WordPress 7.0 adds a watch() function to the Interactivity API for side effects that do not belong to a single DOM element, and the router store now gets state.url from the server, so the undefined guards can go. Two navigation properties are deprecated along the way.
WordPress 7.0 Beta 3 keeps the AI client in core small and pushes the providers out to plugins: Anthropic, Google and OpenAI are on the repository already, with Ollama being prepped. Plus where the MCP adapter is going and what AI Experiments 0.5.0 drops.
Gutenberg 22.7 ships the Connectors API, turns real-time collaboration on by default, adds live previews for style variations, and puts phpMyAdmin in wp-env. Notes on what to test before you ship it.
WordPress 7.0 supports :hover, :focus, :focus-visible and :active inside theme.json for blocks and their variations. What that replaces, how the JSON looks, and the limits worth knowing before you refactor.
WordPress 7.0 lets you register a block entirely in PHP. The autoRegister flag tells the editor to build the inspector controls from your attribute definitions, so a server-rendered block needs no JavaScript. The setup, and the attribute types it skips.
Beta 2 landed on February 26th and Beta 3 is due March 5th. The parts that matter for developers: blocks you can register in PHP alone, an iframed editor that isolates your CSS, and the handbook back in sync with Gutenberg 22.6.
WordPress 7.0 reworks DataViews and DataForm. The Field API gains a format property and adaptiveSelect, DataForm gets a native details layout with built-in validation, and groupByField becomes a groupBy object that breaks 6.9 view configs without warning.
WordPress 7.0 ships a native Breadcrumbs block, so the plugin can go. Two filters, block_core_breadcrumbs_items and block_core_breadcrumbs_post_type_settings, let you rewrite the trail and pick which taxonomy path wins when a post sits in several terms.
Mobile menus in WordPress 7.0 are template parts you edit in the Site Editor. This covers the navigation-overlay area, the theme.json registration, the close block you should add yourself, and the full-screen-only limit in this first release.
WordPress 7.0’s AI updates are heading into Beta 2. This post covers the pivot away from the Abilities API, the new Connector Screen, and the dependency issues in the AI Experiments plugin.