person applying them is a writer, an editor, a plugin, or an AI assistant.

What Content Guidelines enables

Having a shared, structured store of guidelines creates compounding benefits over time – first for the people and tools already managing content, and increasingly as AI-assisted workflows become part of the publishing process.

A single source of truth for content standards. Today, editorial standards are scattered across wikis, PDFs, onboarding docs, and tribal knowledge. Content Guidelines gives them a canonical home inside WordPress, available at the moment they matter – during writing and editing, not after.

Consistency across authors and tools. On multi-author sites, keeping voice, structure, and formatting consistent is an ongoing challenge. When guidelines are part of the platform, every contributor and every tool works from the same expectations.

More steerable AI behavior. When AI-powered features can reference a site’s actual standards – voice and tone, preferred terminology, accessibility requirements, structural constraints – the results are site-specific rather than generic, with less need for repeated prompting or manual correction.

Guardrails for agents. As WordPress evolves to support and enable autonomous agents that act on behalf of a digital presence, (handling customer interactions, managing commerce workflows, moderating content) those agents need to understand the site’s voice, boundaries, and standards. Content Guidelines keeps public-facing agents aligned with a site’s brand and expectations, even without human review of every action.

A shared, portable foundation across the ecosystem. A consistent source of truth makes it easier for multiple features – whether core, host, or plugin – to behave coherently without creating conflicting rules across separate settings panels. With import and export, guidelines can move with a site, be reused across environments, or serve as a starting point for new sites.

What this experiment includes

The experiment focuses on establishing the foundation needed to make guidelines broadly useful:

  • A UIUI UI 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. for defining site-wide content guidelines and context
  • Support for content guidelines at a global and optionally at a more granular level
  • Storage that can evolve over time, including basic revision history
  • A way for tools to retrieve guidelines reliably

The initial emphasis is on capturing and retrieving guidelines. AI-driven experiences like generation, review, and enforcement, which exist in AI Experiments, can build on top of that shared foundation.

How to follow along and share feedback

If you’d like to track progress or contribute feedback and use cases, the tracking issue is the best place to start: #75171.

The most helpful feedback right now is practical:

  • What content standards would you want tools to consistently follow?
  • Where do those guidelines live today?
  • What schema and fields should we land on?
  • Which workflows matter most: drafting, editing, rewriting, translation, image generation, review?
  • What would make this immediately useful on day one?

Kudos to @matveb for reviewing this post.

James LePage 12:00 am on 1 February 2026
Tags:   

AI Guidelines for WordPress

AI tools are now part of how many people write code, tests, and documentation. To help contributors use them responsibly, we’ve published a first version of AI Guidelines in the Make WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. AI handbook.

AI Guidelines

These guidelines are intended to be practical and lightweight: they don’t ban AI tooling, but they do set clear expectations for quality, licensing, and transparency.

What’s in the guidelines

At a high level, the guide focuses on five core principles:

  • You are responsible for your contributions (AI can assist, but it isn’t a contributor).
  • Disclose meaningful AI assistance in your PR description and/or TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket comment.
  • License compatibility matters: contributions must remain compatible with GPLv2-or-later, including AI-assisted output.
  • Non-code assets count too (docs, screenshots, images, educational materials).
  • Quality over volume: avoid low-signal, unverified “AI slop”; reviewers may close or reject work that doesn’t meet the bar.

The document also includes specific guidance for AI-assisted code, tests/QA, documentation, issues/support, and reviewer expectations, plus a short FAQ (including common tools like GitHubGitHub GitHub 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 by the repository owner. https://github.com/ Copilot, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and ChatGPT).

Read it and share feedback

Please read the handbook page and leave feedback – especially from maintainers and frequent reviewers who are already handling AI-assisted contributions at scale.

We’re tracking follow-ups and next steps in the GitHub core-program issue here.

What happens next

  • We’ll x-post this to core meetings and request feedback/iteration.
  • We’ll work toward a more prominent “policy” landing page (not just a handbook entry), similar to how other projects have approached responsible AI guidance.

As with much in AI, this is a fast-moving space. These guidelines are intended to be living documentation, updated and iterated on as the project gains experience and as the broader landscape evolves. If you have questions, concerns, or proposals for changes, please start a discussion in the #core-ai WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel.

Resource: AI Guidelines (handbook)

#core-ai

Jeffrey Paul 3:57 pm on 27 January 2026
Tags: ,   

AI Contributor Weekly Summary – 21 January 2026

The formerly named “CoreCore Core 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 7.0 BetaBeta A 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 Plugin WordPress'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 UIUI UI 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.

PHPPHP PHP (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 and WordPress AI Client

@jason_the_adams shared that the PHP AI Client v0.4.0 has been released.

Next steps include:

  • 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.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

@ovidiu-galatan shared updates on MCP-related work:

  • Several PRs are open on the MCP AdapterMCP Adapter Translates 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 pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, separate from the WordPress AI Client being considered for core.

Tooling, Documentation, and Upcoming Decision Points

Additional topics discussed included:

  • WP Bench: @raftaar1191 successfully tested WP Bench using Ollama Cloud, noting that while results were poor compared to hosted providers, the tool functioned as expected. The group agreed this would be a good topic for the next SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.-based AI community chat.
  • 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.
  • Documentation gaps: @jeffpaul committed to reviewing the AI component and TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. handbook pages to ensure Abilities are clearly documented as part of the AI component, helping core triagers route issues correctly.

Next steps

  • @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.

Upcoming meetings

Reminder that all team meetings are published to https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/#ai.

  • The next bi-weekly AI Team Chat Slack discussion is scheduled for 5 February 2026.
  • The next weekly AI Contributor weekly Google Meet video call is scheduled for 28 January 2026.

Props to @justlevine for pre-publish review.

#core-ai, #summary