Lance Willett

Build on strengths to deliver software people love. I ❤️ WordPress and work on quality, testing, and developer productivity at Automattic. Based in Arizona.🌵

[Develop with Woo @DevelopWoo]

We've migrated the WooCommerce REST API documentation from its standalone site to our main developer documentation.

✅ Separate URLs for endpoints
✅ Markdown responses
✅ Searchable with the rest of our Developer Docs

https://t.co/QIizIonRu6

[Jamie Marsland - Head of WordPress YouTube ❤️ @pootlepress]

This was just merged into Gutenberg trunk, and it’s a much bigger deal than it looks 👇

WordPress is getting a native UI to create custom post types.

No code. No plugins.
Just:
Settings → Post Types → Add

That might sound small… it’s not.

Custom post types go from “developer feature” → “everyday user feature”

Which means:
• Better structured content from day one
• Easier onboarding
• Less plugin dependency
• A cleaner foundation for AI to understand your site

And this is just the start.

Post types → taxonomies → …you can probably guess what comes next

You can see where this is heading…

WordPress is becoming a powerful content modelling system 👀

[WordPress.com @wordpressdotcom]

General AI coding agents can write excellent code, but there are some things they just can’t do:

👉 Spin up a local @WordPress environment
👉 Validate block markup against the real WordPress editor
👉 Screenshot the result to check their own work and iterate it
👉 Build with WordPress best practices baked in

But guess what? We built one that can. 💪 Studio Code is now free in beta!

[Automattic @automattic]

How do you go from self-taught web designer to Automattic’s Special Projects Team?

Michelle Langston, technical account manager, shares her journey—and what keeps her here.

[Dave Martin @itsdavemartin]

Want a private social network just for friends & family?

@josephscott and I built a simple way to do it on https://t.co/2LBJaBUnBV as part of Automattic’s AI build month:

https://t.co/zkWaenrtoA

[Lance Willett @simpledream]

@schlessera Game-changer.

[Riad Benguella @riadbenguella]

I redesigned my entire WordPress site in ~2 hours

• 1 prompt to pull it locally
• 1 redesign prompt (+ a few tweaks)
• 1 prompt to push it live

No setup. No config. Just vibes.

I used something called “Studio Code”…

Post → https://t.co/c1pGnrwc2B

[Syed Balkhi @syedbalkhi]

I find the EmDash project and reactions around it fascinating on so many fronts.

1) The UX of WordPress that many folks in our community want to change seems to be quite functional IMO and now a company like Cloudflare when had the option to build from scratch still opted for simplicity.

This should be a good reminder for us that change for the sake of change isn't always good. Familiar UX is an advantage.

2) Open source and governance are nuanced topics. Celebrating and hoping for open governance from a publicly traded company is an amusing display of naivety.

3) Cloudflare has distribution but not as a place folks think about to build a website.

What makes WordPress good is that you can enter the ecosystem from a small independent host in a specific region of the world who uses WebPros or another 1 click install WP flow control panel. Each host around the world are effectively resellers of WordPress because it helps them grow & retain customers.

It will be interesting to see whether GoDaddy, Hostinger, etc will be keen to enable 1 click installs of EmDash. Right now that's not possible because CF has a vendor lock in.

Without this, I don't see this project gaining fast traction.

Right now, this is equal to Wix for Developers.

4) Open source is sometimes good marketing. The plugin sandboxing only works on Cloudflare. That's a vendor lock in.

5) The folks who are technical enough to use this are already doing that with Claude Code. They don't need plugins ... They can vibe code, learn things don't always work, keep spending time .. or smart ones end up plugging a SaaS form builder, Shopify for eCom, etc because they are proven system of records.

^^ This "none" CMS category is a bigger threat to WP IMO than any CMS.

6) It's easy to dig on WordPress plugin security. Bugs & security issues happens in all software.

Cloudflare itself pushes out botched updates that takes a good portion of the internet down at least several times a year.

Nonetheless, I am keen to watch from the sidelines and see how it goes :)

[:Cromwell: @learnwithmattc]

Cloudflare did the next most obvious thing after acquiring Astro… they built a CMS for it. The post calls it the "spiritual successor of WordPress".

But I have to ask… is the future really Astro + TinyMCE? Really?

How they narrowly scope plugins is excellent though.

[Victor M Ramirez @isvictoriousss]

Cool but it lacks the major feature that makes WordPress work long term - community.

If only one company is contributing to a CMS how can you ensure viability?

Amazon, Vox, all had "WordPress killers" and now they're dead or lagging.

[Brian Coords 💻 @briancoords]

New post up: I spent some time playing with EmDash, the new CMS from Astro/Cloudflare.

I decided to focus on what makes Astro so compelling, and what the WordPress product can learn from where Cloudflare seems to think CMS systems are heading.

https://t.co/nSmx3ppmDE

[Jamie Marsland - Head of WordPress YouTube ❤️ @pootlepress]

https://t.co/BDomSHvxpI

[batuhan @batuhan]

hey @steipete anything i can do to get you to switch to Beeper for your OpenClaw chats?

any feature requests, i'll build it myself. we can make Beeper the best experience for talking to agents!

[Jamie Marsland - Head of WordPress YouTube ❤️ @pootlepress]

Testing the upcoming @wordpressdotcom Claude write-to-WordPress feature 👀

Me: “Claude, analyse my posts and suggest what I should write next.”

Claude: thinks…

Comes back with ideas.

Drafts the post.

Publishes it.

This is the beginning of agentic WordPress 🔥

[Automattic @automattic]

Talk about taking a website to new heights! The Bedfordshire Bird Club has been a regional hub of English birders since 1992. But they needed a new, mobile-friendly website; one to use in the field.

Here's how @wordpressdotcom and our Special Projects team swept in.

[Lance Willett @simpledream]

If anyone is short on AI-coded app ideas, bring back the Yo app. Simple & effective.

https://t.co/QrcqWRpZVH

[Lance Willett @simpledream]

@tommoor @kriskarkoski @karrisaarinen @linear Happy to beta-test this, are we are Linear-ficionados

[Lance Willett @simpledream]

Can't wait to see what you launch soon, Alex. Wonderful reflections, and remember that your best is yet to come!

[Alex Melnychuck @amelnychuck]

I spent part of a 10-hour flight back from Europe reflecting on the year and finally wrote about what’s been going on—a career change, getting married, building something new.

If you’re curious, I’d love for you to take a look: https://t.co/qhor733ywe

[Automattic @automattic]

As @batuhan mentioned, we're proud to sponsor @tailwindcss and champion open source sustainability. 🤝

[Automattic @automattic]

Some big news to close out 2025: @stephen_wolfram has officially joined Automattic as a Special Advisor.

Exceptional products are shaped by visionary leadership, rigorous expertise, and long-term thinking. For decades, Stephen has encapsulated those values and, as one of the most influential thinkers in computation, will help guide our open-source mission into 2026 and beyond.