Radical Speed Month was a one-month build sprint at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Small teams paired up, built fast and shipped ideas that you can now try inside WordPress. This guide covers the 10 brand-new WordPress features that stood out from the sprint, plus two bonus projects.

You will learn what each feature does, who it helps and which plan or tool you need to try it. Most facts come from the official WordPress.com announcement, official support pages or trusted project listings. 

TL;DR

QuestionShort answerWhat was it?A build sprint where Automattic teams shipped WordPress.com features quicklyWhen did it run?April 22 to May 21, 2026Who built the features?More than 400 two-person teamsHow many features are covered?10 main features and 2 bonus projectsAre the features final?Many are still in beta and can changeDo they cost money?It depends, since some are free and some need a paid planBest place to startWrite for posts, Workspace for Mac or Studio for local sites

What Is Radical Speed Month?

Radical Speed Month is an internal creative experiment at Automattic. Developers, designers, marketers and many other team members built, shipped and tested WordPress.com features faster than usual. They shared work in progress and improved it with real feedback. This section explains the idea and why it matters to you.

When Did Radical Speed Month Run?

According to The Repository, Radical Speed Month ran from April 22 to May 21, 2026. Automattic paired employees into more than 400 two-person teams and gave them full freedom to pick a project. The only rule was that the project could not be something they already worked on. WordPress.com published its roundup of standout projects on June 10, 2026 and updated it on August 10, 2026.

Why Radical Speed Month Matters for WordPress Users

The projects share four clear themes. Each theme shows where WordPress.com is heading, so it helps to know them before you read the feature list.

Lighter publishing: Write, Lately and the short-form theme help you post faster.

Faster development: Blueprints in Studio remove repeated setup work.

Flexible creator workflows: Social Feeds and Clips let you reuse one idea in several formats.

AI that helps you work: Workspace, WordPress Guidelines and the Easy Site Editor use context from your site.

The official announcement says AI becomes far more useful once it understands your site, your content and your workflow. Keep that idea in mind as you read, because it connects most of the features below.

1. WordPress Workspace for Mac

WordPress Workspace opens the list of Radical Speed Month features. It is a desktop app from Artur Piszek that brings the WordPress Agent into your Mac workflow. It runs on macOS only, and the project README does not mention a Windows version. Your site already holds your posts, pages, media and drafts, so an assistant that knows that context can help you while you work.

What You Can Do in WordPress Workspace

Workspace lives in the Mac menu bar and works as a light client for your WordPress.com site, according to the official project page on GitHub. You do not add API keys or pick a model inside the app. The app gives you these tools:

Ask the WordPress Agent questions about your site.

Dictate text from anywhere on your Mac.

Transform selected text without copying it into another tool.

Capture screenshots and upload images straight to your site.

Switch sites when your work moves to another project.

Your site guidelines shape the results. Editing a guideline on WordPress.com changes what Workspace uses the next time you dictate or transform text. Workspace asks you to sign in with your WordPress.com account. You can download it from the Workspace page or the project’s GitHub releases.

Who Should Try WordPress Workspace

Try it if you write on a Mac and often jump between a browser, a notes app and an AI assistant. Bloggers, editors and solo site owners get the most from it. Start with dictation, because it is the quickest way to feel the time you save.

2. WordCamp Agent

WordCamp Agent is a Telegram assistant built for WordCamp attendees. It helps you plan your trip, browse the conference schedule and remember your interests. You can also save notes during sessions and turn them into a post or recap later. Artur Piszek built this one too.

How WordPress Guidelines Power WordCamp Agent

WordCamp Agent runs on WordPress Guidelines, a system that stores agent-facing knowledge inside WordPress. The knowledge sits next to your normal content and follows your normal permissions. Guidelines come in four types that are easy to picture:

Instructions: site-wide guidance that shapes how an agent behaves.

Skills: reusable abilities, such as a live schedule lookup.

Memory: facts the agent collects while it works with you.

Artifacts: work in progress, such as notes and drafts.

WordPress stores all four in one custom post type and uses the roles you already know. Administrators see everything. Contributors, authors and editors can read and edit their own private guidelines.

Why WordCamp Agent Matters for WordPress AI

Useful AI depends on useful context. A single prompt can help with one task. A structured memory layer supports many tasks over time. WordCamp Agent shows what a WordPress AI agent looks like in daily use. You can message it on Telegram if you attend a WordCamp.

