Privacy Policy Page

1. Licensing & copyright

Themes must be compatible with the GNU General Public License

Although any GPL-compatible license is acceptable, using the same license as WordPress — “GPLv2 or later” — is strongly recommended.

All code, data, and images — anything in the theme zip file — must comply with the GPL or a GPL-Compatible license. Included third-party libraries, code, images, or otherwise, must be compatible.

For a specific list of compatible licenses, please read the GPL-Compatible license list on gnu.org https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses.

-Include copyright information for the theme itself. -Include license, copyright information, and source for all resources included, such as fonts or images. For assets that are in the public domain, the copyright information is excluded. -Provide a list of all resources in one file. -All code and design must be your own or legally yours. Cloning of designs is not acceptable. -Copyright statements on the front end must only display the user’s copyright, not the theme author’s copyright.

2. Privacy

Any tracking and collection of user data must be disabled by default and opt-in only.

Documentation on how any user data is collected, and used, needs to be included in the theme readme.txt file, preferably with a clearly stated privacy policy.

3. Accessibility

Skip links

Themes must include a mechanism that enables users to navigate directly to content or navigation on entering any given page. These links may be positioned off-screen initially but must be available to screen reader users and must be visible on focus for sighted keyboard navigators.

A minimally conforming skip link must:

• Be the first focusable element perceived by a user via a screen reader or keyboard navigation
• Be visible when keyboard focus moves to the link
• Move focus to the main content area of the page when activated

Notes: This only applies if there is something to skip past, such as a menu or larger header section or secondary widget area before the main content. In block themes, skip links are added automatically to the <main> element.

Keyboard navigation

Theme authors must provide visual keyboard focus highlighting in navigation menus and for form fields, submit buttons and text links. All controls and links must be reachable using the keyboard. All controls usable with the mouse must be usable with the keyboard, regardless of device and screen size. Including but not limited to responsive versions for small screens, mobile and other touch screen devices. Further reading.

Links within content and comments must be underlined

When links appear within a larger body of block-level content, they must be clearly distinguishable from surrounding content (Post content, comment content, text widgets, custom options with large blocks of texts). Links in navigation-like contexts (e.g. menus, lists of upcoming posts in widgets, grouped post meta data) do not need to be specifically distinguished from surrounding content. The underline is the only accepted method of indicating links within content. Bold, italicized, or color-differentiated text is ambiguous and will not pass.

If the theme has the tag ‘accessibility-ready’ then it needs to meet these additional requirements.

4. Code

There must not be any PHP or JavaScript errors, warnings, or notices.

The theme must be secure.

• Validate and/or sanitize untrusted data before entering it into the database
• Escape all untrusted data before output (See: Data Validation )

Provide a unique prefix for everything the theme defines in the public namespace, including options, functions, global variables, constants, post meta, wp_enqueue_script/style handle names, add_image_size names, wp_script_add_data keys, slugs/ids for new categories created with register_block_pattern_category etc. Menu locations and sidebar IDs are exceptions.

Do not use deprecated functions or constants.

5. Functionality and Features

Manipulating the preview on WordPress.org is not allowed and can result in suspension or your user account being terminated.

Admin notices:

• Use the admin_notices API for all notifications generated by the theme.
• Notices must be dismissible.
• Everything wrapped in the admin notice must follow core UI design for notices.

Do not:

• Place WordPress features behind a paywall
• Remove, hide, or otherwise block the admin bar from appearing
• Redirect on theme activation or modify the activation process
• Remove non presentational hooks

Do not include:

• Custom post types
• Custom blocks
• Custom roles
• Custom user contact methods
• Custom mime types
• Shortcodes
• Functionality that is not related to design and presentation

Examples of non presentational hooks

(examples will be placed here inside the details/summary block)

6. Plugins

Themes may only recommend plugins that are hosted on WordPress.org.

Plugins may only be installed by user action, not automatically.

Do not:

• Include zip files or plugins in the theme folder or download plugins automatically
• Include plugin functionality. If you are not sure if a feature is plugin territory, contact the team and ask first. themes@wordpress.org.

7. Naming, spelling and trademarks

The themes team can decline themes based on the name and can request that the name be changed, if they deem the name inappropriate or too similar to the name of an existing theme or brand.

• Theme names must not use: WordPress, Theme, Twenty*
• Spell “WordPress” correctly in all public-facing text: all one word, with both an uppercase W and P
• No violation of trademarks.

8. Language & internationalization

All text strings must be translatable using gettext, with the temporary exception of text in HTML template files.

Use the theme slug as the text-domain and add it to style.css. The theme slug is the name of the theme in lower case, with spaces replaced by a hyphen (-). It is also the folder name for the theme.

