WordPress wants to build Block Editor Handbook pages straight from block.json at build time. That would kill doc drift and give core blocks a reference that matches the code you are actually running.
Manual regression testing was my bottleneck, so I automated it. This covers wp-env setup, Playwright with the WordPress test utils, and testing block variations and meta bindings without clicking through the editor.
WordPress 7.0 stopped hardcoding which blocks support Block Bindings and Pattern Overrides. Support is resolved through a filter now, so any lookup table you were trusting is out of date. Also new: a native Accordion block and an Icon block.
Gutenberg 23.0 adds an experimental revisions panel for templates, template parts and patterns, plus a flag that stops legacy meta boxes from disabling real-time collaboration. The Guidelines rename will catch you out on update.
WordPress 7.0 reworks the core design tools roster: Verse becomes Poetry, Accordion, Breadcrumbs and Math arrive with full design support, and pattern overrides are opt-in per attribute through a filter. Includes the updated support table and a registration snippet.
Ten block themes I tested for personality without the performance hit, from the Afrofuturist Sankofa to the halftone lo-fi of Punk. Includes a CSS clip-path snippet for custom image shapes.
Notes from the April 8, 2026 dev chat: WordPress 7.0 makes the collaboration sync layer provider agnostic, so polling is only the default. What that means for WebSocket providers, CRDT reconciliation and block API v3.
Gutenberg 22.9 lands background.gradient support so a gradient and a background image can coexist, adds an EmptyState component to wordpress/ui, and gives the experimental Forms block hidden input fields.
The Gutenberg repo is changing how iteration issues work: a fresh issue per release, monthly updates before beta, weekly through RC, and a template that asks for scope and blockers up front.
WordPress 7.0 ships real-time collaboration over HTTP polling, which is fine until traffic picks up. Here is how I swap in a WebSocket transport with Yjs and the sync.providers filter, and what the auth side has to look like.