ACF PRO v6.8.0-beta1 is now available with Abilities API support.

Integration with the New WordPress Abilities API

This release includes support for the Abilities API, a brand-new API that arrived in WordPress 6.9, designed to bring a unified, secure, and machine-readable way for plugins and themes to expose their capabilities.

The beta provides full exposure of the ACF schema and data via this new mechanism. Crucially, this integration will enable compatible tools, such as Agentic AI and automation platforms, to create, read, and update ACF field groups, custom post types (CPTs), and taxonomies, as well as interact with the data within those items.

This establishes ACF data as an immediate, first-class resource for any tool that integrates with the WordPress Abilities API.

Key Benefits

• ACF is Future-Proofed for AI: By integrating with the WordPress Core Abilities API, ACF’s structured data becomes instantly discoverable, interoperable, and secure for the next generation of AI and automation tools.
• Enhanced Interoperability: It lays the groundwork for any other systems built on the new WordPress Core standard.
• Structured Data, Simplified: ACF’s rich content model is immediately available to these advanced tools, establishing ACF as a foundational component for building the most sophisticated agentic WordPress experiences.

ACF Capabilities

With this release we expose the following capabilities:

This list of abilities is not fully reflective of what will be shipped in ACF 6.8, as some abilities may be added, changed, or removed prior to the official release.

What Does This Enable?

By exposing ACF’s schema and data through the WordPress Abilities API, ACF 6.8 unlocks a range of new workflows powered by AI and automation tools, without bypassing the WordPress security or permission model.

Here are a few examples of what this makes possible:

• AI-Assisted Content Modeling: Tools can now inspect existing custom post types, taxonomies, and ACF field groups, then create or extend data models based on intent rather than manual configuration. This allows AI to help design and evolve structured content models, not just generate content.

• Programmatic SEO from Structured Data: Large datasets, such as CSV files of locations, services, or products, can be turned into fully structured WordPress content. AI tools can create the required data model in ACF, validate each entry against field definitions, and safely import content at scale.

• Controlled Bulk Content Operations: Automation tools can query and update ACF-powered content using officially exposed capabilities. This enables responsible bulk operations – such as normalizing field values or updating metadata- while respecting validation rules and access controls.

• Rapid Prototyping and Demo Sites: Developers and agencies can generate realistic demo sites in minutes. Tools can create post types, taxonomies, field groups, and seed content automatically, dramatically reducing setup time for prototypes and client demos.

These examples are only the beginning. ACF 6.8 focuses on establishing the foundation that allows compatible tools to safely understand and interact with WordPress content models in a structured, future-proof way.

How Tools Integrate with ACF 6.8

ACF 6.8 does not introduce a new AI tool or workflow of its own. Instead, it exposes ACF’s schema and data through the WordPress Abilities API, allowing compatible external tools to integrate with WordPress in a secure, standardized way.

For example, an agentic development tool such as Claude Code can be connected to a WordPress site running 6.9 using an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. Once connected, the tool can:

• Discover which ACF field groups, post types, and taxonomies allow AI access
• Create or modify ACF field groups using official capabilities
• Query, create, and update content that uses ACF fields
• Respect WordPress permissions and ACF’s AI access controls

From the tool’s perspective, ACF becomes a structured, machine-readable content model rather than a collection of admin screens.

ACF 6.8 focuses on providing the capabilities layer that makes these integrations possible. Specific setup steps will vary depending on the tool being used.

Testing the Beta

As it is a beta release, we do not recommend using this on production sites, but have released it for the broader ACF community who wish to test on development and staging environments so we can gather feedback for the general release.

This is a PRO only release. To access this release, please log in to your account and navigate to the “Licenses” page. You can then select “6.8.0-beta1″ from the available downloads or click on the ‘Install pre-release version’ tab for full instructions.

Learn more about testing pre-release versions of ACF PRO.

Enabling ACF AI

Once you’ve installed the beta, you will need to opt-in to the new AI features by adding the following filter to your theme’s functions.php or a custom plugin:

add_filter( 'acf/settings/enable_acf_ai', '__return_true' );

This filter enables the abilities and adds a new “ACF AI” tab. For existing field groups, post types, and taxonomies, the AI access setting will be off, requiring a manual opt-in. Any new items created will have the setting enabled by default.

To hear about future pre-release versions as they are released, sign up to our Beta news email list.

For the latest ACF news, follow us on X @wp_acf.

Changelog

• New – ACF now supports the WordPress Abilities API, with abilities for field groups, post types, and taxonomies

The post ACF PRO 6.8 Beta 1 appeared first on ACF.

Please find the release notes below. And for the latest ACF news, follow us on Twitter @wp_acf.

