wp-plugin-development

AI coding assistants are powerful, but they often:

• Generate outdated WordPress patterns (pre-Gutenberg, pre-block themes)
• Miss critical security considerations in plugin development
• Skip proper block deprecations, causing "Invalid block" errors
• Ignore existing tooling in your repo

Agent Skills solve this by giving AI assistants expert-level WordPress knowledge in a format they can actually use.

| Skill | What it teaches |

|-------|-----------------|

| wordpress-router | Classifies WordPress repos and routes to the right workflow |

| wp-project-triage | Detects project type, tooling, and versions automatically |

| wp-block-development | Gutenberg blocks: block.json, attributes, rendering, deprecations |

| wp-block-themes | Block themes: theme.json, templates, patterns, style variations |

| wp-plugin-development | Plugin architecture, hooks, settings API, security |

| wp-interactivity-api | Frontend interactivity with data-wp-* directives and stores |

| wp-abilities-api | Capability-based permissions and REST API authentication |

| wp-wpcli-and-ops | WP-CLI commands, automation, multisite, search-replace |

| wp-performance | Profiling, caching, database optimization, Server-Timing |

| wp-phpstan | PHPStan static analysis for WordPress projects (config, baselines, WP-specific typing) |

| wp-playground | WordPress Playground for instant local environments |

| wpds | WordPress Design System |

Install into your repo

```bash

# Clone agent-skills

git clone https://github.com/Automattic/agent-skills.git

cd agent-skills

# Build the distribution

node shared/scripts/skillpack-build.mjs --clean

# Install into your WordPress project

node shared/scripts/skillpack-install.mjs --dest=../your-wp-project --targets=codex,vscode

```

This copies skills into:

• .codex/skills/ for OpenAI Codex
• .github/skills/ for VS Code / GitHub Copilot

Manual installation

Copy any skill folder from skills/ into your project's instructions directory for your AI assistant.

Each skill contains:

```

skills/wp-block-development/

├── SKILL.md # Main instructions (when to use, procedure, verification)

├── references/ # Deep-dive docs on specific topics

│ ├── block-json.md

│ ├── deprecations.md

│ └── ...

└── scripts/ # Deterministic helpers (detection, validation)

└── list_blocks.mjs

```

When you ask your AI assistant to work on WordPress code, it reads these skills and follows the documented procedures rather than guessing.

• WordPress 6.9+ (PHP 7.2.24+)
• Works with any AI assistant that supports project-level instructions

We welcome contributions! This project is a great way to share your WordPress expertise—you don't need to be a coding wizard. Most skills are written in Markdown, focusing on clear procedures and best practices.

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for details on how to get started.

Quick commands:

```bash

# Scaffold a new skill

node shared/scripts/scaffold-skill.mjs ""

# Validate skills

node eval/harness/run.mjs

```

• [Authoring Guide](docs/authoring-guide.md) - How to create and improve skills
• [Principles](docs/principles.md) - Design philosophy
• [Packaging](docs/packaging.md) - Build and distribution
• [Compatibility Policy](docs/compatibility-policy.md) - Version targe