You are about to read a Within WordPress newsletter that is HEAVY on AI. Because there’s a lot happening right now in an attempt to make the WordPress 7.0 release be THE AI RELEASE. Sorry for shouting, but it is that big. Lots to cover; hope you enjoy it!
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Here’s what I saw happening this past week:
- Check out this
content guidelines in Gutenberg proposal. This is not too AI-specific, but something that allows websites to define their editorial terms and why they exist, to steer agents both inside of WordPress, in the future, site delegates as well.
- This pull request for WordPress.org will allow
MD rendering . With this in core, AI agents can now request markdown versions of pages using a multitude of methods.
- Ian Svoboda keeps pumping out excellent content! He’s
wrapped up a blog series on Building a Custom Block . If you’re not familiar with building blocks, I’d give this series a look! He’s showing you how to build a really complicated block, but explained simply.
- When my friend Anne-Mieke Bovelett gets
excited because of something being added to WordPress core, I pay attention. And this little nugget is worth learning about for all you shortcut-using WordPress users in the Block Editor.
🤖 WordPress & AI
- Claude (and I’m sure other LLMs) can now get into your WordPress.com sites via an MCP connection. And it’s pretty fun to see what we can do with this. WP.com
gives you examples of what to ask your WordPress.com sites.
- Where WP.com may look like it’s leading, the .org project is not too far behind. Jonathan Bossenger
introduced the WordPress(.org) MCP Adapter . It’s built on top of the Abilities API that was introduced in WordPress 6.9, and it’s a major step in making WordPress super ready for AI automations and workflow optimizations. Slated for 7.0. When this ends up in WordPress, WordPress will be well positioned for the future of the agentic web.
Jonathan also published on his own blog on
- The WordPress AI team is asking for feedback. Specifically on what the AI Guidelines for WordPress should look like. Go and
make your voice be heard !
- Felix Arntz published the
proposal for merging the WP AI Client , which I’ve mentioned before in previous newsletters, to be merged into the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release.
- Jeffrey Paul published a
Call for Testing on the Make WordPress AI blog. There are about a dozen really awesome AI Experiments for WordPress.
- Per Søderlind shared a very interesting, fun, experimental AI integration with WordPress. It’s a plugin that allows AI to discover what is available and generates interactive tutorials for the WordPress block editor. Based on his
AI Architecture.md , resulting in his Admin Coach Tours plugin and it is REALLY cool.
🚀 Performance & Security
- Varun Kumar Dubey released a production-ready
Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for cleaning malware from WordPress sites via SSH and WP-CLI. Designed for agencies and developers managing multiple WordPress installations.
Interesting take. I’ve got a few WP CLI wrapped in bash scripts that do essentially the same, but this was fun to play with. Now, mind you, he may call it “production ready”, but be careful where you let this library have access to. The I in AI is still a misnomer 😉.
🔆 Within WordPress Highlight
Even more WordPress & AI in this week’s edition. WordPress is turning into a native AI agent platform itself, highlighted in an article by James LePage. James walks through the new primitives:
- Abilities API → register structured capabilities with JSON schemas (inputs/outputs, permissions, callbacks)
- WP AI Client → fluent PHP SDK to talk to any LLM
- MCP Adapter → expose those abilities to external agents (Claude, etc.) via standardized protocol
Then you just drop them into agentic loops (LLM reasons → picks tool → calls ability → repeat), all in PHP, right next to your content, zero external infrastructure.
Code examples, real workflows, and the full vision
💡 Interesting Finds
- Jono Alderson wrote about how we should
stop turning your website into Markdown . Arguing that meaning lives in structure, hierarchy, and context. When you flatten it, and you don’t make it machine-friendly; you make it meaningless. - Neat little tool I stumbled upon that
checks if an email address exists without sending any email , written in Rust. Comes with an HTTP backend. - Wes McKinney built msgvault: a local-first email archive with a terminal UI and MCP server, powered by DuckDB. Open source, single Go binary.
Optimizing SVG . You know you needed this. - A collection of 50+
optical illusions coded with CSS and HTML (but mostly CSS).
🛒 WooCommerce News
- Another wonderful WooCommerce release focused on performance is ready for us.
WooCommerce 10.5 , released on February 3, 2026, introduces faster analytics, improved shipping displays, enhanced performance, and updates for better developer support and API management.
🔎 Scanfully Updates
And what do you know, we have launched our 3rd pillar feature this past week with our
This complements the base of our
Check out our announcement post, or
🎁 Bonus
🎙️ The Within WordPress podcast saw two episodes go live this week. The first one was with Elliott Richmond. Elliott’s WordPress skills are eclipsed by his pizza skills. Yeah, I’m not going to explain more;
The second podcast I released is with Jono Alderson, SEO specialist par excellence. Jono and I had a great conversation on WordPress & AI, Technical SEO, and
Oh, and here’s a fun podcast to listen to. It’s called
That’s it for this week’s edition of Within WordPress. Thanks for reading!
Best, Remkus
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