Hi there!
Yes, it’s been a while. Did you miss me? I hope you and yours had a great start to the new year, and I wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2026. I am infinitely grateful you are a reader on this site and newsletter. Thank you for your ongoing support.
My Year-End vacation directly merged into an intensive training and exploration into AI-first software development. It was eye-opening to say the least and entirely liberating. Ideas can be prototyped fairly quickly and their implementation is not stifled by the level of my personal coding skills. Success heavily depends on a clear vision, architectural consistency and radical quality control.
Although there was a downturn in publishing over the holidays, I found a plethora of posts and plugins again. This edition catches up on most of it.
Looking forward to going through our connecting with you in our eighth year of Gutenberg Times.
Yours, 
Birgit
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
Aaron Jorbin published the WordPress 6.9.1 Release Schedule. RC1 will be next week on January 29, 2026, and the final release on February 3, 2026.
The GitHub project board of WordPress 6.9.x Editor Tasks lists the PRs that will make it into the release in the Done column. Other core updates are available in this trac report.
WordPress 7.0
Jeff Paul announced the WordPress 7.0 release squad, led by Gutenberg’s chief architect Matias Ventura. It’s a team of veterans and newbies spread around the globe.
Rae Morey, The Repository, also reported with more background and details on the state of real-time collaboration feature in her post: Matías Ventura Named WordPress 7.0 Release Lead as Contributors Close In on Real-Time Collaboration Approach
WordPress 7.0 will run your post editor inside an iframe by default, so now’s the time to test your blocks for compatibility. If you’re still registering blocks with apiVersion 2, you’ll start seeing console warnings in WordPress 6.9. The main gotcha: your document and window references won’t work inside an iframe. You’ll need to switch to useRefEffect with ownerDocument and defaultView instead of globals. You can find more details in the official migration guide.
In his post WordPress 7.0 Enforces Block API v3: Why Existing Blocks Begin to Fail, Benjamin Zekavica, core-team rep, also provides some tips and Tricks. Custom blocks that target admin selectors like .wp-admin or .editor-styles-wrapper, rely on global document queries, or initialize libraries globally and now fail consistently. Reading through the article, it seems this is mostly related to agency work, with bespoke theme and block development on sites of the early block era.
Gutenberg releases
Gutenberg 22.3 and 22.4 have been released.
Hector Prieto highlights in his release post Gutenberg 22.3 (December 17)
- Dedicated Fonts page for easier typography management
- Image editing improvements
- Responsive Grid block
- Other highlights
JuanMa Garrido led the 22.4 release together with Anne McCarthy and they had to tame quite a large changelog with more than 400 PRs merged by 77 contributors, of whom 16 were first-timers! It must have been difficult to pick the top highlights for their release post What’s new in Gutenberg 22.4? (20 January):
- Classic and Hybrid Theme Support for the Font Library
- Pattern Overrides: Custom Block Support
- Image Block: Focal Point Controls
- Block Visibility Based on Screen Size (Experimental)
- Other Notable Highlights
The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #125 – WordPress 6.9, Gutenberg 22.1 and Gutenberg 22.2 with JC Palmes, WebDev Studios
Justin Tadlock‘s January developer roundup covers new responsive Grid blocks with adjustable columns and widths, an easy-to-use Fonts admin screen, and experimental PHP-only block registration with full metadata. New tools include an image cropper and an updated Abilities API client. The Breadcrumbs block is on track for WordPress 7.0, and Navigation overlay tests are allowing template part assignments. Playground now features a DevTools extension and a new dashboard interface.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
If you’ve ever watched a client accidentally drag your carefully crafted block layout into chaos, Eric Karkovack has your back. In his guide on How to Protect WordPress Block Layouts From Accidental Changes he walks you through two built-in WordPress safeguards: save your layouts as exportable block patterns you can restore anytime, then use the Lock feature to let clients update content without rearranging your design. You can even lock entire Group blocks at once for extra security.