3. Blueprints Gallery in WordPress Studio

The Blueprints Gallery lives inside WordPress Studio, the free and open source desktop app for building local WordPress sites. Kateryna Kodonenko built it, and the gallery lets developers launch reusable environments from preconfigured blueprints. That saves the first hour of a project, which usually goes to setup.

How to Launch a Site From the Blueprints Gallery

The gallery arrived in Studio 1.9.0 and works in later versions too. You only need the desktop app and a few clicks. Follow these steps to launch a site:

Update WordPress Studio to the latest version.

Click Add site in the sidebar.

Choose Build a new site.

Scroll to Explore more Blueprints, pick one and continue.

Developers can also use the blueprint command in the Studio command line. It lists the available blueprints and launches a fully configured local site from your terminal.

Who Should Use WordPress Blueprints

A blueprint is a JSON file that describes a site setup. Blueprints in Studio follow the same format as WordPress Playground, so one file works in both tools according to the Studio documentation. Agencies, plugin authors and theme builders gain the most because they repeat similar setups all the time. If you search for WordPress local development tips, this is a strong place to start.

4. Achievements

WordPress.com Achievements celebrates your progress and milestones as you publish. Dean Sas and Jacopo Tomasone built it. The feature helps creators track their momentum over time. Publishing often is a habit worth building, and Achievements encourages it by making each milestone visible.

Who Benefits From Achievements

New bloggers and newsletter writers gain the most from visible milestones. You can view your own on the Achievements page inside the Reader after you log in. Small wins keep a posting schedule alive. Check the page after each publish to see your progress grow.

Picture a newsletter writer who sends an issue every week. After each issue goes out, a quick look at the Achievements page shows how the milestones add up, so a vague goal like posting more often becomes progress you can see.

5. Easy Site Editor

The Easy Site Editor makes editing a WordPress site feel approachable. Glen Davies built this experiment to shorten the path from an idea to an update, and it reached beta on May 21, 2026.

How Easy Site Editor Works

The layout is simple. A chat panel sits on the left and a live preview of your real site sits on the right. You describe a change in plain language and watch it appear. The announcement gives these examples of requests:

Change your homepage headline.

Swap a hero image.

Adjust your colors.

Rewrite your About page.

For small tweaks, choose the Edit option, click a piece of text or an image and update it on the spot. The preview shows your real site, so you can click between pages like a visitor. The editor is in beta and rolls out gradually to WordPress.com paid plans.

How Easy Site Editor Fits with the Full WordPress Site Editor

The Easy Site Editor complements the standard WordPress site editor. The standard tool still gives you deep control over blocks, templates and theme settings. Use the Easy Site Editor as a starting point and open the advanced tools whenever you need them. The announcement describes the new editor as an experiment to make editing more approachable, and the standard editor stays available.

6. Lately

Lately is a messaging-first publishing experiment from Andrew Spittle. You create private weekly letters by chatting with the WordPress Agent, because ideas often arrive in messages and quick thoughts, far from a blank editor.

How Lately Works

You message the WordPress Agent on Telegram with whatever you notice during the week. Lately then emails a weekly letter to your close friends every Friday, and only friends you approve receive it. Friends with a WordPress.com account can also read it on the web or in the Reader. On the web, Lately offers three style packs that range from Modern to Pop.

Who Should Try Lately

Try Lately if you want to share more with friends without learning new software. It suits anyone who freezes at a blank page. Lately is in beta for new sites, so start with a fresh site through the Lately page.

7. Theme for Short-Form Blogging

The theme for short-form blogging is a WordPress.com theme for lightweight, social-style publishing. Dave Martin built it for the many posts that are just a thought, a link, an image or a quick update. It was the first Radical Speed Month project to reach customers. WordPress.com announced it on April 28, 2026.

What the Short-Form Theme Offers

The theme gives you a simple home for quick posts on a site you own. Social platforms made short posting feel natural and trained many creators to build on rented feeds. This theme brings that casual style back to your own space, and you keep ownership of every post. Open the theme page to try it.

Who Should Use the Short-Form Theme

Use it if you post updates often and want an owned home for them. Photographers, writers and community leaders can all benefit. Pair it with Social Feeds so you can read, react and post from one place.

8. Social Feeds

Social Feeds brings Bluesky, Mastodon and the wider Fediverse into the WordPress.com Reader. Jeremy Herve built it, and it lets you follow people, read posts, react, reply and publish from one place. When a quick thought grows into something bigger, WordPress.com gives it a home as a post on your site. The Reader also gained a Google Reader-compatible API during the sprint, so any app built for that API can use WordPress.com as a sync backend, as the ActivityPub blog reported on May 5, 2026.