Changelog

PRO Only Release

• Fix – Fields in V3 Blocks used as an InnerBlock are now clickable
• Fix – V3 Blocks with a script tag in the render template no longer crash in the editor
• Fix – V3 Blocks with Inline Editing enabled no longer crash the browser tab in some scenarios
• Fix – V3 Blocks with Inline Editing enabled used as an InnerBlock no longer update the field values of the parent block
• Fix – Quickly closing the expanded editor for V3 blocks will no longer prevent field values from being updated
• Fix – Posts with V3 blocks can now be saved without clicking the block

The post ACF PRO 6.7.0.2 appeared first on ACF.

This release introduces Inline Editing, a groundbreaking feature for ACF Blocks, allowing content editors to edit block field data by clicking directly on what they want to edit in the block preview area, without requiring any extra code or JavaScript by the block creator.

Inline Editing for ACF Blocks

Inline Editing is an opt-in feature for ACF Blocks that are built using version 3. It greatly simplifies the editing experience of sites that use ACF Blocks, making ACF Blocks much easier to edit, and similar to native blocks. ACF Blocks turn the block editor into a powerful site editing tool without developers compromising on the design integrity and builds of their sites, all the while giving content editors an easy, flexible, and controlled editing experience.

Two Types of Inline Editing

Inline Editing provides two distinct experiences for content creators, depending on the ACF field’s data type:

• Text Editable: Offers the most native-like feel, allowing editors to type directly into an element within the block preview area. This functionality is primarily available for Text and Text Area fields.
• Toolbar Editable: Used for all other supported field types (excluding Repeaters and Flexible Content fields and their subfields). When a field is clicked, a pop-up toolbar appears where the content can be edited using the familiar ACF field editing UI.

An example of a Text Editable field:

An example of a Toolbar Editable field:

Field Type Support

Here’s a breakdown of what editing experiences are available for each field type. We plan to improve the inline editing experience for fields that have subfields like the Repeater. The Expanded Editing Panel was introduced in ACF 6.6 to replace ‘Edit’ mode for blocks and to improve on the sidebar editing experience.

Field Type	Text Editing	Toolbar Editing	Expanded Editing Panel
Text
Text Area
Number
Range
Email
URL
Password
Image
File
WYSIWYG Editor
oEmbed
Gallery
Select
Checkbox
Radio Button
Button Group
True/False
Link
Page Link
Post Object
Relationship
Taxonomy
User
Google Map
Date Picker
Date Time Picker
Time Picker
Color Picker
Message
Accordion
Tab
Group
Repeater
Flexible Content
Clone

How to Enable Inline Editing

To take advantage of Inline Editing, your blocks must be using version 3 of ACF Blocks. From there, you have two options to enable Inline Editing for your blocks.

To enable it automatically for simple elements, set autoInlineEditing to true in your block’s block.json file.

    "acf": {
    "blockVersion": 3,
    "autoInlineEditing": true
}

With this enabled, ACF will automatically apply inline editing to any HTML elements where an ACF field’s value is the only thing within it, or to HTML attributes whose value comes directly from an ACF field (e.g., an tag’s src).

For those who want more control, two helper functions can be used in your block render template:

acf_inline_text_editing_attrs(): Use this to make an element directly editable like a Text field.

<h3 <?php echo acf_inline_text_editing_attrs( 'my_text_field' ); ?>>
    <?php echo esc_html( get_field( 'my_text_field' ) ); ?>
</h3>

acf_inline_toolbar_editing_attrs(): Use this to make an element pop up a toolbar when clicked.

<img src="some-image.png" <?php echo acf_inline_toolbar_editing_attrs( array(
    'my_image_field'
) ); ?> />

You can mix both auto and manual fields. If you want complete manual control, set autoInlineEditing to false in your block.json.

There are multiple configuration options for Inline Editing. Read our documentation to get started

Inline Editing is only available to ACF Blocks that are using version 3. Learn more about upgrading your blocks to v3.

ACF Blocks is a feature only available in ACF PRO.

And More

For a full list of all the changes in this release, check out the ACF 6.7 changelog.

What’s Next?

We’re already hard at work on the next version of ACF, with more new features and improvements planned – including support for the WordPress Abilities API, allowing Agentic AI and automation platforms to fully utilize your content.

If you want to be the first to hear about pre-release versions of these new features for testing, sign up to our beta news email list.

If there’s features or improvements you’d love to see in ACF, please drop them into our feedback board and vote on others that are important to you.

Keep up to date with what we’re working on in our monthly ACF Chat Fridays office hours.

Thanks to everyone in the ACF community who helped make this release possible!

Are you excited about the new features and improvements in ACF 6.7? Let us know in the comments below or on X.

The post ACF 6.7 Release – Meet Inline Editing for ACF Blocks appeared first on ACF.

ACF PRO v6.7.0-beta1 is now available with the much anticipated Inline Editing feature for ACF Blocks.

