WordPress just introduced an experiment that I’ve been waiting for since the early days of the block editor: Gutenberg Content Guidelines. The project is currently living as a Gutenberg experiment, and it aims to create a first-class, machine-readable home for site-wide content standards. However, don’t let the “experiment” label fool you—this is a foundational shift in how we manage editorial logic.
If you’ve spent years building for multi-author environments or agencies, you know the drill. Brand voice, accessibility rules, and image standards usually live in a dusty PDF or a pinned Slack message. Consequently, authors ignore them, and developers have to hardcode “hacks” into custom meta boxes to enforce them. WordPress is finally trying to centralize this logic into the core editor surface.
Why Gutenberg Content Guidelines are a Game-Changer
The primary value here isn’t just a UI for editors to read rules. Specifically, the experiment focuses on making these guidelines machine-readable. In an era where AI-powered publishing tools are becoming standard, having a “Single Source of Truth” is non-negotiable. Therefore, when an AI assistant or a third-party plugin tries to generate content, it can programmatically query the site’s standards to stay on-brand.
Furthermore, this experiment de-risks future AI integrations. Instead of having five different AI plugins with five different “tone of voice” settings, Gutenberg Content Guidelines provides a canonical API that any tool can dogfood. As discussed in our look at WordPress 7.0 developer features, core is moving toward a more structured data approach, and this is a major piece of that puzzle.
The Technical Foundation: Under the Hood
Technically, the experiment (tracked in PR #75164) looks at creating a persistent storage system for these rules. This includes basic revision history—because brand guidelines evolve—and a retrieval system that tools can rely on. As a developer, I’m excited about the possibility of using a standard hook or data store to pull these rules into custom block configurations.
For example, if you wanted to check if a post follows the site’s “voice” guidelines before it’s transitioned to a “pending” status, you might eventually see logic similar to this speculative snippet:
<?php
/**
* Speculative example of checking site-wide guidelines
*/
function bbioon_validate_content_against_guidelines( $post_id ) {
// This is a conceptual example of how an API might be accessed
$guidelines = get_site_content_guidelines( 'tone_of_voice' );
if ( empty( $guidelines ) ) {
return;
}
// Logic to pass guidelines to an LLM or validator tool
// bbioon_check_compliance( $post_id, $guidelines );
}
add_action( 'wp_insert_post', 'bbioon_validate_content_against_guidelines' );
This is much cleaner than the naive approach of hardcoding strings into your theme’s functions.php or using a fragmented plugin system. For a deeper dive into modern Gutenberg architecture, you should also check out my notes on pattern overrides in Gutenberg 22.4.
Look, if this Gutenberg Content Guidelines stuff is eating up your dev hours, let me handle it. I’ve been wrestling with WordPress since the 4.x days.
Final Takeaway
Content Guidelines are not just an “AI feature.” They are a site-management feature that AI will eventually depend on. By establishing these guardrails now, WordPress is preparing for a future where autonomous agents manage commerce and customer interactions. If we can define the voice and boundaries today, we can ship more robust, predictable sites tomorrow. Keep an eye on the tracking issue #75171 to see how the schema lands.