How to Connect Accounts in Social Feeds

Open Social Feeds in the Reader sidebar and choose Bluesky, Mastodon or your own WordPress site, as the support guide explains. You can mix accounts, such as two Bluesky accounts and one Mastodon account. If you already use Jetpack Social, your Bluesky and Mastodon connections show up in the Reader automatically. Your own site can join the Fediverse too, so people on Mastodon can follow your posts. That makes it a handy WordPress Fediverse starting point.

Character Limits to Know Before You Post

Each network has its own limit. Bluesky caps posts at 300 characters and most Mastodon servers cap them at 500. The Reader warns you when a post is too long for Bluesky. Fediverse posts from your own site have no character limit, so you can publish long posts straight from the Reader.

9. Write

Write is a simplified posting experience for writers on WordPress.com. It gives you one page, a blinking cursor and only the formatting tools you need. Jamie Marsland, Allison Levine and Kim Brown built it and it is in beta and ready to try.

How Write Works

Write keeps the screen minimal. It brings in formatting when you need it and hides it when you do not. Write posts are real WordPress posts, so they sit with your other content and work with your theme. The editor autosaves your draft. A banner offers to resume it when you return. Start at the Write editor.

When to Switch to the Block Editor

Write is for posts. For pages, templates, menus, site styles or advanced layouts, use the standard WordPress editor, as the support page explains. You can choose Open in block editor at any time. Some posts use formatting that Write cannot keep. The editor shows your options for those posts.

10. OpenStation (Formerly Desktop Mode)

OpenStation, formerly Desktop Mode, is a free, open source plugin that gives WordPress Admin a desktop-style workspace. Daniel López Sánchez and Roberto Aranda built it. You open WordPress tools as windows, resize them, stack them and move between spaces. Posts, media, plugins and settings then feel like one working environment. It is also the only feature in this guide that you install as a plugin on a self-hosted site.

How OpenStation Changes WordPress Admin

After you turn it on, admin screens open as draggable, resizable and minimizable windows. A dock holds your admin menu, and you can place it on the screen edge you prefer, according to the project repository. The plugin works per user, so nobody else on your site sees a change. Deactivating the plugin restores the classic admin, as the plugin listing states.

What’s New in OpenStation

The plugin has changed a lot since the May version, according to the plugin listing. These additions are the ones most worth trying.

Virtual desktops: Keep writing, your store and comment triage on separate desktops and switch between them without closing anything.

Cmd+K command palette: One shortcut opens the WordPress command palette along with slash commands from your plugins.

Optional AI assistant: Ask questions about your own content from the palette. It is off by default and needs an AI provider set up under Settings > Connectors on WordPress 7.0 or later.

Corkboard: An interactive, zoomable map of how your posts, pages and products link to each other, which helps you find orphan pages and hub pages.

WooCommerce folders: Orders, Products, Coupons and Customers open as browsable folders.

OpenStation itself is free, though optional AI providers may charge for their own service, as the plugin listing notes.

Desktop Mode Is Now OpenStation on WordPress.org

The plugin page on WordPress.org now shows the name OpenStation. The listing says it is the same plugin with a new name and a new look. According to the 1.0.0 changelog, your settings, files, sessions and desktop layouts carry over untouched. If you miss the old look, a built-in Desktop Mode (Legacy) theme brings it back in one click. The WordPress.org address still ends in desktop-mode, so search for both names when you look for it.

The project repository also moved to github.com/WordPress/openstation, and developers should note that the JavaScript namespace changed from wp.desktop to wp.os, as the changelog explains.

Bonus: Wapuu Studio

Wapuu Studio is an AI-powered tool that lets you create and share your own custom Wapuu with the WordPress community. Wapuu is the well-known WordPress mascot. This Radical Speed Month project is all about play. You describe the character you imagine and the tool brings it to life.

How Wapuu Studio Works

Describe your Wapuu by its mood, outfit, theme, colors or tiny adventure. Wapuu Studio turns your prompt into a unique character. You can browse community creations, remix ideas and share your own designs. Visit Wapuu Studio to create yours.

Who Should Try Wapuu Studio

Wapuu is popular across WordPress communities, so a custom one has plenty of uses. You could create a Wapuu for a WordCamp talk, a meetup banner or your community profile, then share it so others can remix the idea. Start with a simple prompt about mood and outfit, then adjust it until the character fits your event.

Bonus: Clips

Clips turns WordPress.com posts into short-form video. Sarosh Aga and Aagam Shah built it because repurposing written content usually takes time, tools and a separate production process. Clips starts with your post and generates a short video from the same material.

