Learn about all the new updates coming to WordPress for developers, covering plugins and tools, theme updates, and the new Playground MCP Server.

WordPress Dev's resource offers insights, tutorials, and resources for WordPress developers and website administrators. Readers can learn about WordPress development techniques, plugin development, and theme customization. With articles, tutorials, and troubleshooting guides, WordPress Dev provides  guidance and expertise for building and maintaining WordPress-powered websites.

WordPress Developer

WordPress 7.0's release cycle has been extended to fix a performance issue in the Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) database architecture. Pre-release versions are paused until April 17th, with a new schedule announced by April 22nd. Key developer highlights include: RTC using Yjs/CRDT with HTTP polling, requiring migration from classic meta boxes; a new WP AI Client PHP library providing a unified abstraction for AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Ollama, Mistral, OpenRouter); a Connectors API for platform-level AI credential management; a Client-Side Abilities API in JavaScript; and WordPress Playground's new MCP server enabling AI coding agents like Claude Code to control a local WordPress instance via WebSocket. Theme developers get pseudo-state button styling in theme.json, viewport-based block visibility controls, and background gradient support. PHP minimum requirement rises to 7.4, with 8.2+ recommended.

What’s new for developers? (April 2026)