It Was The Summer of 6.9

Stick around ‘til the end to see the most adorable abyss.

In today’s edition:

• WP 6.9 is coming, and it includes a new Command Palette that’ll make you feel like a 90’s movie hacker.
• What’s waiting for you at WCUS Portland: from panels to presentations to Pearl District pubs.
• Meet the PHP AI Client SDK, the newest way to keep all your AI options open.

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

Forget long walks on the beach. I’m looking for someone who likes long nights in a snack-fueled dark-mode debugging binge.

My love languages are words of affirmation, quality time and… the sweet, sweet silence of finally finding the solution you were looking for on Stack Overflow.

If you know the feeling, this one’s for you. 💗

WordPress 6.9 Is Coming: And It’s Not Messing Around

WordPress 6.9 is on the horizon, and spoiler alert: it’s not some sleepy maintenance release.

According to the official roadmap, this one’s packing some serious upgrades, especially for folks who like their editing tools slick, their sites fast, and their dev experience less… meltdown-inducing.

Here’s what’s getting the glow-up:

• A continued evolution of the Site Editor, which we now officially consider a franchise
• Smoother content creation tools that (fingers crossed) feel more like writing and less like battling a mildly sentient textarea
• A turbocharged Command Palette rollout across more of WordPress, for those of us who believe the mouse is optional
• And dev goodies like an MCP Adapter and a shiny new PHP AI Client (more on that later…)

And since the release is currently set for December, we can all expect an early present, delivered just in time to accidentally deploy something on a Friday. Oops…

Conference Badge? Check. Flannel? Check. It’s Almost Time for WordCamp US: Portland Edition

The WordCamp US 2025 speaker schedule just dropped, and the lineup is stacked, from workshops on how to build your personal portfolio to expert bug-catching strategies to devs philosophizing about the block editor like it’s a Kubrick film.

Peek at the full schedule here →

Although many lamented earlier this year that the WordCamp magic had dimmed, and an increasing number of countries are warning against travel to the USA, it seems there are still plenty of folks excited to meet up IRL.

• Topher DeRosia is officially in, which means your chances of a wholesome hallway chat just went up by 200%.
• Jamie Marsland shares an awe-inspiring view to look forward to.
• Brian Gardner is already hyped for Portland’s coffee and ✨vibes✨.

Side events should be easier to keep track of this year, thanks to a whole new look from The WP World. (To those ambitious souls attending the 6am Running Club, we salute you!)

And if you’re wondering how to make the most of your trip beyond the sessions, the WCUS team put together a handy local’s guide to Portland. It includes top picks for food, sights, and how to navigate the city without accidentally joining a composting commune.

Whether you’re going to learn, connect, or finally meet your online dev buddies during networking activities powered by fourth-wave cold brew and ethically-sourced donuts, Portland’s ready for you.

Welcoming Our Robot Overlords: New PHP AI Client Lands in WordPress

The Make WordPress AI team just announced something that could make AI integration in WordPress feel a lot less like duct-taping APIs to your plugin and hoping for the best.

Enter: the PHP AI Client SDK. It’s a provider-agnostic, Composer-installable PHP library designed to talk to generative AI models via a uniform API. It’s not a plugin, it’s not limited to WordPress, it’s basically the Swiss Army knife for AI-powered PHP workflows.

In other words, themes, plugins, and other PHP projects can now tap into AI, without having to find an unofficial SDK for a single provider or build it yourself.

And yes, if you’re wondering how this overlaps with Felix Arntz’s AI Services plugin, you’re not alone. Felix puts it best:

“You may be wondering how AI Services fits into the new WordPress AI Team: The new PHP AI Client SDK is heavily inspired by it. In the long term, AI Services will either become a canonical plugin, or its features will be ported into new canonical plugins.”

So the WordPress AI train has officially left the station. Excited? Terrified? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Read Felix’s Make WordPress Post here →

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• Our AntiBot Global Firewall is hustling away 24/7 compiling malicious IPs from over 250k websites. We’re monitoring 480k suspicious IPs, blocking the ones that we’ve identified as officially up to no good. Want to see the latest threats it’s blocked? Click here.
• Of the 1,350 folks surveyed for the 2024 Advanced Custom Fields annual survey, 88% said that ACF is important to their development workflow. Have ACF hot takes? Share them on this year’s survey. (Source)
• While you’re in survey mode, you can also weigh in on the 2025 State of HTML.
  Did you know that last year, web apps outpaced blogs and homepages as the most common use case for HTML? (84%!)(Source)
• The Themes team have been on top of things this summer, closing 700+ tickets in a week and resolving 43% of their HelpScout messages on First Reply. Nice work!(Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

For anyone who’s ever asked “how do I make this beautiful Figma file not explode in WordPress?”

Forget vibes-based coding. WordPress Coding Standards 3.2.0 is here to enforce order.

What do “404 Not Found” and a black hole have in common? More than you think, according to Jeff Starr. (Plus, Jeff’s tips on how to pimp your 404 so it’s more helpful to visitors.)

Waiting 0.2 seconds for a page to reload is basically medieval, which is why Weston Ruter built this.

Got beautiful typography? Great. Don’t forget to make sure folks can actually read it.

What if WordCamp felt more accessible for WordPress noobs? Krakow tried it. Spoiler: it worked.

Want fewer ghosted proposals? Try leading with empathy. Jennifer Moss says it helps her close 98% of sales meetings.

Coffee Break Distractions

Devs using their superpowers to make the world a better place: check out the Code for Good showcase.

Why is this eerily life-like robot dressed like Adam Sandler?

Think you have an eye for when design just looks wrong? Try this challenge. (It gets progressively harder!)

Jono Alderson’s beautifully-written sci-fi piece The Hollow Universe makes a powerful point about the state of the web. (Although we don’t appreciate you calling the main baddie The Hub, Jono! That’s our thing!)

Popup Trombone: It’s not procrastination. It’s performance art. 🎺

Reading Bob Dunn’s tech stack is like going shopping with someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

We’ve all seen the now page (Thanks, Derek Sivers!) but what about sharing your hopes and dreams on a someday page?

And finally…

“If you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.”

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Forward it to your favorite WordPress weirdo. 💗