WordPress exposes a list of JavaScript packages and tools for WordPress development.

For information on creating and managing packages in Gutenberg, see the packages README. For details on the build system and package configuration, see the @wordpress/build README.

Package Guidelines

Packages are the first layer of architecture in Gutenberg. Each package should have a single, clear purpose, include a README, document prerequisites and public APIs, and avoid utility/kitchen-sink patterns. Default to bundled packages unless globals or modules are necessary.

For complete guidelines, see the package guidelines in the packages README.

Using the packages via WordPress global

JavaScript packages are available as a registered script in WordPress and can be accessed using the wp global variable.

If you wanted to use the PlainText component from the block editor module, first you would specify wp-block-editor as a dependency when you enqueue your script:

wp_enqueue_script(
    'my-custom-block',
    plugins_url( $block_path, __FILE__ ),
    array( 'react', 'wp-blocks', 'wp-block-editor', 'wp-i18n' )
);

After the dependency is declared, you can access the module in your JavaScript code using the global wp like so:

const { PlainText } = wp.blockEditor;

Using the packages via npm

All the packages are also available on npm if you want to bundle them in your code.

Using the same PlainText example, you would install the block editor module with npm:

npm install @wordpress/block-editor --save

Once installed, you can access the component in your code using:

import { PlainText } from '@wordpress/block-editor';

Testing JavaScript code from a specific major WordPress version

There is a way to quickly install a version of the individual WordPress package used with a given WordPress major version using npm distribution tags (example for WordPress 5.8.x):

npm install @wordpress/block-editor@wp-5.8

It’s also possible to update all existing WordPress packages in the project with a single command:

npx @wordpress/scripts packages-update --dist-tag=wp-5.8

All major WordPress versions starting from 5.7.x are supported (e.g., wp-5.7 or wp-6.0). Each individual dist-tag always points to the latest bug fix release for that major version line.