Wes Theron demonstrates the Details block for WordPress, showcasing how you can create collapsible sections perfect for FAQs, definitions, transcripts, and supplemental content. The tutorial covers inserting the block, navigating with List View, and customization options for keeping pages organized and tidy. Theron walks through practical examples showing how the accordion-style functionality helps hide and reveal content on demand, offering a native WordPress solution for managing long explanations without cluttering the page layout.
Matthew Cowan released Find Blocks, Patterns & Shortcodes, a plugin that helps users locate Gutenberg blocks on WordPress sites and allows CSV export for content audits. The tool includes batch processing, post-type filtering, synced pattern searches, and WP-CLI support, with sortable results tables. It also features security measures like rate limiting and XSS prevention, and improves accessibility for screen readers and keyboard navigation.
In his post How to create magic effects in WordPress with core blocks, Joel Olawanle demonstrates creating cinematic effects using only WordPress core blocks, focusing on the Cover block’s layering capabilities. In his tutorial, Olawanle covers fixed backgrounds for parallax simulation, scroll snap with minimal CSS, creative typography using duotone filters and blend modes, and multi-layered depth through nested Group blocks. Olawanle emphasizes building premium visuals while maintaining performance through native blocks, avoiding heavy page builders and keeping sites lightweight, accessible, and fast.
Matt Cromwell created the Synced Pattern Popups plugin, which turns WordPress’s reusable synced patterns into modal popups that load content with AJAX and use smart caching. Triggers can be activated using simple class or href attributes, and third-party blocks display correctly with good styling. The plugin supports accessibility with keyboard navigation and ARIA support, has an optional AI-powered summary feature, and works with WordPress 6.9’s Abilities API for automated workflows—all without any setup needed.
Justin Tadlock‘s Media Data plugin reveals hidden information from uploaded files—like camera settings, audio tags, and video codecs—through easy-to-use editor blocks that need no coding. Photographers can show exposure details below images, podcasters can add artist info next to players, and archivists can log file sizes and lengths, all using WordPress’s existing metadata with customizable labels and complete block theme integration. Users of WordPress 6.9 also benefit from Block Bindings support for improved workflows.
Troy Chaplin‘s Priority Plus Navigation plugin enhances the core Navigation block by managing menu items more efficiently. When space is limited, it moves items into a dropdown for better accessibility. Using ResizeObserver, it monitors width and changes submenus into a “More” dropdown while following core overlay settings. The plugin fully supports theme.json for customizing dropdown styles, hover effects, and separators, and ensures keyboard navigation and screen reader compatibility.
Kadim Gültekin created Block Style Modifiers plugin to enhance Gutenberg’s block styles with additional CSS classes that can layer together. Developers can easily add modifiers for specific blocks or globally using simple PHP functions and can reorder these classes in the editor sidebar. An experimental companion pack showcases hover effects, responsive utilities, and overlay treatments.
In his post, Bernhard Kau presents his Campaign Archive Block plugin, which fixes Mailchimp’s complicated archive problem by creating dynamic API-driven listings instead of manual archives. Annoyed with Mailchimp’s clunky JavaScript and formatting issues, Kau developed a plugin that automatically pulls archives and can share API credentials with other Mailchimp plugins. Users can set the display count, choose between title and subject, and include sender metadata, reducing the need for manual updates after sending emails.
Johanne Courtright released Groundworx Core 1.3.0 with Dynamic Flow, a query-powered carousel filtering posts by taxonomy or keywords with curated mode for manual selection, Static Flow for building custom slide carousels with any blocks and media pause controls, and Featured Posts displaying content in responsive grids. The update adds responsive breakpoint systems across layouts, block transforms between post disp
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
In my latest post, I show how WordPress Playground Blueprints turn theme demos from basic setups into fully functional sites in a browser. Developers create demo content locally, export it, and host assets on GitHub to avoid CORS issues. They then make JSON files that define installation steps, including content import and site setup. The WordPress Importer automatically resizes media and updates URLs. Using this method theme builders can share links that launch complete working demos with sample content, navigation, and settings preserved.
