Summary, Dev Chat, September 10, 2025

Announcements 📢

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ 21.6 was released!

Gutenberg 21.6 is now available. The release post provides a full overview of the changes and enhancements. Thanks to @cbravobernal for preparing the notes.

Forthcoming releases 🚀

WordPress 6.9

WordPress 6.9 is scheduled for Tuesday, December 2, 2025.

The roadmap for 6.9 has been published.
Please take a look to see what’s actively being worked on for release later in the year.

WordPress 6.9 Dev-Notes

A first 6.9 dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. was published: Prettier Emails: Supporting Inline Embedded Images
See all dev notes published for 6.9.

Discussion 💬

Allow wp-config.php without wp-settings.php

Ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #5276 was discussed regarding loading wp-config.php without automatically including wp-settings.php. Opt-in approaches were considered, but concerns about back-compatibility and existing site configurations mean the ticket remains closed and is not targeted for 6.9.

Redirect on MySQLMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/. rate-limiting

Ticket #63678 proposes redirecting users to install.php when database connections are blocked due to MySQL rate-limiting. Participants agreed the patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. is consistent with current error handling, with a suggestion to reuse MySQL’s native error message. It is moving forward for 6.9 consideration.

Standardizing UTF-8 handling

Ticket #63863 introduces a compat-utf8.php file to polyfill missing UTF-8 functions before compat.php is loaded. This aims to provide more consistent string handling across environments. Ongoing feedback is encouraged directly on the ticket.

Docs Team in release squads

A recent post from the Docs Team led to discussion about its role in release squads. Concerns were raised about the removal of the Docs Lead position and possible effects on onboarding and coordination. The importance of documentation was acknowledged, while there were differing views on the need for a formal lead role. It was agreed that there will not be a dedicated Docs Lead role in 6.9 for now. Instead, the focus will be on improving release instructions and checklists to ensure smoother processes.

Props to @audrasjb for review.