ACF 6.7 has been released! Read the release post.

Testing the Beta

This is a PRO only release. To access this release, please log in to your account and navigate to the “Licenses” page. You can then select “6.7.0-beta1″ from the available downloads or click on the ‘Install pre-release version’ tab for full instructions.

As it is a beta release, we do not recommend using this on production sites, but have released it for the broader ACF community who wish to test on development and staging environments so we can gather feedback for the general release.

To hear about future pre-release versions as they are released, sign up to our Beta news email list.

For the latest ACF news, follow us on X @wp_acf.

Changelog

• New – ACF Blocks V3 now supports Inline Editing — edit your block content directly in place, right inside the editor. Just opt in to enable it.

The post ACF PRO 6.7 Beta 1 appeared first on ACF.

Please find the release notes below. And for the latest ACF news, follow us on Twitter @wp_acf.

Changelog

• Enhancement – Added a new convert_field_name_to_lowercase JS filter to allow uppercase letters in ACF field names
• Enhancement – The form for V3 Blocks can now be optionally hidden from the sidebar via a new hideFieldsInSidebar setting in block.json
• Enhancement – V3 Blocks now display an “Open Expanded Editor” button in the sidebar for easier access to the full edit form
• Fix – The buttons to reorder ACF metaboxes are no longer hidden for metaboxes in the block editor sidebar
• Fix – V3 Blocks now display a fallback message when the block preview can’t be rendered due to invalid HTML being used in field values
• Fix – V3 Blocks no longer show a loading spinner when preloaded
• Fix – V3 Blocks now save default field values even if the block wasn’t interacted with before saving
• Fix – Pressing CMD/CTRL + Z no longer causes the fields to disappear in V3 Blocks
• Fix – The form for V3 Blocks now opens on the left side in RTL languages

The post ACF 6.6.2 appeared first on ACF.

Please find the release notes below. And for the latest ACF news, follow us on Twitter @wp_acf.

Changelog

• Fix – The Color Picker palette now displays correctly with a larger number of custom palette colors
• Fix – The WYSIWYG field no longer displays an extra textarea in ACF Blocks
• Fix – The type signature of the ACF Blocks render function now matches prior to 6.6, resolving potential type hinting errors
• Fix – V3 Blocks now correctly update the block preview when changing text controls
• Fix – V3 Blocks now work correctly in the Widget block editor
• Fix – V3 Blocks no longer render an extra hidden div into the block editor
• Fix – Fields on V3 blocks now consistently render properly when switching between “Post” and “Block” view in the sidebar

The post ACF 6.6.1 appeared first on ACF.

This release introduces the all-new ACF Blocks V3, a powerful evolution from Version 2, paving the way for the future of ACF Blocks without requiring changes to how you build blocks. We’ve also packed in highly requested features like a separate display title for field groups and a customizable Color Picker, plus a host of other improvements and bug fixes.

Introducing ACF Blocks V3

ACF Blocks V3 is a major step forward for creating and managing custom blocks with ACF. We’ve completely rethought the editing experience to solve the UX issues of the old inline “Edit” mode, giving you more space to manage your fields and creating a workflow that feels more native to WordPress.

Previously, editing an ACF Block meant the block’s preview was replaced entirely by an inline form. While this provided direct access to the fields, it took the block out of its visual context, making it difficult to see how your changes would look alongside other content.

A key reason for this change is how modern WordPress works. To ensure a block’s preview is accurate, WordPress now renders each block within its own <iframe>. This isolates the block from the admin’s styles to prevent them from bleeding into the frontend style of the blocks, but it also created technical challenges for our old inline editing form.

In ACF Blocks V3, the fields now open in a larger, dedicated expanded editor panel, keeping the block’s preview visible in the editor. This means developers can enjoy the full benefits of WordPress’s block <iframe> architecture while giving content editors a much-improved, streamlined experience. This change also allows for significantly more space for your fields – a game-changer for complex fields like Repeaters and Galleries.

But ACF Blocks V3 is more than just a better editing experience today. It also lays the technical groundwork for a host of powerful features we have planned, including the highly anticipated ‘Inline Editing’ of block data directly in the preview. We recently demoed this upcoming feature in an episode of ACF Chat Fridays, check it out to see what the future of ACF Blocks looks like.

To start using ACF Blocks V3, you’ll need to opt-in on a per-block basis. In your block’s block.json file, simply set the "blockVersion" under the "acf" key to 3:

{
    "name": "acf/my-block",
    "title": "My Block",
    "description": "My Custom Block that uses ACF fields.",
    "acf": {
        "blockVersion": 3
    }
}

For more information on ACF Blocks V3, see our documentation.

Staying on ACF Blocks V2

We understand that many developers have built powerful editing experiences for clients centered around the current ‘edit’ mode, sometimes even forgoing a preview template for headless or highly customized setups. For this reason, ACF Blocks V3 is an opt-in feature. If you do nothing, your blocks will continue to function exactly as they do now using V2. There is no immediate need to upgrade.

