On Wednesday, 22 January 2026, 03:01 PM UTC, <test-chat> started in #core-test facilitated by @juanmaguitar. The agenda can be found here.
1. Attendance
In attendance was:
@juanmaguitar @nikunj8866 @sirlouen @mosescursor @ozgursar @pavanpatil1 @sajib1223 @r1k0 @mohkatz @fakhriaz @alexcu21 @huzaifaalmesbah
2. Volunteer
This week’s facilitator was @juanmaguitar
This week’s Note-taker was @juanmaguitar
3. Test Team Discussions
“beta testers” for the new Test Contributor Pathway course
@sirlouen announced that the Test Contributor Pathway course will be launching on the Learn site in the coming weeks. The team is looking for beta testers to review the videos and provide feedback. Community members interested should contact @sirlouen directly for private access.
Creating a new page in the handbook with a “template” for Test Chats
The team discussed creating documentation for facilitating test chat meetings. @sirlouen explained the goal is to document templates and guidance so anyone can run a test chat. @juanmaguitar noted he’s currently following steps from a previous meeting.
Contributors can submit pull requests to the test-handbook GitHub repository, or open issues with ideas if a full PR feels too daunting.
Add labels to posts that are regularly posted on make.wordpress.org/test
@juanmaguitar proposed adding consistent tags (week-in-test, test-chat-summary, test-chat-agenda) to recurring posts to improve discoverability, similar to Gutenberg posts. See full suggestion in Slack.
The discussion focused on tags vs categories. The main advantage of tags is they persist when duplicating posts or using templates, while categories can be forgotten. However, categories are prominently displayed in the sidebar. @mosescursor noted the “Kibble” default category is misconfigured.
@juanmaguitar will open a GitHub issue (#109) to continue the discussion. The topic requires more thinking and will be revisited once there’s more consensus.
Call for help, building the Slack bot for core
@sirlouen requested help building a Slack bot for Core testing announcements, similar to the existing Gutenberg announcer. The goal is to automatically notify #core-test whenever a needs-testing tag is added to a Core ticket.
PHP scripts that interact with Trac already exist at meta.trac.wordpress.org. More details are available in Trac ticket #8157. @juanmaguitar expressed interest in helping with this.
4. Open Floor
No items were raised during the open floor.
5. Announcements
WordPress Ecosystem Announcements
- How to use DataForm to create plugin settings pages
- WordPress 6.9.1 Release Schedule
- A New Home for WordPress Education Programs
- WordPress 7.0 Call for Volunteers
- Dropping support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3
- Proposal: 2026 Major Release Schedule
- What’s new for developers? (January 2026)
Test Team Announcements
Call for Testing
- We have Patch Testing Issues that need testing
6. Other Meetings
- Wednesday, 5 February 2026, 02:00 PM UTC – <test-chat> in #core-test.
Props to @sirlouen for reviewing this post