WordPress 6.9.1 clears 49 bugs in Core and the Block Editor, with fixes for wp_mail and classic themes. Here is what changed, how to run the update through WP-CLI, and where it fits before WordPress 7.0 in April.
WordPress 6.9.1 RC1 closes 23 core bugs and 25 Block Editor issues, including the mail function error, the double-escaped class names from the HTML API, and the broken Add Plugins screen. Plus how to test the RC on staging with WP-CLI.
WordPress 6.9 ships the DataForm component, so a settings page can be declared as configuration instead of a stack of PanelBody components. Field definitions, card layouts, and wiring the form up to the REST API.
WordPress 7.0 turns the mobile menu overlay into a block-based template part, so a logo or a button goes in without CSS overrides. Here is what to test, plus the open argument about where the markup belongs in the HTML.
Gutenberg 22.4 merged 402 pull requests. The ones worth your time: pattern overrides for any block attribute that supports block bindings, and font library access for classic and hybrid themes.
Site Editor changes live in the database, not in your theme files. This is the setup I use to pull those visual edits back into version control: WordPress Playground, the Create Block Theme plugin and a GitHub repo as the source of truth.
Version 0.2.0 of WordPress AI Experiments adds excerpt generation that authors can edit or reject, and an Abilities Explorer screen for testing every registered ability in the browser.
The code block was a glorified textarea until WordPress.com rebuilt it. Native highlighting for over 100 languages, copy buttons and line numbers in the sidebar, and syntax token colors you can set from theme.json instead of loading Prism.js on every page.
I once wrote 60 lines of ResizeObserver JavaScript so one hero headline would fill its container. Chrome Canary is prototyping text-grow and text-shrink, which do the same job in CSS, with one accessibility catch.
A client wanted a Pinterest-style WooCommerce gallery, which used to mean Masonry.js or fragile grid math. The CSS Working Group settled on display: grid-lanes instead, and it is still rolling out behind flags.