WordPress Playground now loads Gutenberg development branches directly in your browser. Test the latest trunk changes or explore feature branches without creating a pull request or setting up a local environment.
This solves a common challenge: testing bleeding-edge Gutenberg development typically requires cloning repositories, running build scripts, and managing local installations. Now you can skip all that.
Why does this matter?
New features land trunk daily, and experimental work occurs in feature branches before being merged into pull requests. Previously, you could only preview specific PRs in Playground, and now you can preview any branch related to a pull request.
This opens new possibilities:
- Test the Gutenberg
trunkbranch to catch issues before they reach release. - Explore Gutenberg experimental features and fixes before they’re merged.
How do you preview branches?
Playground introduces two new Query API parameters gutenberg-branch. Add them to your Playground URL to load specific branches.
Preview Gutenberg trunk or a specific feature branch:
https://playground.wordpress.net/?gutenberg-branch=trunkOther branches:
https://playground.wordpress.net/?gutenberg-branch=add/new-featureWhat about pull requests?
Pull request previewing still works exactly as before for Gutenberg and WordPress core. If you know the PR number, use:
https://playground.wordpress.net/?core-pr=9500
https://playground.wordpress.net/?gutenberg-pr=73010What should you know?
When you preview a branch, Playground loads the latest available build artifact from GitHub Actions. If GitHub Actions is still building the most recent commit, Playground uses the next available build. This means you might see changes from a few commits back, not the absolute latest code. This approach strikes a balance between freshness and reliability.
This feature works anywhere you use the Playground Query API, ideally, for testing and bug reporting. The playground can be embedded for educational purposes in future releases. For example, if you’re documenting a new Gutenberg feature still in trunk, link directly to a Playground instance that demonstrates it.
Start testing today
The WordPress and Gutenberg teams constantly ship improvements. With branch previewing, you can explore these changes the moment they merge, report issues early, and contribute to WordPress development—all from your browser.
Try it now and learn more about Query API documentation.