Speculative Loading Is Now Configurable by Environment
WordPress 7.1 lets speculative loading defaults be set through environment variables or constants, so staging and production can finally prefetch differently.
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Script Concatenation Is Being Removed From WordPress
The WordPress 7.2 roadmap names script and style concatenation for removal in favour of prefetching. What it affects, and what to check before December.
Custom Breakpoints in Block Themes, Without CSS
WordPress 7.1 added @mobile and @tablet styles to theme.json and made breakpoints configurable through settings.viewport. What it covers and where it stops.
The Post Editor Is Fully Iframed Now, and Things Broke
WordPress 7.1 iframes the post editor for every theme. Why editor styles and scripts stop working, and the ownerDocument and useRefEffect fixes that hold.
AVIF, HEIC and In-Browser Compression Landed in Core
WordPress 7.1 moved image compression into the browser and added AVIF, HEIC and HDR gain map support. What changes for uploads, delivery and file size.
WordPress.org Now Auto-Blocks Risky Plugin Releases
Every WordPress.org plugin release passes a six-hour security cooldown, and since 9 September 2026 a high-risk score halts distribution with no human in the loop.
The Abilities API: What Core Gave Plugin Authors
The Abilities API shipped in WordPress 7.0 and was extended in 7.1. What a registered ability is, what it replaces, and what it demonstrably does not do yet.
Sudo Mode and a Secrets API Are Coming in 7.2
The WordPress 7.2 roadmap, published 18 September 2026, names sudo mode, a Secrets API and Application Passwords hardening for an early December release.
WordPress 7.1 Mary Lou: What Matters for Speed and Search
WordPress 7.1 shipped on 19 August 2026. Filtered down to the changes that affect page weight, layout stability and what your templates emit to the page.
7.1.2 Patched a Hole That Reaches Back to 4.7
WordPress 7.1.2 fixed CVE-2026-87902, an unauthenticated path traversal in template resolution backported to 4.7. Probing began the same day it shipped.