The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in our bug tracker.
We use Slack for real-time communication. Contributors live all over the world, so there are discussions happening at all hours of the day.
Our core development meetings are every Wednesday at 05:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in the #core channel on Slack. Anyone can join and participate or listen in!
WordPress 5.3 will be the final major release of 2019 and aims to polish current interactions and make the UIs more user friendly. Matt Mullenweg is the Release LeadRelease LeadThe community member ultimately responsible for the Release. for 5.3, Francesca Marano is the Release Coordinator, David Baumwald is the TriagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. PM, Riad Benguella is the Editor Tech Lead, Mark Uraine is the Editor Design Lead, Andrew Ozz is the CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech Lead, Anders Norén is the Default Theme Design Lead, Ian Belanger is the Default Theme Wrangler, Justin Ahinon is the Docs Coordinator, JB Audras is the AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Lead, Mike Reid is the Marketing Lead, and Mike Schroder is the Media Focus Lead. All release decisions will ultimately be theirs to make and communicate while gathering input from the community. There will be a new bundled theme included in 5.3.
Note that WordCamp US will be from November 1-3 and the US Thanksgiving holiday is November 28-29. Both tend to involve travel for a number of people and reduced activity; thus the schedule was crafted to allow ~2 weeks buffer from the target release date until Thanksgiving week. Given the effort that goes into a major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope., WCUS, and the end-of-year holidays it is safe to assume that activity on core will slow dramatically after the 5.3 release until January 2020; enjoy that downtime and thank you all for your contributions! 🙏
Release Schedule
8 May 2019
TrunktrunkA directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. is open for business. (Post-5.2)
Beta 1, begin writing Dev Notesdev noteEach important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include:
a description of the change;
the decision that led to this change
a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change.
Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. and About page, and last chance to merge feature projects. (Slack archive) (Zip download)
From this point on, no more commits for any new enhancements or feature requests in this release cycle, only bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and inline documentation. Work can continue on enhancements/feature requests not completed and committed by this point, and can be picked up for commit again at the start of the WordPress 5.4 development cycle.
Release candidate 1, publish Field GuideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. with Dev Notes, commit About page, begin drafting release post, and hard string freeze. (Slack archive) (Zip download)
To get involved in WordPress core development, head on over to TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and pick a 5.3 ticket. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook. Get your patches done and submitted as soon as possible, then help find people to test the patches and leave feedback on the ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.. Patches for enhancements will not be committed after the dates posted above, so that we can all focus on squashing bugs and deliver the most bug-free WordPress ever.
