Hi there,
I found a new AI tool, and I like it very much: Claude Code. For $20 per month you get a fabulous buddy to co-create plugins and themes for WordPress or scripts and modules for other purposes. It works right there in your terminal window.
It helped me a great deal writing a plugin for the Gutenberg Changelog podcast so I can build a great podcast landing page. I needed additional social link icons and created block bindings for episode meta and podcast options data. Block variations will help me add the blocks to the inserter, and I don’t have to write block markup. Then I created a podcast archive template that I registered directly from the plugin. I am not yet done testing, but if you want to look at the code it’s on GitHub with some additional details. My plugin augments the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin I have been using since 2015 and makes it more blocky.
What AI adventure did you pursue this week? Hit reply or share in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.
Have a splendid weekend.
Yours, 💕
Birgit
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
Aki Hamano released What’s new in Gutenberg 21.3? (30 July) In his release post he highlighted:
🎙️ The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #125 – WordPress 6.9, Gutenberg 22.1 and Gutenberg 22.2 with JC Palmes, WebDev Studios
Anne McCarthy published Roadmap to 6.9, the list of features contributors are working on to get ready for the release on December 2, 2025. It’s quite aspirational and starts with a few features where WordPress 6.8 left off. Here are the chapter headings.
- Evolving the Site Editor
- Refining content creation
- Command Palette everywhere
- Developer updates
- Performance improvements
Rae Morey reported about it on The Repository: WordPress 6.9 Roadmap: Block Comments, Site Editor Updates, and an Admin Redesign.
Muhibul Haque, training team rep, just announced the Training Team Cohort: “WordPress Block Editor Basics”. “This hands-on learning experience will guide you through the essential tools, tips, and features of the Block Editor, helping you gain confidence and practical skills. ” he wrote. The post offers a form to indicate your interest.
The host of the WPLift’s Cosmos podcast, Julia Colomb, invited members of the WordPress AI Team, James LePage, Jeff Paul, and Pascal Birchler to chat with her on episode 5, WordPress AI Team on Future of WP, and Human Side of AI at Cosmos by WPLift ,of the new show. They covered the core building blocks of AI features. They aim to boost multilingual features and make developer workflows smoother. They also touched on privacy and bias in AI.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Troy Chaplin recently launched version 2.0 of his Block Accessibility Checks plugin, enabling developers to add custom validation checks for their blocks. This version features a new Developer API that works with any block, whether it’s from your own plugin, a third-party source, or for a client project.
While initially aimed at identifying accessibility issues, the API also allows for various feedback types, such as content length checks and required fields, as long as it’s written in JavaScript.
Chaplin aims to integrate accessibility and quality checks seamlessly into the editing workflow.
Stephanie Pi, developer advocate at Woo has an update for WooCommerce site builders: WooCommerce Block Theme: An update on our strategy. In short, WooCommerce decided not to release its new “Purple” block theme as a separate product because it overlapped with other WordPress themes. Instead, they’ll add new design patterns and templates directly into WooCommerce, so all users benefit from updates, regardless of which theme they use.
Rae Morey, The Repository, has more: Woo Withdraws Block Theme Submission, Reconsiders Successor to Storefront
A new event management plugin entered the stage: Lesley Sim and Ahmed Fouad launched EventKoi, built for classic or blocks theme. The first version comes wiht a 50% launch discount. On the roadmap are a free version as well as updates for Elementor, Beaver Builder, or Bricks, and a ton of features.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
Justin Tadlock has a great tutorial for those of us who are bit shy in using the full theme.json to style blocks. In You don’t need theme.json for block theme styles you learn about block stylesheets and how to wp-enqueue your styles for block related styling. Tadlock also says, “It’s not one or the other”.
If you are interested in the developer blog, Justin Tadlock and Mary Baum spoke with Abha Thakor on the OpenChannels show OpenMakers. In Learn, Share and Grow with the WordPress Developer Blog Community, they explored how this powerful resource helps developers at every stage. From sharing code breakthroughs and real-world case studies to offering guidance on writing, editing, and contributing, Justin and Mary unpack the collaborative spirit that fuels the blog and the broader WordPress community.
Jamie Marsland has tested a new Menu Designer plugin by Mike McAlister and put it all in a video for us: WordPress Is About to Get a Whole Lot Better (Exclusive Preview).
There is prior art, which I mentioned here a while ago.
- Nick Diego wrote a developer blog tutorial on how you can build a mega menu yourself with a template part, a custom block and the interactivity API: An introduction to block-based mega menus with an experimental Mega Menu Block
- Dave Smith authored the plugin Responsive Navigation Block,with which you can display and apply alternative styling to different navigation menus based on the screen size using the WordPress Navigation block.
- Hans-Gerd Gerhards also works on improving the navigation block with his plugin Dynamic Header & Navigation for Block Themes.
Mike McAlister seems to take the task to the next level with the Menu Designer. Stay tuned.
On OpenChannels, Designing for Clients Using Figma Systems and WordPress Block Themes, Ash Shaw, founder of Lightspeed, joined Derek Hanson on the Publishing Flow show. Shaw shared how adopting Figma has revolutionized their design-to-development handoff, enabled more efficient client workflows, and strengthened alignment with WordPress’s core block themes.
Ash Shaw’s talk at WordCamp Europe is available on WordPressTV: Bridging Design and Development: Figma Design Systems for WordPress Success
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
The team at Codeable, the freelance platform for WordPress developers, published What is React Used For? Popular Implementation Examples for developers starting to consider adding ReactJS to their toolbox.
In his latest video, AI Assistance, Right in Your Browser!, Jonathan Bossenger explored Google Chrome’s built-in Gemini support for the Developer Tools. He wanted to find out if it’s any good at helping him fix warnings and errors in my code.
Tom Rankin published on the WPMayor site the 10 Top WordPress Web Development AI Tools for 2025 (By Use Case). He wrote, “The right AI tool will reduce your development time and improve both your code quality and creative output. I want to share 13 tools that could make the biggest impact on your WordPress workflow.” He tested them all.
Ryan Welcher continues his Block Developer Cookbook series on YouTube with The WordPress Developer’s Guide to Mastering Custom Block Bindings. He takes you along when he creates a custom block binding source to connect a block variation to the post excerpt. You’ll learn how to bind dynamic data to your blocks for a seamless editing experience.
Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.
Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience
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
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