WordPress released Gutenberg 22.7 that contains multiple features intended to streamline the editing workflow as well as align the block editor with AI adoption in WordPress 7. Overall, users will find an improved editing experience and a table that is set for AI innovations that are coming later in 2026.
Improved Editing Experience
Custom CSS Selectors For Block Developers
Gutenberg 22.7 allows block developers to define custom CSS selectors in block.json that Global Styles will honor. This enables Global Styles to apply styles to specific elements within a block instead of being limited to the block’s root wrapper.
Before this change, the Global Styles custom CSS was often restricted to the block’s “root wrapper” (the outermost <div>). Now, if a block has a complex inner structure, a developer can point the “Custom CSS” feature specifically to an inner element (like a specific <span> or <a> tag inside the block).
Preview Style Variation Transforms In The Editor
Core blocks such as Heading, Image, Paragraph, and Button include built-in style variations. There is now a live preview for style variation transforms, allowing users to see how a style change will look before applying it.
The official announcement explains:
“Style variation transforms now display a preview in the editor. This makes it easier to see the impact of transformations before committing to the change. Style variations are now also available for patterns in contentOnly mode.”
AI Related Updates
Connectors
The update adds a new admin page for connectors (Settings > Connectors) which enables users to manage their AI keys and credentials.
According to the announcement:
“We have added a new “Connectors” admin page…. which allows users to see and manage their connectors. …and we’ve also provided extension hooks for plugins to add their own connectors. These screens are still in an experimental state.”
Gutenberg Content Guidelines
WordPress also added the new Content Guidelines feature which according to Automattic’s James LePage, it is “a cornerstone feature to steer AI and how it interacts with your site.” It’s not exclusively an AI feature but it’s quite useful as one.
The official announcement describes it as:
“We added a new experimental REST API and custom post type, to allow WordPress site owners to define and manage site-wide content rules.”
It also documents what was added, specific to the content guidelines feature:
The official proposal for this feature, written by LePage (who is a co-lead of the official WordPress AI team), explains:
“A single place in WordPress to capture site-wide content standards and context, so publishing tools can manage content that stays on-brand and consistent.
Most sites already have content standards: voice and tone, structural rules, image guidance, accessibility expectations, linking practices, and more. Today, those guidelines often live outside WordPress in documents, PDFs, wikis, or institutional knowledge. That makes them harder to find while writing and harder for any tool, human or automated, to apply consistently.
Content Guidelines isn’t an AI-only feature. It doesn’t depend on AI, but AI should depend on it. A unified store of guidelines makes standards discoverable, portable, and reusable, whether the person applying them is a writer, an editor, a plugin, or an AI assistant.”
According to the proposal, the Content Guidelines enable:
- A single source of truth for content standards.
- Consistency across authors and tools.
- More steerable AI behavior.
- Guardrails for agents.
A shared, portable foundation across the ecosystem. With import and export, guidelines can move with a site, be reused across environments, or serve as a starting point for new sites.”
Other notable feature is that Real Time Collaboration is now switched to be enabled by default in order to match the behavior of WordPress 7.0 but it won’t override a user’s intentional choice. In addition to these updates, Gutenberg 22.7 also ships with numerous fixes and enhancements.
