The WordPress project is run by a coreCore<\/span> Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.<\/span><\/span><\/span> leadership team and led by co-founder and lead developer Matt Mullenweg<\/strong>. The team governs all aspects of the project, including core development, WordPress.orgWordPress.org<\/span> The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https:\/\/wordpress.org\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>, and community initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trusted contributors and core developers earn their stripes on more than their\u00a0abilities and actions. Leadership roles are\u00a0earned on the basis of professionalism, personality, attitude, and respect among peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best contributors naturally respect and subscribe to the project\u2019s core philosophies. A lack of a personal agenda is paramount: we\u2019re all a part of the same community and we all share common goals. This doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t have an opinion \u2013 far from it. The best contributors can balance their opinions with the goals of the project and the perspectives of both users and developers. Offering consistently good suggestions, demonstrating a strong ability to collaborate with others, and being able to accept (and provide) feedback are all important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can identify these standards in some of our best core contributorsCore Contributors<\/span> Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac.\rhttps:\/\/core.trac.wordpress.org<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>, and that\u2019s why they have strong influence over the project. Final decisions are made by the core team, which has evolved over the life of the project based on merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WordPress community is led via two main avenues: the Internal Leads and the Community Volunteers. In many areas, such as UIUI<\/span> User interface<\/span><\/span><\/span> and Support, the Community Leads are the driving force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WordPress project is led by the core leadership team<\/strong>, which consists of WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, five lead developers, and a number of core developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lead developers are Helen Hou-Sandi<\/strong>, Dion Hulse<\/strong>,\u00a0Mark Jaquith<\/strong>, Andrew Nacin<\/strong>, and\u00a0Andrew Ozz<\/strong>. These developers have final authority on technical decisions, and lead architecture discussions and implementation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Current committers include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Anderson, Michael Arestad, Joen Asmussen, Felix Arntz, Marin Atanasov, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Daniel Bachhuber, Rachel Baker, David Baumwald, Ian Belanger, Riad Benguella, Pascal Birchler, Sergey Biryukov, John Blackbourn,\u00a0Carlos Bravo, Isabel Brison, Anthony Burchell, Aaron D. Campbell, Marco Ciampini, Kelly Choyce-Dwan,\u00a0Allan Cole, Alex Concha, Jorge Costa, Michal Czaplinski, Glen Davies, Jonathan Desrosiers, Ramon Dodd, Joe Dolson, Andrei Draganescu, Ian Dunn, Ben Dwyer, Darren Ethier, Jeremy Felt, Andrea Fercia, Miguel Fonseca, Laurel Fulford,\u00a0Herre Groen, Aki Hamano, Kai Hao, Jonny Harris, Luis Herranz, Timothy Jacobs, John James Jacoby, Drew Jaynes, Marius Jensen, Aaron Jorbin, Fabian K\u00e4gy,\u00a0James Koster, Tammie Lister, George Mamadashvili, Andr\u00e9 Maneiro, Joe McGill, Lena Morita, Tonya Mork, Sarah Norris, Carolina Nymark, Jeff Ong, William Patton, Brandon Payton, Gary Pendergast,\u00a0Juliette Reinders Folmer, Omar Reiss, Bernhard Reiter, Daniel Richards, Aaron Robertshaw, Weston Ruter, Dominik Schilling,\u00a0Kira Schroder, Andrew Serong, Alex Shiels, Adam Silverstein, David Smith, Dennis Snell, Allen Snook, Jake Spurlock, Ari Stathopoulos, Colin Stewart, Jon Surrell, Rich Tabor, Anton Timmermans, Nik Tsekouras, Ella Van Durpe, Matias Ventura, K. Adam White, Peter Wilson, Adam Zieli\u0144ski, <\/strong>and Grzegorz Zi\u00f3\u0142kowski.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Other contributing developers include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Adams, Nikolay Bachiyski, Jon Cave, Mel Choyce-Dwan, Andrew Duthie, Boone B. Gorges, Joe Hoyle, David A. Kennedy, Daryl Koopersmith, Konstantin Kovshenin, Eric Lewis, Matthew Riley MacPherson, Matt Miklic, Ryan McCue, James Nylen, Konstantin Obenland, Joseph Scott, Ian Stewart, Andy Skelton, Scott Taylor, Peter Westwood, Lance Willett, <\/strong>and Samuel Wood.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that the most current list of committers can be viewed in code<\/a> and on GitHub<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since anyone who is an active contributor on a team can be elected as team repTeam Rep<\/span> A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.