gutenberg
The Block Editor project for WordPress and beyond. Plugin is available from the official repository.
Gutenberg is the visual block editor built into WordPress where every page element, paragraph, image, video, or layout section, is an independent block you can add, move, and arrange without writing HTML.
Gutenberg is the block editor for WordPress, the open-source content management system that powers a large portion of websites on the internet. Before Gutenberg, editing a WordPress post meant working with a plain text box and shortcodes to add images or special layouts. The block editor replaced that with a different model: every element on a page, whether a paragraph, an image, a heading, or a video, is its own independent block that can be added, moved, and arranged visually.
The editor first shipped inside WordPress core in December 2018 and has been developed as a plugin since then, with the plugin version always running ahead of what ships in WordPress itself. Installing the Gutenberg plugin from the WordPress plugin directory gives you access to the latest features before they land in core.
The project is structured as a four-phase effort. The first phase was the editing experience (the block editor itself). The second phase, which is the current focus, covers collaboration features including real-time co-editing, revision history, publishing workflows, and admin design updates. Future phases will address site-wide customization and multilingual support.
Developers can extend the editor by writing custom blocks or modifying existing ones using JavaScript and the APIs provided by the plugin. Documentation for block development lives in the Block Editor Handbook on the WordPress developer site.
The codebase is open-source under GPL-2.0 and accepts contributions from anyone. Contribution types include code, design, documentation, and bug triage. Discussion happens in the #core-editor channel on the WordPress Slack workspace.
Where it fits
- Build a custom WordPress block that lets editors insert a styled pricing table or call-to-action without writing HTML.
- Add a Gutenberg sidebar plugin that fetches data from an external API and displays it while editing a post.
- Install the Gutenberg plugin from GitHub to access the latest block editor features before they land in WordPress core.
- Contribute code, design, or documentation to the open-source WordPress block editor project.