In the world of open-source software, code is rarely the hardest part. The real challenge is coordination. The announcement of nominations for the WordPress Core Team Reps for the 2026 edition is a reminder that behind every major release, there is a small group of people doing the administrative heavy lifting.
For the past year, Francesca Marano, Jb Audras, and Benjamin Zekavica have been managing the helm. They aren’t “leads” in the traditional sense; they are facilitators. If you’ve ever wondered how Dev Chat stays organized or how cross-team updates actually happen, it’s because these reps are putting in the hours. Consequently, the project maintains a level of stability that we often take for granted as developers.
Understanding the Role of WordPress Core Team Reps
One of the biggest misconceptions in our ecosystem is that “Team Rep” is synonymous with “Team Lead.” It isn’t. In fact, the project intentionally avoids that terminology. Specifically, this is an administrative role focused on communication, not a position for dictating technical direction. Therefore, you don’t need to be the person writing the most commits to be an effective representative.
The core responsibilities include:
- Dev Chat Coordination: Posting agendas, hosting the weekly chats, and ensuring summaries are published.
- Release Monitoring: Keeping an eye on Gutenberg bi-weekly releases and major Core milestones.
- Cross-Team Communication: Reporting quarterly updates to the broader WordPress project.
If you are looking to understand how these contributions impact the overall pipeline, check out my thoughts on WordPress contribution talent and how we can better support the project.
The Technical Side of “Keeping Up”
Reps need to stay informed about the moving parts of the project. While it’s mostly administrative, I always recommend that anyone involved in Core management uses WP-CLI to quickly audit the status of current versions across their environments. It’s a simple way to stay “technical” while handling high-level tasks.
# Check the current core version and check for updates
wp core check-update
# See the status of the current environment
wp core statusHow the 2026 Election Process Works
The nomination period is currently open. You can nominate yourself or a colleague in the comments of the official Make WordPress Core post. However, remember that being nominated doesn’t mean you must accept; the final poll only includes those who explicitly agree to run.
The deadline for nominations is January 31, 2026, at 23:59 UTC. Following that, a two-week voting period will begin in early February. This structured timeline is vital for the health of the Team Rep role as defined in the official handbook.
We’ve seen how governance shifts can impact the project before. If you want a deeper look at the data behind these shifts, I previously analyzed how we can decode WordPress Core numbers to predict project health.
Look, if this WordPress Core Team Reps stuff is eating up your dev hours, let me handle it. I’ve been wrestling with WordPress since the 4.x days.
The Final Takeaway
The WordPress Core Team Reps role is a two-hour-a-week commitment that ensures the rest of us can focus on building products. It’s messy, administrative, and often thankless, but it’s the glue that holds the project together. If you have the bandwidth to help steer the ship, now is the time to speak up.