<\/span><\/span><\/span>, team reps will often have different levels of familiarity with other areas of the project, communication protocols, and general processes. To get everyone\u2019s expectations in the same place, the \u201cjob description\u201d for team reps is located on Make\/Updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n @francina<\/a>, @audrasjb<\/a> and @benjamin_zekavica<\/a> are the current Core Team Reps for 2025. Team Rep elections happen every year and follow a specific process<\/a> that includes nominations<\/a>, voting<\/a>, and announcing<\/a> the new reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The core and contributing developers serve as guides for\u00a0WordPress development. With every version, hundreds of developers contribute code to WordPress. These core contributors<\/strong> are volunteers who contribute to the core codebase in some way. All it takes is a single patchpatch<\/span> A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff<\/strong>. A patch can be applied<\/em> to a codebase for testing.<\/span><\/span><\/span> to make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The design team<\/a> is made up of core contributors who work on the design and user interface of WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The support forums<\/a> are run by a team of volunteer moderators who remove spam, handle disputes, and generally keep the peace. They are led primarily by a self-appointed team leader and everyone is encouraged to jump in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Documentation team is responsible for all things documentation, including HelpHub<\/a> (end-users documentation), DevHub<\/a> (developer-oriented documentation), handbooks, adminadmin<\/span> (and super admin)<\/span><\/span><\/span> help, inline docsinline docs<\/span> (phpdoc, docblock, xref)<\/span><\/span><\/span>, and other general wordsmithing across the WordPress project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This handbook and HelpHub\/DevHub are the primary sources of information for learning how to develop, improve, and troubleshoot WordPress. These resources are curated by a group of volunteers. Everyone is welcome to contribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WordPress mobile applications<\/a>\u00a0are open sourceOpen Source<\/span> Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL.<\/span><\/span><\/span> software, just like the project. There are two\u00a0applications currently for iOSiOS<\/span> The operating system used on iPhones and iPads.<\/span><\/span><\/span> and Android. Both apps\u00a0are hosted on GitHubGitHub<\/span> GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the \u2018pull request\u2019 where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https:\/\/github.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span> where\u00a0anyone can contribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Themes submitted to the WordPress Themes Directory are reviewed by a team of volunteers to ensure compliance with the WordPress.org theme guidelines<\/a>. The team<\/a> is made up of community leaders and contributors\u00a0who work together\u00a0on developing standards and reviewing themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plugins submitted to the WordPress Plugins Directory are reviewed by a team of volunteers to ensure they meet WordPress.org guidelines<\/a> before being included in the plugin directory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress\u00a0core development updates and discussion from the teams above happen on the Make WordPress blogs.<\/a>\u00a0You can also follow core development by joining the #<\/span>core<\/a><\/strong> channel on the project\u2019s Slack team<\/a>, which is open for anyone to join.\u00a0Dedicated channels are set up for various WordPress core components and community initiatives. A more specific breakdown of the WordPress project\u2019s communication channels is available in the Communication<\/a> section of the Core Handbook.<\/p>\nCommunity Leadership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The WordPress Core Team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Committers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Team Reps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Core Contributors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
UXUX<\/span> User experience<\/span><\/span><\/span> and Design<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Documentation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mobile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Theme Reviewers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
PluginPlugin<\/span> A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/<\/a> or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.<\/span><\/span><\/span> Reviewers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Community Blogs and Communication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n