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Core-AI Contributor Check-in – July 29th, 2025

Announcements (5 min)

  1. Welcome to our new meeting format! – Have a topic you think would contribute to executing on the work here? Leave a note in Core AI channel pinging Neill and/or Tammie and we will help put them together for the following week’s meeting.

Progress this week (5 min)

  1. Making progress on building the PHP Client foundation (Jason & Felix)
    1. https://github.com/WordPress/php-ai-client/pull/30
    2. https://github.com/WordPress/php-ai-client/pull/31/
  2. Project / Process: Labels: done, some milestones. Handbook page up, to be unblocked but started.

Questions/Decision points (15 min)

  1. Where should Provider-specific code live? (Jason)
  2. What are our goals to have ready by WCUS?

Week’s goals (5 min)

  1. I really want to get the PHP Client foundation work done (Jason)
  2. Move A8C work into Abilities repo & early iteration of MCP adapter (James) – This will unblock David (yay)
  3. Set up milestones and project boards starting with WCUS and work out what ‘done’ is for each in collaboration (Tammie and Neill)
  4. Sort MVP handbook (Tammie and Neill)
Gemini Generated Summary

A new meeting format was introduced, which allows for panelists (active contributors) and attendees (others interested in transparency) to join. They also discussed progress on the PHP client foundation, with the goal of completing the foundation work to allow for parallel development by more contributors. Tammie Lister provided an update on project processes, mentioning that labels have been standardized and that a handbook is being created, though she is currently blocked from publishing pages. The group debated where provider-specific code should live, with a tentative conclusion to build a generic, self-contained provider that follows the OpenAI shape and can be used with any compatible API. Finally, they outlined goals for WordCamp US, including having a minimum viable product (MVP) for the client SDK, abilities, and the MCP adapter, and to use the event’s Contributor Day to tie these pieces together through AI experiments.

Highlights

PHP Client Foundation Progress

  • The foundational work for the universal PHP client is underway to allow communication with any AI model from any provider.
  • The goal is to get the foundation work done as quickly as possible to enable parallel work.
  • Two pull requests (PRs) are nearing completion for the extender API, which will allow people to add their own providers and models.
  • After the extender API is complete, work will shift to the implementer API for users who want AI features without needing to know how AI works.
  • The plan is to have PRs for the two remaining foundational pieces up this week.

Project and Process Updates

  • Labels have been standardized across the project.
  • A handbook is being documented to provide a project primer and help new contributors get started.
  • Tammie Lister is unable to publish pages in the handbook and may need help from Neill McShea, who recently received blog rights access.

Goals for WordCamp US

  • The team aims to have an MVP for the client SDK, abilities, and MCP adapter ready for the event in 3-4 weeks.
  • Contributor Day at WordCamp US is planned as a hackathon to tie these components together and conduct AI experiments.
  • The goal is to have something that is usable by more than just early developers.
  • There will likely be a high-level discussion about the project on the main stage, and if there are demoable features, they could be highlighted.

Discussion on Provider Code Location

  • A key question is whether provider-specific code should live within the main client repository or in separate packages.
  • A related question is whether to use provider SDKs, which might tie the code to specific PHP versions.
  • The group agreed that not all providers should be in the main package, and there should be criteria for which ones qualify.
  • For now, the decision is to build a generic provider that follows the OpenAI API shape and can be built into the main repo to facilitate development.
  • This approach would allow the project to maintain a lower PHP version requirement (7.4) and avoid being tied to external SDKs.

Action Items

  • David Levine: David will contribute to the project once the abilities and MCP adapter repos have content ready for code review.
  • Felix Arntz & Jason Adams:  Jason will set up a call for tomorrow to discuss the HTTP client stuff and authentication implementation. Anyone interested in the HTTP client discussion should ping Jason or Felix to be included in the call.
  • Neill McShea & Tammie Lister: Tammie will work on getting the MVP handbook unblocked. They will also set up milestones and project boards for WordCamp US and track progress on the goals.
  • James LePage: James will move the existing work from the Automattic organization’s repos into the new abilities and MCP adapter repos. He wants to have something viewable and ready for contribution by next week.
  • Jason Adams: Jason will continue work on the PHP client foundation, with the goal of having pull requests (PRs) up for the two remaining foundational pieces this week. He will also hound Felix for feedback.

#check-in, #core-ai