Title: Project Organization Author: Andrew Nacin Published: December 13, 2011 Last modified: July 13, 2026 --- # Project Organization ## In this article * [About the Project](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#about-the-project) * [Community Leadership](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#community-leadership) - [The WordPress Core Team](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#the-wordpress-core-team) - [Committers](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#committers) - [Team Reps](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#team-reps) - [Core Contributors](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#core-contributors) - [UX and Design](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#ux-and-design) - [Support](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#support) - [Documentation](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#documentation) - [Mobile](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#mobile) - [Theme Reviewers](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#theme-reviewers) - [Plugin Reviewers](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#plugin-reviewers) - [Community Blogs and Communication](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#community-blogs-and-communication) [↑ Back to top](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target) ## 󠀁[About the Project](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#about-the-project)󠁿 The WordPress project is run by a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. leadership team and led by co-founder and lead developer **Matt Mullenweg**. The team governs all aspects of the project, including core development, WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/), and community initiatives. Trusted contributors and core developers earn their stripes on more than their abilities and actions. Leadership roles are earned on the basis of professionalism, personality, attitude, and respect among peers. The best contributors naturally respect and subscribe to the project’s core philosophies. A lack of a personal agenda is paramount: we’re all a part of the same community and we all share common goals. This doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion – far from it. The best contributors can balance their opinions with the goals of the project and the perspectives of both users and developers. Offering consistently good suggestions, demonstrating a strong ability to collaborate with others, and being able to accept (and provide) feedback are all important. You can identify these standards in some of our best core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. [https://core.trac.wordpress.org](https://core.trac.wordpress.org), and that’s why they have strong influence over the project. Final decisions are made by the core team, which has evolved over the life of the project based on merit. ## 󠀁[Community Leadership](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#community-leadership)󠁿 The WordPress community is led via two main avenues: the Internal Leads and the Community Volunteers. In many areas, such as UIUI User interface and Support, the Community Leads are the driving force. ### 󠀁[The WordPress Core Team](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#the-wordpress-core-team)󠁿 The WordPress project is led by the **core leadership team**, which consists of WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, five lead developers, and a number of core developers. The lead developers are **Helen Hou-Sandi**, **Dion Hulse**, **Mark Jaquith**, ** Andrew Nacin**, and **Andrew Ozz**. These developers have final authority on technical decisions, and lead architecture discussions and implementation efforts. ### 󠀁[Committers](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#committers)󠁿 Current committers include: **Robert Anderson, Michael Arestad, Joen Asmussen, Felix Arntz, Marin Atanasov, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Daniel Bachhuber, Rachel Baker, David Baumwald, Ian Belanger, Riad Benguella, Pascal Birchler, Sergey Biryukov, John Blackbourn, Carlos Bravo, Isabel Brison, Anthony Burchell, Aaron D. Campbell, Marco Ciampini, Kelly Choyce- Dwan, Allan Cole, Alex Concha, Jorge Costa, Michal Czaplinski, Glen Davies, Jonathan Desrosiers, Ramon Dodd, Joe Dolson, Andrei Draganescu, Ian Dunn, Ben Dwyer, Darren Ethier, Jeremy Felt, Andrea Fercia, Miguel Fonseca, Laurel Fulford, Herre Groen, Aki Hamano, Kai Hao, Jonny Harris, Luis Herranz, Timothy Jacobs, John James Jacoby, Drew Jaynes, Marius Jensen, Aaron Jorbin, Fabian Kägy, James Koster, Tammie Lister, George Mamadashvili, André Maneiro, Joe McGill, Lena Morita, Tonya Mork, Sarah Norris, Carolina Nymark, Jeff Ong, William Patton, Brandon Payton, Gary Pendergast, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Omar Reiss, Bernhard Reiter, Daniel Richards, Aaron Robertshaw, Weston Ruter, Dominik Schilling, Kira Schroder, Andrew Serong, Alex Shiels, Adam Silverstein, David Smith, Dennis Snell, Allen Snook, Jake Spurlock, Ari Stathopoulos, Colin Stewart, Jon Surrell, Rich Tabor, Anton Timmermans, Nik Tsekouras, Ella Van Durpe, Matias Ventura, K. Adam White, Peter Wilson, Adam Zieliński, **and** Grzegorz Ziółkowski.** Other contributing developers include: **Michael Adams, Nikolay Bachiyski, Jon Cave, Mel Choyce-Dwan, Andrew Duthie, Boone B. Gorges, Joe Hoyle, David A. Kennedy, Daryl Koopersmith, Konstantin Kovshenin, Eric Lewis, Matthew Riley MacPherson, Matt Miklic, Ryan McCue, James Nylen, Konstantin Obenland, Joseph Scott, Ian Stewart, Andy Skelton, Scott Taylor, Peter Westwood, Lance Willett, **and** Samuel Wood.