How Clips Works

Clips creates AI-generated vertical videos from a post or page, right in the editor, as the support guide explains. The videos use a 9:16 ratio made for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. Every clip is saved to your Media Library as a 720p MP4 file. If you connected your site to Instagram, you can share a clip with one button. The team confirmed in the article comments that the post link goes into the caption.

Clips Limits and Plans

Clips is an early preview, so expect changes. You can generate up to 10 clips per site every 24 hours. Cinematic clips are eight seconds long for now. The feature is available on WordPress.com Premium, Business and Commerce plans.

Radical Speed Month Features at a Glance

This table lists every project from the roundup in one place. Use it to compare features quickly. Each row shows what the feature does and where to try it. Come back to it when you decide what to test first.

FeatureWhat it doesWhere to try itWordPress WorkspaceMac menu bar app with the WordPress Agent, dictation and screenshotsWordPress WorkspaceWordCamp AgentTelegram assistant powered by WordPress GuidelinesTelegram botBlueprints GalleryLaunches local sites from ready-made setupsWordPress StudioAchievementsTracks your publishing milestonesAchievements pageEasy Site EditorEdits your site through chat with a live previewAnnouncementLatelySends private weekly letters made by chattingLatelyShort-form themeLightweight social-style publishing on your own siteTheme pageSocial FeedsReads and posts to Bluesky, Mastodon and the FediverseReader connectionsWriteDistraction-free posting for writersWrite editorOpenStation (formerly Desktop Mode)Windowed workspace for WordPress AdminPlugin pageWapuu StudioCreates custom Wapuu characters from promptsWapuu StudioClipsTurns posts into short vertical videosClips guide

What Radical Speed Month Means for Self-Hosted WordPress Users

Most Radical Speed Month projects connect to WordPress.com, so a self-hosted site gets less from this list than a WordPress.com site does. A few projects still work on your own server or your own computer today.

What Works on Self-Hosted Sites Today

OpenStation: Install it from the WordPress.org directory on WordPress 6.0 or later with PHP 7.4 or later. Only the optional AI assistant needs WordPress 7.0 or later.

WordPress Studio: The free desktop app builds local WordPress sites on your computer, so you can test changes before they reach a live self-hosted site.

Blueprints: A blueprint file uses the same format as WordPress Playground, so one setup file works in both tools.

ActivityPub: The ActivityPub plugin lets a self-hosted site join the Fediverse so people on Mastodon can follow your posts.

What Needs WordPress.com

Workspace, Lately, Write, Social Feeds, Clips, the Easy Site Editor, Achievements and the short-form theme are WordPress.com features, so a self-hosted site may not be able to use them. WordCamp Agent and Wapuu Studio run outside your own site, so your hosting does not matter for either. Check each feature page before you plan around one.

Test Essential Addons & Essential Blocks Locally with Blueprints

Blueprints are the most practical part of this list for anyone who builds or tests plugins. A blueprint describes a site setup, so you can reuse the same starting point for every test instead of rebuilding it by hand. For example, you can spin up a clean local site with Essential Addons or Essential Blocks and check how a new page design behaves before you touch your live site.

How to Try Radical Speed Month Features Safely

Most Radical Speed Month features are new. Many are in beta. A careful start protects your live site and saves you from surprises. The steps below take about half an hour. They work for every feature in this guide.

Check the plan and beta status. Read each feature page first, because plan rules and limits can change.

Test on a copy of your site. Use WordPress Studio to build a local copy, which also gives you a safe place to practice WordPress local development.

Back up your live site. Our WordPress maintenance checklist shows a simple routine for updates and backups.

Review plugin safety. OpenStation is a plugin, so read our WordPress security guide before you install any new plugin on a live site.

Send feedback. WordPress.com builds these features in the open, so your notes help shape what ships next.

Start Trying the Radical Speed Month Features Today

Radical Speed Month gave WordPress.com 10 new features and two bonus projects. You can try many of them right now. Pick one feature that matches how you work today. A small first test teaches you more than a long list of plans. The next steps below make it easy.

Draft your next post in Write to feel the focused editor.

Launch a blueprint in Studio to build a test site in minutes.

Connect Bluesky or Mastodon in Social Feeds to read and post from the Reader.

Subscribe to the WPDeveloper blog for practical WordPress tutorials, security updates and expert tips delivered straight to your inbox.

The post 10 Brand-New WordPress Features from Radical Speed Month first appeared on WPDeveloper.