This month’s update from our core contributors. Here’s how Jessica and Tammie are helping shape the future of WordPress.
At Greyd, we believe in contributing to the tools we build on. That’s why we push sponsoring Jessica Lyschik (Greyd team member) and Tammie Lister as active contributors to WordPress Core. Their work doesn’t just benefit us, it improves the platform for the entire WordPress community.
This month, we want to give you a quick behind-the-scenes look at what they are currently working on, why it matters, and how their work helps move WordPress forward.
Why contribute to WordPress Core?
Contributing to WordPress Core means helping improve the open-source software that powers over 40% of the web. For us, it’s not just about giving back. It’s also about fixing real issues that affect product development, improving accessibility, and making sure WordPress evolves in a sustainable direction.
What Jessica is currently working on
We of course tried to make this article as readable as possible for all, and we chose to describe issues in general terms. However, for those interested in the deeper details, the links to the issues on GitHub have been listed!
Fixing a problem with dynamic templates and the Query Loop block
A recent WordPress update removed the ability to choose between default and custom queries in certain contexts—something that broke search templates in dynamic content types like those used in Greyd.Suite. Jessica worked with Core contributors to develop a fix, which has already been included in Gutenberg and is awaiting full release. https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69698
Show template doesn’t show all groups of a template
What started as a bug report about sticky headers not showing up in the Site Editor’s list view has uncovered a deeper issue: the editor doesn’t always reflect the full structure of a template, especially when “Show Template” is enabled. This leads to confusing scenarios, like HTML validation warnings that users can’t trace because some wrapper groups with <main> tags are hidden in the UI. Jessica has been digging into this and advocating for clearer separation between page and template editing modes, as well as full structural visibility when “Show Template” is active. It’s not just about fixing one bug, but about aligning what users see in the editor with what actually exists in the code, which is something that becomes even more critical if WordPress evolves to allow restricted editing capabilities in the future. https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/67621
Making the Site Editor menu easier to manage.
Jessica is also working on a proposal to allow reordering the menu items in the Site Editor. Currently, the menu is fixed, which can be limiting for power users and product teams that want to customize the editing experience. https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/70109#issuecomment-2893859538
What Tammie is currently working on
Improving the extensibility board and its priorities.
Tammie is helping clean up and prioritize tasks in the Extensibility board in GitHub. This board tracks how developers can hook into WordPress to extend it. Her goal: make it easier to understand what’s actively being worked on and what’s still relevant, so contributors and product teams like ours can plan better.
Exploring better layout previews and developer workflows.
She’s also looking into ways to make default layout previews (like the Style Book) more useful and flexible. That means developers could more easily showcase design systems or blocks in the editor, which is especially helpful for teams building custom themes or large-scale systems.
More details about Tammie’s contributions, both looking back on April and forward, can be found here on her own website. https://binatethoughts.com/april-in-wordpress/
Why this matters
These contributions help us make Greyd.Suite better, but they also address broader issues that affect other developers, theme authors, and agencies. Whether it’s improving accessibility, fixing edge-case bugs, or helping others build more flexible solutions, our contributions are meant to ripple outward.
And like all contributions to open source, it’s not always simple. Coordination, clear communication, and alignment with the larger project are key. We’re proud to be part of that effort.
Stay tuned for next month’s update!
