It’s been a while since I really hacked on a good WordPress core problem. Any got any tickets or ideas for stuff for me to work on?

Are they selling the solution?

Add wp-env SPX profiler option by nerrad · Pull Request #70693 · WordPress/gutenberg What? Implements SPX (Simple Profiling eXtension) support in the @wordpress/env package, providing lightweight PHP profiling capabilities with a built-in web UI. Why? SPX offers a more lightweight ...

The WordPress ENV package now supports SPX (Simple Profiling eXtension) 🎉
Get lightweight PHP profiling with a built-in web UI, making it much easier to analyse and optimise performance during development.

github.com/WordPress/gu...

GitHub - spatie/phpunit-snapshot-assertions: A way to test without writing actual test cases A way to test without writing actual test cases. Contribute to spatie/phpunit-snapshot-assertions development by creating an account on GitHub.

I think in the new year I am going to play around with “Snapshot testing with PHPUnit”. This could be really cool to check front end, to ensure html markup doesn’t change, unless I meant it to

github.com/spatie/phpun...

Consistent Cache Keys for Query Groups in WordPress 6.9 Query caches have historically used the last changed timestamp as a salt. While this has proven effective for most sites, it leads to an excessive number of caches which can be problematic on high-…

If you want the full technical breakdown — and how hosts or cache providers might handle upgrade scenarios — read the announcement blog post on Make/Core.
👉 Full details: make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11...

This applies to nearly every query type: posts, comments, terms, users, sites, networks, and more.
The result: far better cache efficiency, fewer wasted objects, improved hit rates, and predictable behaviour under heavy load.

From 6.9, cache keys stay consistent. The freshness check (via last_changed) now lives inside the cached value itself.
If the data is stale, WordPress overwrites the existing entry rather than creating a new key.

Previously, query caches included last_changed inside the cache key. Every content update generated brand-new keys, leaving old entries stranded and wasting memory.
At scale, this meant caches filled up with unreachable data.

After more than two years of work, a major performance improvement is landing in WordPress 6.9: consistent cache keys for all query groups.
This change will have a huge impact on sites running a persistent object cache at scale.

I’m helping with this one.

REST API: Increase the specificity of capability checks for collectio… · WordPress/wordpress-develop@52992d2 …ns when the `edit` context is in use. The edit access in now taken into account for each individual post, term, or user in the response. Props andraganescu, desrosj, ehti, hurayraiit, iandunn, j...

For those that use the REST API with context=edit, there is a change added to core that adds a permission check that break some of your calls.

REST API: Increase the specificity of capability checks for collectio… · WordPress/wordpress-develop@52992d2 github.com/WordPress/wo...

I am heading to @loopconf.com this week in London. First time at a WordPress conference in a while, excited to connect with the WordPress community again.

Cover block images are a special case. They should really use an image tag but they don’t. They use a div with background image as it gives more css control.

Accessibility question: should the WordPress cover block have alt text? Technically a cover block uses a background image which doesn’t have alt but should it? Should decorative images have alt text? 

I would love to see a custom LLM for WordPress, it could contain trac, the codex and maybe the plugin repo. I would love to be able to ask questions of the whole of trac, like why decisions were made, find duplicate tickets or find plugins with similar functionality.

I would love to see a custom LLM for WordPress, it could contain trac, the codex and maybe the plugin repo. I would love to be able to ask questions of the whole of trac, like why decisions were made, find duplicate tickets or find plugins with similar functionality.

#14110 (Expose height and width attributes to 'wp_get_attachment_image_attributes' filter) – WordPress Trac Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

WordPress 6.8.2 just dropped, and I’m especially proud of one small but mighty improvement: we closed a 15-year-old ticket! 🎉

wp_get_attachment_image_attributes now includes height and width. This unlocks some powerful tricks—like replacing image URLs or dynamically adjusting dimensions.

Have you ever used the alias_of term functionality in WordPress?

Or even heard of it?
Genuinely curious — reply and let me know. 👇 #WordPress #DevSurprises

Apparently it was officially deprecated in WordPress 4.7 — yet it still works if you manually set it.

I can’t believe this was quietly lurking in plain sight all this time.

It doesn’t show up in the admin UI.
There’s no core UI for managing aliases.
You have to dig into the DB or use code.
And it only works within the same taxonomy.

You can even set alias_of via wp_insert_term() or when registering terms manually.

Internally, WordPress uses it to merge terms. Think of it as a soft-deprecated, under-documented feature from the multisite merge days.

Turns out there’s a alias_of parameter for taxonomy terms.

It’s meant to point one term (e.g. a tag or category) to another — so when you access the alias, it loads the main term instead. Essentially a redirect, at the database level.

Wait… did you know WordPress has a term alias functionality? 😮
I’ve worked with WordPress for years and somehow completely missed this.

Dropping security updates for WordPress versions 4.1 through 4.6 wordpress.org/news/2025/06...

For those at #wceu, what is your biggest take away from the event? What did you learn?

I am not even in Europe right now, I am in Canada. I think that law of physics requires me to half a word away. Crazy. Hopefully next time!

You went to WCEU?!? The one bloody WCEU I miss!

It can be used with delicious brains background processing. I would look at using WP cli to run your scheduled tasks, once a minute using a real cron on your server.

Have you looked into action scheduler?

Enhancing WP_Query Performance in WordPress - Spacedmonkey WP_Query is a powerful tool for fetching posts in WordPress. However, if you don’t carefully configure your queries, they can quickly become inefficient, particularly on larger sites. Whether you’re working on a high-traffic website, a REST API endpo...

I don't know about you, but I use WP_Query a lot when coding in #WordPress. This article from @spacedmonkey.bsky.social is a great resource on how to enhance your use of WP_Query.

Well worth a read.

https://bit.ly/4kwUVfa