95% faster Woo(!!), Feature API, Slash Edit + WP & AI goodies

If you’re serious about building better WordPress sites, this is the newsletter for you.

This week’s edition comes to you a day late, I know 😛, from the beautiful region of Bavaria in Germany. I’ve got lots to share with you, so let’s dive in for number 157, shall we?

Hope you enjoy it!

🗞️ Within WordPress News

Here’s what I saw happening this past week:

  • First off, I need to correct a mistake I make last week. I linked to a tutorial that shows how to automate screenshots in WordPress Playground using Node.js and Playwright. Great for demos, testing, or content creation with zero manual steps. But I accidentally attributed it to the wrong person. That should have been Birgit Pauli-Haack!

You should also check out her extremely thorough Mastering Custom Block Styles in WordPress: 6 Methods for Theme and Plugin Developers article.


  • Speaking of AI, James LePage shared Automattic’s Feature API library. It’s a system for exposing server and client-side functionality in WordPress – for use in LLMs and agentic systems.

My friend Jamie Marsland unpacks the upcoming WordPress Feature API, which will let plugins register their features in a standardized, user-facing way. It’s a big step toward improving discoverability, UX, and reducing clutter in the admin.


  • Ronald Huereca shared his plugin Slash Edit. It’s one of those utilitarian plugins that just makes so much sense. What does it do? Well, it makes it super easy to create edit links, particularly when you don’t know the post ID in advance, just by adding /edit to any WordPress content URL.


  • WooCommerce 9.9 is full of wonderful improvements. Blueprints is a feature that allows users to export and import store settings. Ideal for developers, agencies, and multi-store owners. Huge time saver!

  • Love it when two of my favorite solutions starting working together beautifully. CommandUI now integrates deeply with Greyd Suite, making WordPress management faster and more accessible! Use shortcuts to navigate, create resources, and access settings without endless clicks.

  • Bob Dunn breaks down how the Friends plugin transforms your WordPress site into a decentralized social hub. No algorithms, no data mining, just posts, follows, and conversations across sites, all powered by open standards.

  • My friends at Progress Planner are organizing a webinar again, and with a title like this, you know I had to share it: “Site speed secrets (that Google and ChatGPT actually care about) [Masterclass]”. Jono Alderson and Taco Verdonschot will share all the goods in this free webinar.


  • Tom McFarlin introduces WP Bulk Plugin Updater, a simple tool to automate plugin updates across multiple WordPress installs. Ideal for devs managing lots of sites who want less clicking and more control.

🚀 Performance & Security

  • If you’re managing stores with hundreds of thousands of orders, tens of thousands of products, or vast customer datasets, WooCommerce 9.9 is built for you. Woo has measured up to 95% (🤯) reductions in page load times across critical admin screens. Check out the beta and see for yourselves!

  • Rémi Corson takes a closer look at the new Speculative Loading API in WordPress, explaining how it preloads likely next-page visits to speed up navigation. Less waiting, better UX, and no extra requests until needed.

  • It’s time to stop obsessing over image optimization and focus on bigger performance wins. Modern formats, CDNs, and solid defaults already do most of the heavy lifting. Your time is better spent elsewhere.

🔆 Within WordPress Highlight

Finally, with the upcoming WooCommerce 9.9 release, this is annoying button is no longer a thing:

💡 Interesting Finds

  • Saketh Kowtha shares 10 hidden GitHub gems that can seriously upgrade your workflow. From secret URLs to clever search tricks, this list is packed with tools even seasoned devs might not know.


“I have no interest in giving up writing code. That’s not the unpleasant part that I want AI to take off my hands. Just so I can — what? — become a project manager for a murder of AI crows?”


  • Raf explores how gaining technical skills can become a burden, turning every software flaw into a personal responsibility. This insightful reflection on the “curse of knowing” delves into the compulsion to fix everything, the emotional toll of constant improvement, and the realization that not every problem is yours to solve. Read the full article.

That’s it for this week’s edition of Within WordPress. Thanks for reading!

Best, Remkus

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