RC1 for WordPress 7.0 was due today and now lands on March 24, 2026. The holdups are real-time collaboration performance and client-side media optimization, plus a fresh look at release package size. Both are worth watching before you update.
The Plugin Directory now ships a wp-env setup, so you can boot a local copy instead of guessing how its backend behaves. Here is what works inside it, and where it stops short of the live site.
Beta 6 lands 132 fixes, drops Client-side Media Processing to shrink the package, and stretches Real-Time Collaboration polling by 4x. Collaboration is opt-in behind a constant now, and RC1 is due March 24th.
Beta 5 is out and RC1 ships tomorrow, so the WordPress 7.0 feature set is settled. Notes on pattern overrides reaching custom blocks, viewport controls landing in core, and why per-block custom CSS worries me.
Core bundles its own AI client in WordPress 7.0, so older AI Experiments builds fatal the moment you activate them. What is graduating out of experiment status, the LLM kill switch in Trac 64706, and how to load your own AI code without crashing.
WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 adds a Command Palette shortcut to the admin bar and closes more than 101 bugs. What the shortcut does, how to register your own commands with the API, and why I update beta sites with WP-CLI.
AI Experiments 0.5.0 requires WordPress 7.0, drops its bundled AI client for the one in core, and moves API keys to the Connectors screen. What that means if you are still on 6.9.
WordPress is looking for volunteers on the Twenty Twenty-Seven default theme, which ships with 7.2 in December 2026. What the work actually involves, why the schedule is tight, and how a core theme differs from any client build.
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.
WooCommerce 10.6 is mostly maintenance: SQL fixes in the admin, lazy loading on by default for the Product Image block, and two changes that can break custom breadcrumbs and headless Store API calls.