On the Developer Blog, you can read my article Streamlining block theme development with WordPress Playground and GitHub, where I explained a simple workflow using WordPress Playground, the Create Block Theme plugin, and GitHub to connect visual design with version control. Designers can work entirely within browser-based Playground instances, using CBT’s Save Changes to update theme files and submit pull requests to GitHub—without needing to use a terminal or code editor. This method makes it easier for anyone to work on block themes while upholding professional development standards. It’s the blog post to the presentation I gave at WordCamp Gdynia last September. The video is now available on WordPressTV.
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor
Carlo Daniele explores the Block Bindings API for Kinsta, demonstrating how to connect external data sources to Gutenberg blocks. The tutorial walks you through registering custom binding sources, fetching weather data from Open-Meteo API, and creating a UI for custom sources introduced in WordPress 6.9. Daniele builds a practical example binding temperature and conditions to Paragraph blocks, showcasing how the API transforms WordPress into a dynamic application platform beyond traditional blogging.
Ian Svoboda helps developers with creating custom blocks using the create-block package. He covers static and dynamic rendering options and explains important files like block.json, edit.js, and save.js. In his tutorial, he builds a dismissible Notice block, outlines naming conventions for assets in the editor and frontend, and demonstrates automatic block registration with glob pattern matching. Developers need local environments and build tools like wordpress/scripts or 10up-toolkit.
In his last week’s live stream, Ryan Welcher went fully into PHP mode and build Custom WordPress Blocks WITHOUT JavaScript. The Gutenberg plugin now also entails a PHP-only block API in version 22.2 and refined in 22.3. Check out the video and see how it all works.
Paulo Carvajal published a comprehensive guide on managing Interactivity API state flow for large-scale WordPress applications. You’ll learn the three foundational pillars: Global State for page-wide data, Local Context for component isolation, and Derived State for reactive consistency. You also learn unidirectional data patterns, asynchronous actions with withSyncEvent, store namespacing, and server-side hydration strategies to help you build performant enterprise projects.
WordPress and AI
In his latest video, Jonathan Bossenger discussed recent AI-related news in WordPress, including the Plugin Check Namer tool for evaluating plugin names and the introduction of the Abilities API JavaScript client in Gutenberg. He also showcased the AI Experiments plugin and WP Bench for evaluating the AI capabilities in WordPress development.
As James Le Page announced on X, the AI Experiments plugin has received significant updates that include AI-powered excerpt generation fully integrated with the editor, along with a new Abilities Explorer admin screen for viewing registered AI features. The backend now supports Content Summarization and Image Generation experiments, which are pending UI development. Additionally, documentation and onboarding materials were improved, and WordPress Playground preview support was added to streamline workflows, allowing developers to test changes directly from pull requests.
Ray Morey has the skinny for you here: AI Experiments 0.2.0 Adds Excerpt Generation and Abilities Explorer
WordVell‘s editorial team examined fourteen practical MCP implementations changing WordPress and WooCommerce workflows from manual tasks to AI-driven automation. This protocol allows natural language commands, such as “publish this post,” to be executed instantly via servers like InstaWP, OttoKit, and n8n. Use cases include AI-driven content creation with SEO, automating admin tasks across sites, product search conversations, personalized customization, and guided checkout experiences.
James Le Page also announced WP-Bench, a benchmark that measures how well language models understand WordPress development. This tool assesses models on WordPress APIs, hooks, security patterns, and features like the Abilities API while testing code in a secure WordPress environment. The goal is to set a standard evaluation for AI providers, encouraging them to improve for WordPress’s many developers.
David Levine, a senior software engineer at rtCamp, explained in the article Beyond AI: What the Abilities API means for WordPress Composability that the new Abilities API allows developers to register specific “abilities” using a clear, machine-readable format. This approach replaces scattered hooks and custom REST endpoints, making plugins and core features more composable. It helps third-party code integrate easily without needing extensive knowledge of internal functions. The API also allows AI and automated tools to find and use capabilities automatically, leading to a more modular and future-ready WordPress ecosystem while maintaining backward compatibility for gradual changes.
Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don’t hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.
For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com