Announcing WP Rig v3.4.2: Built for Speed, Style, and Submission

The WP Rig team is thrilled to announce the official release of WP Rig v3.4.2!

WP Rig has always been the premier developer-first starter theme and build system for WordPress. With v3.4.2, we’re taking performance, layout sophistication, and theme compliance to the next level. This release introduces game-changing server-side rendering speeds, cutting-edge CSS layouts, and powerful local auditing tools designed to get your theme into the official WordPress.org Directory on day one.

Here is a look at what makes WP Rig v3.4.2 our most exciting release yet.

1. Blazing-Fast Server Speeds with Block Manifests (Issue #936)

Bespoke block-based WordPress themes often suffer from a hidden bottleneck: runtime filesystem scanning. On every page load, WordPress has to scan directories, locate individual block.json files, and parse them with CPU-intensive JSON decoding.

WP Rig v3.4.2 completely eliminates this runtime overhead by integrating with modern WordPress 6.7 and 6.8 Block Metadata Collections.

• Pre-Compiled Manifests: During npm run build, WP Rig compiles all your block configurations into a single, high-performance PHP file (assets/blocks/blocks-manifest.php).
• In-Memory Performance: Because the manifest is a native PHP array, it caches directly in your server’s OPcache. WordPress reads your entire block library directly from memory almost instantly—completely bypassing the filesystem.
• Resilient Fallback Pipeline: A smart 3-tier loader utilizes modern WordPress 6.8+ batch loading, falls back to WordPress 6.7 in-memory collections, and gracefully drops back to traditional scanning on older WordPress versions or local dev setups.

2. Viewport-Aware, Zero-Flicker Submenus (Issue #845)

We have resolved the long-standing issue of dropdown navigation menus overflowing the edge of the viewport using an ultra-modern hybrid positioning system:

• CSS Anchor Positioning: For modern browsers, WP Rig uses native CSS Anchor Positioning to dynamically align submenus relative to their parents. This delivers absolute zero layout flicker and zero JavaScript execution.
• Optimized TypeScript Fallback: For older browsers, a highly optimized Intersection Observer script seamlessly detects potential overflows and flips submenu alignment without taxing browser paint cycles.

3. Demystifying the Theme Directory: Local Submission Auditing

Passing the official WordPress.org Theme Directory review is notoriously challenging. To take the guesswork out of compliance, WP Rig v3.4.2 introduces an automated local submission readiness platform!

We have codified strict theme review guidelines directly into an executable suite of commands:

• npm run audit:theme-review: Instantly checks your active theme for metadata accuracy, banned files, illegal plugin-territory code (like inline block registration), translation errors, and security issues.
• npm run bundle:wporg: Compiles a clean, production-ready .zip archive—stripping all source files (src/, .ai/, etc.)—and automatically audits the final zip to ensure it is 100% submission-ready.
• wp rig review-setup: Integrates with WP-CLI to install the official Theme Check and Theme Sniffer plugins locally, configure developer runtime logs, and import the official Theme Unit Test data for comprehensive visual QA.

4. Developer Quality of Life & Polish

We’ve also packed this release with features to make your daily coding workflow faster and more enjoyable:

• Locked Mobile Menus: Hold Alt (or Option on macOS) while toggling the mobile menu in block-based dev to lock it open. It will stay pinned to the screen even when browser Developer Tools steal focus.
• Single Source of Truth Breakpoints (Issue #925): Define --mobile-breakpoint as a CSS Custom Property. It is dynamically parsed and shared by both CSS and TypeScript, completely removing magic numbers.
• Variable Font Support: Refactored font handling natively supports variable fonts and optimizes Google Fonts query generation to ensure faster rendering.
• Modern Workspace Alignment: Unified Prettier, ESLint, and EditorConfig rules; block schema validation; PHP-only block scaffolding for WordPress 7.0; and the addition of ergebnis/agent-detector to help AI agents adapt to your local container environments.

Try WP Rig v3.4.2 Today!

Experience the ultimate blend of modern developer tooling, server-side speed, and bulletproof compliance. Getting started takes less than a minute:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/wprig/wprig.git my-theme
cd my-theme
# Install dependencies and start the modern dev server
bun run rig-init:bun
bun start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/wprig/wprig.git my-theme
cd my-theme

# Install dependencies and start the modern dev server
bun run rig-init:bun
bun start

Try WP Rig v3.4.2 today, and watch your build times, server-side rendering speeds, and theme audit errors vanish! 🚀

Love WP Rig? Support the project by starring us on GitHub and sharing this release with your dev networks!