If the theme uses a framework then no more than 2 unique text domains may be used (like tgmpa, redux-framework, kirki or some other allowed framework)

Themes can use any language for text, but only use one language.

9. Files

Prepare your files:

• Themes must be complete at the time of submission.
• Remove code not intended for the free version of the theme.
• Remove directories such as .git, .svn, .hg, and .bzr.
• Make sure that only one type of line ending is used. If both DOS and UNIX line endings are used, this can cause problems with SVN and your theme or theme update will not be uploaded to the directory.
• If your theme is based on a starter theme like Underscores, make sure that all files are updated correctly.

(List of files that are not allowed will be included here in the details/summary block)

No remote resources are allowed without user consent

Include all scripts, images, videos and other resources in the theme zip file. The only exception to this requirement is Google Fonts.

Do not:

-Use CDN or similar services

-Fetch any files or data from a remote resource, including your own websites, without the user’s explicit consent.

This is because of GDRPR requirements and because remote resources can not be reviewed.

Main stylesheet

The headers in style.css needs to follow the guidelines and requirements for the main stylesheet in the Theme Developer Handbook.

The following headers are required: (example will be shown here in the details/summary block.)

Theme URI is optional. If used, it must be about the theme we’re hosting on WordPress.org.

Using WordPress.org in the Theme URI is reserved for the default themes (Twenty X).

Author URI is optional. If used, it must be a page or website about the author, author theme shop, or author project/development website.

Theme URI and Author URI must not be the same.

For a list of available tags see: Theme Tag List.

Readme.txt file

A valid readme.txt file must be included.

readme.txt example

(example will be shown here in the details/summary block.)

Stylesheets and scripts

When minified scripts or files are used, the original files must also be included in the theme folder.

Themes must use WordPress’ default libraries. WordPress includes a number of libraries such as jQuery. For security and stability reasons themes may not include those libraries in their own code. Instead themes must use the versions of those libraries packaged with WordPress.

For a list of all JavaScript libraries included in WordPress, please review Default Scripts Included and Registered by WordPress.

Images

Images that promote hate or violence or images that show children with recognizable facial or body features are not permitted.

Screenshot

• The screenshot must not look like an advertisement. The reviewer can subjectively ask you to change screenshots if they find that it is not appropriate.
• The screenshot must not be bigger than 1200 x 900px
• The ratio of width to height needs to be 4:3

10. Classic themes

Have a valid DOCTYPE declaration and include language_attributes().

Include:

• wp_head() – (immediately before )
• body_class() – (inside the body tag)
• wp_footer() – (immediately before ).
• wp_body_open(). – (immediately after ).
• post_class()
• wp_link_pages()
• add_theme_support( ‘title-tag’ )
• add_theme_support( ‘automatic-feed-links’ )

Call custom template files using get_template_part() or locate_template().

Display the correct content according to the front page setting (See explanation ).

Options and Settings

Use the Customizer for implementing theme options.

Use edit_theme_options capability for determining user permission to edit options, rather than relying on a role (e.g. administrator), or a different capability (e.g. edit_themes, manage_options).

Templates

If used in the theme, standard template files are required to be called by their respective function.

(example will be placed here inside the details/summary block)

11. Block themes

Include required files: Index.php, style.css, readme.txt, theme.json, and index.html inside a folder called block-templates.

Block templates must be complete and blocks may not have missing or incorrect closing tags.

12. Selling, credits, and links

Themes can include one single front-facing credit link, which is restricted to the Theme URI or Author URI defined in style.css Themes can also have an additional front-facing credit link pointing to WordPress.org

-Themes must not display “obtrusive” upselling -Themes must not display upselling on the front -Themes are not allowed to have affiliate URLs or links

13. Theme author and theme upload restrictions

Only submit one new theme at the time. You can submit unlimited updates for your existing themes that are in the theme directory.

Theme names cannot be “reserved” for future use or to protect brands.

Licensing of themes distributed outside the theme directory

If you distribute themes, you may only distribute themes that are 100% compatible with GPL. Otherwise you can not add themes to the WordPress.org Theme Directory (See explanation).

Example: If you have a Themeforest account and you’re selling themes on it, all those themes need to state on their sales page that they are 100% GPL compatible (Info).

Multiple Theme Author Accounts

You can have multiple accounts with the following restrictions: You can’t have more than one (1) open ticket in any of the trac reports/queues or under review. That means you can’t have one (1) theme ticket from an account and another one from a secondary account, simultaneously open in any of the queues. Failing to respect the above requirement will result in the closing of all tickets and not having the possibility to upload those themes again. Also, a 1 month no upload possibility for each ticket closed. Depending on the severity of the case, you might also end up with a permanent ban on all your accounts. To avoid penalties, the team requests that you disclose all your accounts by emailing us at themes[at]wordpress.org.