How to Contribute to the WordPress Theme Directory

If you want to help the WordPress Theme Directory, you can review submitted themes, improve the tools and guidance reviewers use, or submit a theme you built. The directory is the public catalog where WordPress users find and install themes. Volunteers maintain the listings and help uphold the standards themes must meet.

Reviewing is a direct way to contribute even if you have not created a theme. A review checks whether a submission meets the directory’s requirements and gives its author specific feedback. Submitting your own theme follows a separate path, with its own preparation and review steps.

Choose how you want to contribute

The WordPress Themes Team handles more than new submissions. Its work includes reviewing themes, maintaining themes included with WordPress, improving documentation and testing tools, and sorting reports and open issues. The Themes Team page describes these projects and how volunteers take part.

To review themes, you will work with Trac, the ticketing website where submissions and review comments are tracked. To help with triage, you sort and prioritize open issues so contributors can identify what needs attention. You can also improve shared resources such as Theme Check, a tool that helps identify possible requirement problems, or contribute to documentation and bundled themes.

If you want to publish a theme, follow the submission route below. You do not need to submit a theme to join the Themes Team.

Get ready to review a theme

Start with a WordPress.org account, join the community Slack through the reviewer signup instructions, and read the reviewer onboarding materials. Official pages have used different names for the team’s Slack channel, so check the current channel through the team’s entry point rather than relying on an old channel label. The team also recommends following its blog for current activity.

Set up a test WordPress site before you take on a review. A test site lets you activate the theme and see how it works. The testing environment instructions say that you can use any WordPress installation as your test site and link to local development options.

Then read the current theme requirements. You do not need to memorize every rule. Learn where to find the requirements and code references, and where to ask questions when you encounter an unfamiliar issue.

Make your first review useful

Before taking a ticket, learn how the review queue works. The instructions for finding a theme say the queue lists older submissions first. The same guidance describes a brief first check of newer submissions for obvious problems that block approval. This first check only catches obvious blockers; reviewers still need to complete a full review.

For a full review, compare the theme with the current requirements and test it on your WordPress site. The official release guidance recommends tools such as Theme Check and testing with Theme Unit Test data, which supplies sample content for checking how a theme displays common page elements. Automated checks help identify issues, but they do not replace hands-on testing.

Write feedback that connects each finding to a specific requirement and explains what the author should change. Separate requirements from recommendations so the author can tell which changes affect directory approval. Draft your review in a text editor before posting it in Trac; that gives you a copy if you lose your session or refresh the page. The review-writing instructions say reviewers are expected to provide a first review within 48 hours after starting work, or tell the author when they need more time. That expectation applies after a reviewer takes on a submission, not to the time a new submission waits in the queue.

The Themes Team does not give a precise timeframe for a theme review. The Themes Team FAQ explains that the queue and manual review affect timing. If you are an author and your assigned reviewer has not responded for 48 hours, the FAQ describes how to contact a moderator; that response interval does not mean the review will be finished within 48 hours.

Submit a theme you built

Prepare a complete theme, check it against the latest requirements, and test it before uploading. The requirements cover areas such as licensing and secure handling of data. They also address accessibility and translation. A GPL-compatible license allows people to use, modify, and redistribute the theme under compatible terms. The directory also expects themes to focus on presentation: features such as custom post types, shortcodes, and forms belong in plugins because users may switch themes and still need those features.

Use the theme release guidance to check required files, documentation, and testing expectations, including the Theme Unit Test data. Then upload the theme ZIP through the WordPress.org submission route described in the submission instructions.

Reviewers may ask you to make changes. The release guidance says a submission with three or more distinct issues may be closed as not approved; you can correct the issues and submit again. This stated review policy does not guarantee that themes with fewer issues will pass. Check the live requirements before uploading because they provide the complete current standard.

Try other contribution paths

If reviewing code does not suit you, the Themes Team also needs help with issue triage, documentation, testing tools, and bundled themes. The triage guidance explains how contributors sort and prioritize work across theme-related tickets.

Start with a WordPress.org account. Join the team’s current Slack channel, read the requirements and onboarding pages, and set up a test site. Then observe the Trac queue before choosing a review task. If you take one on, record concrete findings and tell the author when you need more time.

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