Bridges  🔗 **Source:** [Bridges](https://share.snipd.com/episode/5d796759-5570-473f-b340-46cd05d8175f) ## Highlights - **Host Jonathan Shares New Parent Work Reality** - Jonathan recently had a baby named Macallan who now joins him on calls and affects his sleep cycles. - He describes Macallan as his little work buddy who has been joining him on calls while Jonathan adjusts to new sleep patterns. Transcript: Luke We're back. Welcome back, Jonathan, after an extended break. You had a baby. Jonathan How's Macallan doing? He's doing fantastic. He's my little work buddy. He's been joining me on calls, but it's been lovely. I'm still adjusting to new sleep cycles, but I'm very happy. So we're back. And do you know who else is back? Who else is back? Luke Matt Mullenwick is back. He also took an extended break from the project, it seems like. I mean, even though he was still the lead, release lead of every release, but no, he's back. Jonathan And he's been um letting us know that we're not doing a very good job so so first off i'm excited to be back at this i i definitely feel a bit of uh um a lot of what i'm hearing is second and third Hand periphery like uh so i've uh yeah i've been reading i've read a little bit i read his post. I read some comments like there's. Luke Yeah. So it feels like a little bit of a fire hose. There's been a lot going on. ([Time 0:00:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c349819f-6b05-4841-8b2d-a60bf521ab1d)) - **Connectors Screen Centralizes API Keys** - WordPress added a new Connectors screen to centralize API keys and connectors for services like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. - Luke explains connectors let plugins use API keys via WordPress instead of storing keys themselves, improving security and integration. Transcript: Luke It's a connected screen. For connecting, well, to start with AI providers, but also just any API providers. It doesn't have to be AI. Any API keys. So that plugins can share API keys and plugins don't have to be able to store and read API keys directly. They can just pull it through WordPress. So it's cool. It's a good security feature. It's a nice feature. And on this connector screen, when you go there, there are no connectors installed by default. You need to install a connector to be able to attach WordPress to ChatGPT, Claude, and Google, the Gemini and other AI tools. So those are the three sort of pre-filled featured plugins, if you will, that are in that list. And what happened is someone from Automatic came along and created a, I'm just going to say it's still on track. So it's like change sets and things. I'll just say a pull request to add a kismet. ([Time 0:03:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/10608eb1-ae10-4866-99bc-50b2a5f5f645)) - **Quick Merge Of Kismet Sparked Core Conflict** - A contributor from Automattic merged a pull request adding Kismet to the featured connectors list quickly and without public discussion. - That merge triggered a backlash from other core committers who felt the change needed broader discussion and questioned Kismet's inclusion. Transcript: Luke And what happened is someone from Automatic came along and created a, I'm just going to say it's still on track. So it's like change sets and things. I'll just say a pull request to add a kismet. Okay. And then half an hour later, someone else from Automatic came along and approved that and merged it. And there was no discussion of it. And so then there was a big hoo-ha in track because a bunch of other core committers who don't work for Automatic came in and said, no, it doesn't make sense. We haven't talked about this number one, but also it doesn't make sense to have a kismet in this list. And there was a big back and forth. And some people said, Matt said we shouldn't have it in. And other people said, well, I talked to Matthias. ([Time 0:04:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6aede14d-7ec3-4319-8990-d04c321a9556)) - **Leadership Moves Created Communication Chaos** - The controversy felt like top-down intervention where leadership declared decisions, creating confusion about communication and process. - Luke compares the vibe to an office commander coming in, making sweeping demands (including 'more AI'), and possibly leaving disruption behind. Transcript: Jonathan Man and part of the and i could completely be wrong about this but part of the vibe that i'm picking up is a little bit of like hey a kismet's a great tool y'all should be grateful that we're Doing this. And that can be absolutely true, right? I'm sure there's a lot of value that a kismet has brought. I remember the early days. And at the same time, it's like, okay, it comes back to the same concerns about how our decision's being made. And, but Luke, what's your sense? So over the past couple of months, I've been stepping into a new role. I've been doing a lot more like playing with dev tools and using these different like AI tools. And so I've been, I've actually been building a lot more lately, which has been a lot of fun. But I've been building less with WordPress. And I, but at the same time, I've been thinking about it like I'm really excited about some of the stuff that's happening in the space the work that Mike McAllister and Patrick are doing With Ollie and they have like an MCP coming out soon and this um and so I've been thinking about like what does it look like to have a bridge from like these vibe coding platforms back into WordPress and etc etc like there's some things that I'm actually excited about in WordPress but then there's there's this over ([Time 0:05:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a17b54d0-c121-4a71-b2a2-1b4c64032cb8)) - **WordPress Is Alive But Relevance Is The Question** - WordPress remains durable and unlikely to disappear, but relevance is the pressing issue for new site builders and agencies. - Luke argues we must focus on whether WordPress is seen as a viable choice for starting new websites over the next decade. Transcript: Luke It's a good question. I was talking with a friend about this yesterday, actually. And, you know, especially on previous seasons of Crossword, we've asked the question, is this the end of WordPress? Is WordPress dead? I don't think I've asked that question. Well, you know, in so many words, you know, and I think the answer to that has got to be WordPress is never dead. WordPress is never, you know. You can't kill it easily. You can't kill it. It's going to be around forever. It's going to be here 10 years from now. Jonathan You don't think we're going to be running MDash everywhere in 10 years? Well, we might be. Well, that's the question. The question is, is WordPress still relevant? Luke Is it still talked about as a viable option for starting a new website? And that is what we need to be grappling with, I think. Is WordPress still a relevant tool in, you know, web agencies toolkit? And i think so to get back to your question my sense is yes but the trend line isn't looking positive yes to the relevance or yes yes to the relevance so then by proxy if it's yes to the relevance Jonathan Where do you feel like what's the impact of math's like resurged like energy and attention Yeah. Luke So is it needed? ([Time 0:07:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a1e4a149-d541-4d1c-b703-29c950358a5d)) - **Proactively Build Bridges From AI Tools To WordPress** - Explore bridging new AI-driven low-code tools back into the WordPress ecosystem to attract builders using modern workflows. - Jonathan describes building a site on Lovable that pulled content from WordPress and went live the next day as a concrete bridge example. Transcript: Jonathan Okay. All right. So here's a take that I'm going to offer. Hot take. Over the, as I've been thinking about things over the past couple of months and playing with these tools, like frankly, I find myself pretty consistently blown away at like, I've been Using Claude Design over the past couple of days, did some prototyping, built some internal applications. I'm kind of blown away at how quickly and how good this stuff is. It's using design systems. And as I've been playing, I've built up some new sites. I had a good friend who had two WordPress sites and wanted to make updates to them. And I looked at his setup and I looked at the situation and I was like, and it paid me to say it. But what we did was we built him a new site that evening on Lovable that pulled everything in from WordPress, synthesized it, and we went live the next day and it was done. And I saw some issues with it, but for what he needed doing, it's like, this is the better solution. And what I began to think about at that point was like, okay, what's the bridge back? And what does it look like to, like, because I think that to me, that's been important from the outset that you can go easy in and easy out of WordPress. That, to me, is a sign of a healthy ecosystem that when it's doing the job. And for me, what remains, Luke, is WordPress has this rich ecosystem of people who make good products. Folks like Mike McAllister and what they've been doing with Ollie, Leslie Coy and Event Coy. Leslie Sim. I connected the two. Sorry, Leslie. And Katie Keith. And there's people that are making some great products in the space. And there's a lot of good product energy and real world problems that are getting solved with that. And at least to me, the opportunity that I see is as this next wave of like lowering the barrier of software development comes on as people are using these tools, there's an opportunity That I see to get them connected through those tools into the WordPress ecosystem, but it won't happen by default. ([Time 0:09:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fbd5d96d-d611-4126-9776-918648969510)) - **Ecosystem Energy Needs Proactive Integration** - The WordPress ecosystem has strong product energy but lacks automatic connections to new building paradigms like AI design systems and MCPs. - Luke and Jonathan see opportunity in making proactive integrations (Ollie, MCP, core AI) to keep WordPress relevant. Transcript: Jonathan Like have it build something, but in WordPress. And that's, that's at least where I'm wanting to explore and see what happens over the next couple of months. And that's a chance I see to connect this new wave of building to a rich old ecosystem that's already there that has a lot of value in it. And that's also trying to adapt. Luke Yeah, and as much as it pains me to suggest an AI-related theme for a season 11 of Crossword, maybe the bridge back to WordPress is a good one. Especially since, like, the landscape of the AI tools that we're using is changing so rapidly. Yeah. Like Claude Design was just released and you know the very concept of tools and skills and an MCP server these are things that people still are grappling to understand and haven't fully There you know there's a select few who get it yeah but it's a whole new world of new paradigms. And we don't know how long these paradigms will stick around. So it's interesting. Yes. Jonathan And moves quickly as well. And I think that there's some value. Again, what I stick with, what stands out to me with the WordPress ecosystem is that there's so much energy in it as a whole that is just not connected by default. It's not one monolithic platform, right? But to me, if you're going to make a bridge to these tools, it requires some proactive collaboration. And I'm seeing signs of that. I just got back from PressConf. One of the highlights for me was like watching of these product folks like talking to each other and say, hey, maybe we should make our products like work better together. And the work that the Core AI team has been doing, at least from my perspective, feels incredibly important. Luke Like imagine if that hadn't been happening at all. It does feel important. And I've seen some really, really cool stuff going on with AI and Playgrounds. ([Time 0:11:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c5756f6f-9e88-40f2-b655-6c8ed51e94aa))