When you think about WordPress milestones, it’s usually version releases, download counts, or some celebratory birthday. But here’s one that quietly shapes the WordPress experience for millions: Ganga Kafle, co-rep of the WordPress Themes Team, has now personally reviewed more than 7,000 themes in the WordPress.org theme directory. Kafle hit the milestone in late July, just eight months […]
Ollie’s New Menu Designer Brings Intuitive Menu Creation to the Block Editor
Menus have long been one of WordPress’s pain points. Ollie co-founder Mike McAlister thinks he’s cracked it with Menu Designer, a new plugin that leans into the block editor, works with any block theme, and feels like WordPress. McAlister built the plugin in just two weeks — on and off, between supporting Ollie customers and raising a two-year-old […]
Cloudways Copilot: The AI Assistant That’s Changing Managed Hosting
Heads up: This is sponsored content, created and paid for by one of our sponsors. Their support helps keep The Repository going. All sponsors follow our Advertising Policy. In a world where website downtime can cost you customers, revenue, and credibility in minutes, speed isn’t just nice to have — it’s survival. Whether you are an agency managing […]
Proposal to Expand WordPress Core Block Library Sparks Debate Among Contributors
A new proposal from Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura to add more blocks to WordPress core has prompted a wide-ranging discussion among contributors about what belongs in the default editor — and what should remain in plugins. In GitHub tracking issue, Ventura has listed 13 long-proposed but stalled blocks, including Icons, Tabs, Accordions, Sliders, Breadcrumbs, Table of Contents… […]
Automattic Pushes WP Engine to Hand Over Evidence of Customer Confusion
The tug-of-war over discovery in WP Engine, Inc. v. Automattic Inc. et al. has flipped sides. Last week, WP Engine was pressing Automattic to expand its document searches. This week, Automattic is asking the U.S. District Court to compel WP Engine to produce more. In an August 14 joint letter brief to Judge Donna Ryu, Automattic seeks documents […]
From Groundhogg to Guideline Violations: How the WordPress Plugins Team Enforces Trademarks
The closure of Groundhogg’s CRM plugin in the WordPress.org plugin directory last week put a spotlight on the WordPress Plugins Team’s behind-the-scenes work policing trademarks, reviewing code, and keeping the repository’s 60,000 active plugins secure. On August 9, the Groundhogg team posted on X that the free version of their plugin had been closed for trademark infringement — […]
Judge Denies Willman’s Bid to Join WP Engine v. Automattic Case
Michael Willman’s attempt to join WP Engine’s high-profile lawsuit against Automattic and CEO Matt Mullenweg has been denied — and not on the merits, but because of a procedural roadblock. In an August 13 order, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín denied Willman’s motion to intervene, along with his related motions for contempt and an order to show cause, […]
Performance Chat Summary: 12 August 2025
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack. WordPress Performance Trac tickets @westonruter shared the current 6.9 milestone tickets and noted that the fetchpriority support PR #8815 still needs a maintainer review+approve. Once merged, work can proceed on the related #63486. @westonruter also asked if someone more familiar with Opcode Caching could review this PR #9260, […]
WordCamp Canada 2025 Is All About Generational Change, Open Web Energy, and Tinkering With What’s Next
WordCamp Canada is back for its second year, and this time the focus is firmly on students, innovation, and the future of the open web. Set to take place October 15-17 at Carleton University in Ottawa, the event has been shaped by a strong sense of experimentation. So far, there’s an impressive lineup of talks on AI, federation, […]
Phased Plugin Releases Land on WordPress.org With 24-Hour Delay Option
A first version of phased plugin releases is now live on WordPress.org, giving developers a way to roll out updates to a smaller group of users first — and a day’s head start to fix any issues. First proposed by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg in June, the feature is an early version of staged rollouts, inspired by the […]
