Plugin Check (PCP)

2.1.0

• Enhancement – Add SVN Checker to detect unexpected files, folders, and zip archives in plugin SVN repositories.
• Enhancement – Add PHP Error Reporting check to detect production-time changes to PHP error reporting settings.
• Enhancement – Add AI Provider check to recommend the WordPress AI Client.
• Enhancement – Validate each Requires Plugins dependency individually against the WordPress.org plugin directory.
• Enhancement – Use distinct visual styles for different issue types in results.
• Fix – Preserve Unicode characters in exported results.
• Fix – Fix silently dropped WordPress core functions in the since-data generator.
• Fix – Decouple AJAX calls in the admin UI and remove unnecessary return values.
• Chore – Add AI features and configuration documentation.
• Chore – Update WordPress function since dataset.
• Chore – Update development and CI dependencies.

2.0.0

• Enhancement – Add WordPress functions compatibility check to flag usage of functions unavailable in a plugin’s declared minimum WordPress version.
• Enhancement – Add Write File check to detect plugins saving data in the plugin folder instead of the uploads directory or database.
• Enhancement – Add batched AI false positive detection with check-specific prompts and AI model selection for WP-CLI.
• Enhancement – Add CTRF export support for check results.
• Enhancement – Add an error count summary to the Plugin Check UI.
• Enhancement – Improve Direct File Access detection for library-style files.
• Enhancement – Adjust checks for update mode.
• Fix – Relax Update URI header validation for WordPress.org plugin URLs.
• Fix – Improve WordPress functions compatibility detection to avoid PHP serialization false positives.
• Fix – Respect wp_supports_ai() and text-capable model filtering in the Plugin Namer.
• Fix – Show Plugin Namer token usage in results.
• Fix – Recognize EUPL as a GPL-compatible license.
• Fix – Improve internationalization for emoji-prefixed labels.
• Fix – Update PHPCS sniffer repository links.
• Tweak – Update WP-CLI runtime checks documentation.
• Chore – Add automated WordPress function compatibility data generation.
• Chore – Add AI usage disclosure to the pull request template.
• Chore – Add AI coding agent instructions.
• Chore – Clean up wp-env development and test configuration warnings.
• Chore – Show a WordPress Playground preview button on pull requests.
• Chore – Update development and CI dependencies.

1.9.0

• Enhancement – Use the WordPress 7.0 core AI connectors.
• Enhancement – Add External Admin Menu Links check to detect external URLs in top-level admin menus.
• Enhancement – Add and refine the block metadata compatibility check to require apiVersion 3+ for WordPress 7.0+ iframe editor compatibility, including adjusted severity by mode.
• Enhancement – Improve Plugin Updater detection to identify Plugin Update Checker (PUC) calls.
• Enhancement – Accept WTFPL as a GPL-compatible license.
• Fix – Improve PayPal donation URL validation for complex query strings.
• Fix – Ensure AI Check uses the configured model preference.
• Fix – Show a clear Plugin Namer error message when AI connector status is unavailable.
• Fix – Update the Plugin Namer connector settings page link.
• Tweak – Convert the load_plugin_textdomain() check from error to warning severity.
• Fix – Improve readme contributors validation when trailing commas are present.
• Fix – Make markdown file checks case-insensitive.
• Tweak – Refine escaping sniff error messages for clearer guidance.
• Chore – Update development dependencies, including @wordpress/scripts, simple-git, basic-ftp, svgo, immutable, and @wp-playground/cli.
• Tweak – Update WordPress.org Plugins Team naming for consistency.

1.8.0

• Enhancement – Add AI-powered Plugin Namer tool to evaluate plugin names for trademark conflicts and naming best practices.
• Enhancement – Add AI Instructions Detection Check to identify AI tool configuration files and development-only directories.
• Enhancement – Add support for exporting check results in CSV, JSON, and Markdown formats.
• Enhancement – Add check type filter to allow filtering results by errors and warnings.
• Enhancement – Add Direct File Access check to ensure proper security validation with ABSPATH constant.
• Enhancement – Add check for mismatched “Tested up to” header between plugin header and readme.txt.
• Enhancement – Update trademark check to remove acronym exceptions and improve flexibility.
• Enhancement – Add heredoc sniff to detect and restrict heredoc usage (nowdoc allowed).
• Fix – Update Playground integration blueprint for compatibility.
• Fix – Force correct plugin slug detection in WP-CLI command.

1.7.0

• Enhancement – Add Minified File Detection Check to identify and handle minified files in plugins.
• Enhancement – Implement check for insecure use of wp_verify_nonce() to improve security validation.
• Enhancement – Add direct database query sniff to detect direct database calls without using WordPress functions.
• Enhancement – Add prefixing check to ensure proper function and class name prefixing.
• Enhancement – Update localhost sniff regex to improve detection of localhost URLs including *.local domains.
• Enhancement – Disallow runtime checks when custom user table constants are defined for better compatibility.
• Enhancement – Add forbidden functions check to detect usage of disallowed PHP functions.
• Enhancement – New check for wp_safe_redirect to encourage use of WordPress safe redirect function.
• Enhancement – Improve mismatched text domain check for better internationalization validation.
• Enhancement – Detect links that request five-star reviews to enforce plugin directory guidelines.
• Enhancement – Add The Unlicense to GPL-compatible license check.
• Enhancement – Improve localhost sniff code for more accurate detection.
• Fix – Ignore vendor_prefixed and vendor-prefixed folders in checks to prevent false positives.
• Fix – Handle possible empty element in scanner to prevent PHP warnings.
• Fix – Hide error output in scanner for cleaner output.
• Fix – Call ReflectionProperty::setAccessible() only in older PHP versions for better PHP 8.1+ compatibility.
• Fix – Prevent deletion of custom WordPress tables during cleanup in test environment.

1.6.0

• Enhancement – Support strict output format for CLI commands.
• Enhancement – Improve check for donate link in readme.
• Enhancement – Improve info check in Version utils.
• Enhancement – Improve URL validation for plugin header fields.
• Enhancement – Improve ruleset files.
• Enhancement – Increased severity for invalid plugin uri domain and plugin description checks in plugin header.
• Enhancement – Remove CallTimePassByReference as it’s deprecated rule.
• Enhancement – Disallow special characters in textdomain.
• Enhancement – Imported readme parser for preventing conflicts with wordpress.org. Use dotorg readme parser if available.
• Enhancement – Discourage the use of load_plugin_textdomain found in plugins as it’s not necessary in wordpress.org.
• Enhancement – Upgrade severity for missing readme headers.
• Enhancement – Show tested up to minor check only when it is current major version.
• Enhancement – Added link in plugins page to run the plugin check.
• Fix – Dynamic WP Content folder.
• Fix – Fix test for special chars in file names giving problems to users after clone.
• Fix – Remove Image_Functions_Check as they were making false positives.
• Fix – Prevent WordPress version 10+ from being flagged as an error in the “Tested up to” check.