A site’s voice and visual standards can become useful working context for the people and AI tools creating its content. WordPress.com Guidelines gives you a practical story to explore: how administrators record those preferences, how the WordPress Agent uses them, and how the site owner stays in control. For audiences managing a brand or collaborating on a website, the value is in making those choices specific, reusable, and easy to revise.
At a glance
- What it is: A persistent set of site standards.
Administrators define guidance for site purpose, copy, images, blocks, and additional team rules. - Where it lives: Settings > Guidelines
The screen is available across WordPress.com sites. - Why it matters: Less repetitive prompting.
The WordPress Agent can use the same stored context instead of asking users to restate their brand each time. - User control: Editable and optional.
Users can write, revise, import, export, accept, or dismiss suggestions. Guidelines provide context, not hard restrictions, and the user always has final say.
Getting started
Setup instructions
Set up content guidelines
wordpress.com/support/guidelines-settings/
View the setup guide
Plan requirement
A WordPress.com site administrator.
AI-generated suggestions require an eligible paid plan. Free sites see an upgrade path.
Core talking points
Tell your site what matters
Guidelines can capture site purpose and audience, voice and formatting preferences, image standards, block-specific instructions, and additional team rules.
Start with a draft, then stay in control
On eligible paid plans, AI can read existing site content and suggest guidelines. Each suggestion can be accepted, dismissed, and edited before it is saved.
Use shared context
When collaborators and the WordPress Agent work on the site, Guidelines can provide a common reference for brand voice and content standards.
Keep the memory portable
Administrators can export Guidelines as a JSON file, import them to replace the current set, and use revision history to restore earlier versions.
Make WordPress Agent output more specific
Guidelines give the WordPress Agent concrete preferences, while users remain free to edit the result and always have final say.
Update as the brand changes
Guidelines are not a one-time lock. Review and revise them as the site’s voice, visual identity, or content strategy evolves.
“You know your brand. Now your site does too.”
What to emphasize, and what to avoid
Emphasize
- Memory stored with the site, not trapped in one conversation.
- Confidence, clarity, consistency, and less repetition.
- Specific, editable guidance for copy, images, blocks, and site-wide goals.
- The user always has final say.
- Guidelines work with the WordPress Agent in the editor, via Telegram, and via email.
Avoid
- Do not say Guidelines is coming to WordPress Core.
- Do not imply that AI tools other than the WordPress Agent use Guidelines today.
- Do not imply that AI-generated Guidelines are free. That feature requires an eligible paid plan.
- Do not demo personality or cross-surface memory unless it genuinely works in the selected experience.
Content angles
Written comparisons
Where brand context lives and how it is shared.
Site-based Guidelines and context kept in a separate chat tool offer a concrete comparison lens. Consider where content is created, how standards reach collaborators, and how the user retains editorial control. Guidelines provide context rather than hard restrictions, and users can revise them as their needs change.
Reviews and explainers
The choices behind a useful set of guidelines.
The public setup guide explains the five sections and gives you a way to explore practical rules without assuming paid access. AI-assisted drafting requires an eligible paid plan. Accepting, dismissing, editing, importing, exporting, and restoring revisions provide specific controls to examine or explain from the documentation.
Video and streaming
One saved rule and the work it informs.
On an eligible test site, a rule in Settings > Guidelines gives you a focused demonstration. Show the WordPress Agent using that context in the editor, Telegram, or email only where it works in the selected experience. Without that access, the public setup path supports a walkthrough of what an administrator can prepare.
Naming and brand usage
Keep the terms distinct
Guidelines is the stored memory and set of site standards. WordPress Agent uses that context in the editor, via Telegram, and via email.
Use the product name precisely
Write WordPress.com when referring to the hosted service. Do not substitute WordPress.org or describe them as the same entity.
Resources and links
Set up content guidelines · Enable and use the WordPress Agent
