Next WordPress release tracker

While accessibility efforts run through nearly every area of this release as a matter of course, a few pieces of dedicated, high-effort work stand out for 7.2:

1. Improve admin notices accessibility to ensure they’re announced properly to assistive technology and easier to dismiss and…

2. Introduce axe-core automated testing to prevent regressions and ensure more consistency.

3. Make it possible to turn off metabox rearranging, solving some long-standing problems with visual complexity and accidental…

4. Remove widget accessibility mode to reduce the number of management modes.

The 7.1 cycle gave clear guidance that AI features must first demonstrate clear adoption and practical value before being considered for Core. As a result, the work below is being pursued in the AI plugin without a guarantee of landing in 7.2. If you’re keen to see these features graduate into Core, the best way to help is to use and test the AI plugin and share feedback.

1. More WordPress abilities

   Continue refining the existing experimental abilities, explore write abilities, and expand read-only coverage to resources such as media, taxonomies, and comments.

2. A current MCP implementation

   Update the MCP Adapter for the latest MCP specification while keeping WordPress Ability definitions independent of protocol revisions.

3. Standard MCP Adapter distribution

   Publish the adapter in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory so it can be installed and updated like any other plugin.

4. Seamless MCP access

   Let administrators enable MCP through the AI plugin with minimal setup, including installing the adapter and controlling which abilities are exposed.

5. WebMCP experimentation

   Explore abilities in browser-based agent workflows tied to the current WordPress interface and page state.

6. Agent identity and delegation

   Develop a model for agents to have auditable identities, appropriate permissions, and access that can be managed independently of human accounts.

7. Knowledge and Guidelines

   Test reusable site context and editorial guidance across multiple AI features and abilities.

8. Embeddings and semantic search

   Build shared embedding support in the AI plugin, including generation, storage, and background synchronization, to power meaning-based search and responses grounded in site content.

9. Streaming AI responses

   Add streaming support to the PHP AI Client so applications can display generated content as it arrives, while laying the groundwork for broader WordPress and hosting support.

1. DataViews, DataForms iteration

   Extensibility is the main priority with work underway to evolve the initial view config API work with view/form config registered on the server, plus registering fields and actions on the server. Real screens in the experience drive the direction of…

2. Error state overhaul

   In line with defensive design best practices, this work aims to make error messages clearer and more diagnosable, and to add a copy button so an error is easier to search for or share.

3. Evolve Navigation editing in Site Editor sidebar

   Make the Extensible Site Editor Sidebar a more complete surface for common menu editing tasks, continuing the editing-experience improvements started in 7.1.

4. Extensible Site Editor

   Work continues on a new, extensible foundation for the Site Editor, built on the wordpress/boot routing package and already nearing feature parity with today’s editor. Beyond a rebuild, it opens the Site Editor up to third parties for the first time, with a…

5. Omnibar iteration

   After landing the omnibar in 7.1 to provide more consistency across various editing interfaces, more iterations are planned for 7.2, including replacing dashicons with SVG Icons, improving the command palette, continued accessibility review, and continued…

6. “On This Day” widget

   After being punted from WordPress 7.1, another attempt is underway to land a new “On This Day” widget that resurfaces past content, a popular feature across many different platforms.

1. Description list block

   A new block adds native semantic description list support to the block library through three static blocks: core/description-list serializes to , core/description-term serializes to , and core/description-detail serializes to . This follows the same parent…

2. Keyword search for Icon Block

   Complete the work of adding keyword search to the Icon Block. Currently, only the label is searched. Keyword search, for example, allows for the “menu” icon to be found by typing in “hamburger”, “navigation”, or “list”.

3. Interactivity API iteration

   The Interactivity API provides a standard way for developers to add interactions to the front end of their blocks and two main initiatives are underway to add to the power of the Interactivity API.

4. React 19 upgrade

   Work continues to make Gutenberg fully support React 19, with types, ecosystem dependencies, and rendering fixes largely landed. This is unlikely to fully land for WordPress 7.2 but is being noted here for broader awareness for when it does in a future…

5. Table of Contents block

   Take the long-experimental Table of Contents block stable by moving it to server-side dynamic rendering, so the editor and front end share one source of truth for headings.

