WordPress published guidelines for using AI for coding plugins, themes, documentation, and media assets. The purpose of the guidelines, guided by five principles, is to keep WordPress contributions transparent, GPL-compatible, and human-accountable, while maintaining high quality standards for AI-assisted work.
The new guidelines lists the following five principles:
- “You are responsible for your contributions (AI can assist, but it isn’t a contributor).
- Disclose meaningful AI assistance in your PR description and/or Trac ticket comment.
- License compatibility matters: contributions must remain compatible with GPLv2-or-later, including AI-assisted output.
- Non-code assets count too (docs, screenshots, images, educational materials).
- Quality over volume: avoid low-signal, unverified “AI slop”; reviewers may close or reject work that doesn’t meet the bar.”
Transparency
The purpose of the transparency guidelines is to encourage contributors to disclose that AI was used and how it was used so that reviewers can be aware when evaluating the work.
License Compatibility And Tool Choice
Licensing is a big deal with WordPress because it’s designed to be a fully open source publishing platform under the GPLv2 licensing framework. Everything that’s made for WordPress, including plugins and themes, must also be open source. It’s an essential element of everything created with WordPress.
The guidelines specify that AI cannot be used if the output is not licensable under GPLv2.
It also states:
“Do not use tools whose terms forbid using their output in GPL-licensed projects or impose additional restrictions on redistribution.
Do not rely on tools to “launder” incompatible licenses. If an AI output reproduces non-free or incompatible code, it cannot be included.”
AI Slop
Of course, the guidelines address the issue of AI slop. In this case, AI slop is defined as hallucinated references (such as links or APIs that do not exist), overly complicated code where simpler solutions exist, and GitHub PRs that are generic or do not reflect actual testing or experience.
The AI Slop guidelines has recommendations of what they expect from contributors:
“Use AI to draft, then review yourself.
Submit PRs (or patches) that are small, concise and with atomic and well defined commit messages to make reviewing easier.
Run and document real tests.
Link to real Trac tickets, GitHub issues, or documentation that you have verified.”
The guidelines are clear that the WordPress contributors who are responsible for overseeing, reviewing, and deciding whether changes are accepted into a specific part of the project may close or reject contributions that they determine to be AI slop “with little added human insight.”
Takeaways
The new WordPress AI guidelines appear to be about preserving trust in the contribution process as AI becomes more common across development, documentation, and media creation. It in no way discourages the use of AI but rather encourages its use in a responsible manner.
Requiring disclosure, enforcing GPL compatibility, and giving maintainers the authority to reject low-quality submissions, the guidelines set boundaries that protect both the legal integrity of the WordPress project and the time of its reviewers.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Ivan Moreno sl