** _Note that the most current list of committers can be viewed [in code](https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sites/trunk/trac.wordpress.org/templates/core/site-specific.html) and [on GitHub](https://github.com/orgs/WordPress/teams/wordpress-core)._ ### 󠀁[Team Reps](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#team-reps)󠁿 Since anyone who is an active contributor on a team can be elected as team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts., team reps will often have different levels of familiarity with other areas of the project, communication protocols, and general processes. To get everyone’s expectations in the same place, the [“job description” for team reps is located on Make/Updates](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/team-reps/). [@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/) and [@amykamala](https://profiles.wordpress.org/amykamala/) are the current Core Team Reps for 2026. Team Rep elections happen every year and follow a [specific process](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/17/proposal-core-team-rep-elections/) that includes [nominations](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/29/nominations-for-core-team-reps/), [voting](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/05/15/core-team-reps-submit-your-votes/), and [announcing](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/06/03/core-team-reps-for-2020-and-beyond/) the new reps. ### 󠀁[Core Contributors](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#core-contributors)󠁿 The core and contributing developers serve as guides for WordPress development. With every version, hundreds of developers contribute code to WordPress. These ** core contributors** are volunteers who contribute to the core codebase in some way. All it takes is a single patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a **diff**. A patch can be _applied_ to a codebase for testing. to make a difference. ### 󠀁[UX and Design](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#ux-and-design)󠁿 The [design team](https://make.wordpress.org/ui/) is made up of core contributors who work on the design and user interface of WordPress. ### 󠀁[Support](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#support)󠁿 The [support forums](https://wordpress.org/support/) are run by a team of volunteer moderators who remove spam, handle disputes, and generally keep the peace. They are led primarily by a self-appointed team leader and everyone is encouraged to jump in. ### 󠀁[Documentation](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#documentation)󠁿 The Documentation team is responsible for all things documentation, including [HelpHub](https://wordpress.org/support)( end-users documentation), [DevHub](https://developer.wordpress.org) (developer-oriented documentation), handbooks, adminadmin (and super admin) help, inline docsinline docs (phpdoc, docblock, xref), and other general wordsmithing across the WordPress project. This handbook and HelpHub/DevHub are the primary sources of information for learning how to develop, improve, and troubleshoot WordPress. These resources are curated by a group of volunteers. Everyone is welcome to contribute. ### 󠀁[Mobile](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#mobile)󠁿 The [WordPress mobile applications](https://apps.wordpress.org/) are open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. software, just like the project. There are two applications currently for iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. and Android. Both apps are hosted on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/) where anyone can contribute. ### 󠀁[Theme Reviewers](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#theme-reviewers)󠁿 Themes submitted to the WordPress Themes Directory are reviewed by a team of volunteers to ensure compliance with the [WordPress.org theme guidelines](https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/). The [team](https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/the-team/members/) is made up of community leaders and contributors who work together on developing standards and reviewing themes. ### 󠀁[Plugin Reviewers](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#plugin-reviewers)󠁿 Plugins submitted to the WordPress Plugins Directory are reviewed by a team of volunteers to ensure they meet [WordPress.org guidelines](https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/) before being included in the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. directory. ### 󠀁[Community Blogs and Communication](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/?output_format=md#community-blogs-and-communication)󠁿 WordPress core development updates and discussion from the teams above happen on the [Make WordPress blogs.](http://make.wordpress.org) You can also follow core development by joining the **#core** channel on the project’s [Slack team](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/), which is open for anyone to join. Dedicated channels are set up for various WordPress core components and community initiatives. A more specific breakdown of the WordPress project’s communication channels is available in the [Communication](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/communication/) section of the Core Handbook. First published December 13, 2011 Last updated July 13, 2026 [ Previous: About](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/) [ Next: Communication](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/communication/)