WordPress 7.0 RC5 is the fifth release candidate before the May 20th launch, and it exists to catch the bugs found after RC4. Here is how to install it on a staging site with WP-CLI, the Beta Tester plugin or Playground, and what to check in your own hooks.
WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” puts an AI Client and a provider-agnostic Abilities API into core, registers blocks from PHP alone, and raises the minimum PHP version to 7.4. Here is what changes if you maintain client sites.
Trunk is open and bumped to 7.1-alpha, so WordPress 7.1 development has started. Why the core team held trunk shut through the 7.0 cycle, how the double signoff rule works on numbered branches, and how to test an alpha build without wrecking your dev site.
WooCommerce 10.9 brings variation galleries into core, retiring the paid Additional Variation Images extension. Notes on the new meta key, the Action Scheduler migration, and the theme overrides that tend to break it.
The WooCommerce 10.8 release slips one week to May 26, 2026, clearing the WordPress 7.0 launch on May 20 and buying time to validate a late-landing change. Revised RC and release dates, plus what to check first.
Notes from the core performance chat the day before WordPress 7.0 ships: on-demand block style loading for classic themes, Performance Lab moving to PHP 7.4, npm ignore-scripts, and an FTP filesystem install fix.
WordPress Workspace for Mac is in beta. It puts a site-aware agent, voice dictation and screenshot uploads on the desktop instead of in another browser tab, and it previews the Guidelines feature headed for Core.
WordCamp US 2026 runs August 16 to 19 at the Phoenix Convention Center. The schedule covers Contributor Day, Showcase Day, and two days of sessions on WordPress and AI. Ticket tiers run from $25 for students to $750 for micro-sponsors.
WordPress 7.0 brings a provider-agnostic AI client, PHP-only block registration with autoRegister, and a minimum PHP 7.4. This is a practical walk through those changes, with code examples and where they help on real sites.
WordPress 7.0 removes real-time collaboration from the release after performance tests turned up race conditions and cache problems. What stays in the milestone, how RC3 looks, and what to test before the May 20th release.