Collaborative editing is intentionally not on the roadmap for 7.2, even as work continues alongside this release cycle. As in 7.1, it’s clear more time is needed for a number of architectural decisions, and rather than list it here only to pull it later, it’s being left off entirely. You can follow the work in this iteration issue, and everyone is encouraged to join the collaborative editing…

1. Notes iteration: suggestions, emojis, and more

   Notes (aka block commenting) have a range of slated improvements that aim to make Notes more discoverable, more powerful, and easier to use. Suggestion mode, where one can leave suggested edits to be accepted or rejected as notes, is the centerpiece of this…

1. Default Ipsum theme

   Read Introducing Ipsum, the new default theme for more details.

1. Block Editor paper cuts

   A broad quality-of-life sweep fixing dozens of small but persistent writing-flow, selection, paste, drag-and-drop, and mobile annoyances in the block editor. This is part of a continual focus to make writing great in WordPress.

2. Customize form elements in Global Styles

   Forms and their elements, like buttons or text input fields, are a common use case for websites. The work for 7.2 aims to give users the ability to style common form elements consistently in Global Styles, without writing custom CSS or editing theme.json by…

3. Expanded and consolidated block supports

   Work continues on new block supports and design tools (backgrounds, dimensions, position), including continuing the consolidation of ad hoc block controls in favor of more consistent supports. All of this work makes the foundation of block supports more…

4. Responsive style states for blocks iteration

   After responsive styling was introduced in 7.1, this cycle focuses on expanding which controls support states, adding a public API for third party blocks with custom controls to work with responsive styling, and refining the experience when switching into and…

5. Set custom states for blocks

   Custom states work allows users to style the “active” item in interactive blocks, like the current page in a navigation menu, directly from the editor. The focus of this release is on adding a -current custom state for Navigation Link and the Tabs block, as…

6. View inherited styles

   Currently, any block that has options set in Global Styles don’t reflect those values in their settings. Work is underway to change that so, if a paragraph block is set to red globally, when a user opens the block settings for a paragraph block the red color…

1. Client Side Media iteration

   As a reminder, client-side media provides a progressive enhancement to the current server-based approach to media processing and delivers more consistent media processing across WordPress installs, regardless of where a site is hosted. For this cycle, the…

2. Dynamic galleries and media inserter

   This work focuses on a few pieces: a redesign of the media inserter with a focus on a more scalable experience for browsing and adding images for sites with large media libraries, expanding sources for the dynamic gallery block variation, and bringing sorting…

3. Media Editor Modal iteration

   After landing in WordPress 7.1, for this iteration, the focus is on a better experience for attached media and tracking the relationship between originals and cropped derivatives. For the latter, this work aims to establish a more formal lineage tracking…

1. Performance

   For this cycle, the focus is on elimination of script/style concatenation in favor of prefetching and enhanced responsive images. If you’d like to help test the latter, please use the Enhanced Responsive Images plugin from the Performance team and give…

1. Revisions

   The focus of this cycle is on polishing the visual revisions experience that shipped in 7.0 so comparing and restoring changes feels effortless.

1. Application passwords improvements

   This work covers security hardening and UX refinements for Application Passwords, from better local/HTTPS environment detection to user notifications and safer default role handling. Below are a prioritized list of tasks:

2. Application password UX improvements

3. Send email notification when an application password is added

4. For App Passwords in non-HTTPS websites, WordPress asks for development environment, but actually requires local

5. Prevent default_role being set to dangerous values

6. Support for the SameSite cookie attribute

7. Improved HTML processing

   Work continues to harden how WordPress parses and processes HTML, building on the HTML API to make handling of markup safer and more reliable throughout Core.

8. Secrets API

   WordPress has no first-class way to store a credential and a recent proposal outlines a Secrets API to solve this problem, along with WP-CLI support, with a proper UI planned for a future release.

9. Sudo mode: reauthentication for specific tasks

   Initial work is starting on the possible introduction of a “sudo mode” feature, which can gate highly privileged administrative actions behind a re-authentication prompt even when you’re already logged in. Further details, a proposal, and a call for…