However, to take advantage of the new expanded editing UI and upcoming features like inline editing, blocks will need to be on V3. We encourage developers to start considering an upgrade path for their V2 blocks, especially as WordPress core will eventually be mandating the use of v3/iframe blocks (potentially with WordPress 7.0 in 2026). This typically involves ensuring your blocks have a PHP template for rendering a preview in the editor, and communicating the new editing experience with your content editors. This will not only prepare you for the future of ACF Blocks but also align your blocks more closely with the native WordPress editing experience.

Clarify Field Groups with Display Titles

Have you ever created a field group with a name that makes perfect sense to you as the site creator, but might be confusing for your content authors? We’ve got you covered.

In ACF 6.6, you can now give a field group a separate Display Title. This title will be shown to content authors when they are editing a post, page, or custom post type, while the original title will still be used in the ACF admin.

To use this feature, simply edit your field group and look for the “Display Title” field under “Settings” > “Group Settings”.

Custom Palettes for the Color Picker

The Color Picker field just got a lot more flexible. In ACF 6.6, you can now define a custom color palette for the field, ensuring that your content authors are always using your brand’s colors.

You can also disable the color wheel to restrict users to only the colors in your palette. Additionally, if your theme uses a theme.json file, the Color Picker can automatically pull the colors defined there.

To customize the Color Picker, edit the field and navigate to the “Presentation” tab. You can add a Color Palette by entering a comma-separated list of hex codes.

Required WordPress Version Change

As of ACF and ACF PRO 6.6, the minimum required WordPress version is now 6.2. We don’t take increasing the minimum version lightly, but this change was necessary to support the new features and improvements in this release, most notably ACF Blocks V3. The new block editing experience relies on more modern WordPress block APIs that are only available in recent versions.

If you are running a version of WordPress lower than 6.2, you will see a warning message in your dashboard after updating to ACF 6.6.

And More

For a full list of all the changes in this release, check out the ACF 6.6 changelog.

What’s Next?

We’re already hard at work on the next version of ACF, with more new features and improvements planned – including the much anticipated Inline Editing for ACF Blocks.

If you want to be the first to hear about pre-release versions of these new features for testing, sign up to our beta news email list.

If there’s features or improvements you’d love to see in ACF, please drop them into our feedback board and vote on others that are important to you.

Keep up to date with what we’re working on in our monthly ACF Chat Fridays office hours.

Thanks to everyone in the ACF community who helped make this release possible!

Are you excited about the new features and improvements in ACF 6.6? Let us know in the comments below or on X.

The post ACF 6.6 Release – Build Better Blocks with ACF Blocks V3 appeared first on ACF.

Please find the release notes below. And for the latest ACF news, follow us on Twitter @wp_acf.

Changelog

• Enhancement – The Flexible Content “Expand All” and “Collapse All” button now appear correctly on mobile
• Enhancement – The Flexible Content delete layout button is now back in the main layout header, making it easier to delete layouts
• Enhancement – The JSON import tool now limits the selectable files to JSON files
• Fix – Disabled Flexible Content layouts are no longer counted towards min/max layout validation
• Fix – The top “Add Row” button for layouts is now disabled when layouts have reached the max layouts validation
• Fix – The per-layout “Add Row” and “Duplicate Layout” buttons are now disabled when layouts have reached the max layouts validation
• Fix – Disabling Flexible Content layouts no longer disables layouts in cloned Flexible Content fields using a different post ID on the same page
• Fix – Flexible Content “Add Layout” menu is no longer hidden by some field types
• Fix – Flexible Content layout names can now allow some safe HTML
• Fix – When creating a temporary post type during import, ACF now correctly sets the ACF post type, rather than defaulting to post
• Fix – ACF PRO updates are now shown even when no other plugins have an update available

The post ACF 6.5.1 appeared first on ACF.

This release brings a host of UX improvements to the Flexible Content field in ACF PRO – giving content editors more clarity, control, and speed when managing complex pages. As well as other improvements and bug fixes.

Flexible Content Gets Even Better

Flexible Content remains one of ACF PRO’s most powerful and widely used field types. In 6.5, we’ve focused on making it even easier to work with – especially for content editors managing large or complex pages.

Let’s take a closer look at the four new Flexible Content features included in this release.

Rename Layouts in the Editor

You can now rename each layout directly in the post editor. This doesn’t affect the layout key – it simply gives editors a way to label sections in a way that’s meaningful to them, like “Pricing CTA” or “Headphone Product Grid”.

This is especially helpful on long pages where layouts may look similar in structure but serve different purposes. It’s particularly useful when you have multiple instances of the same layout – renaming helps editors avoid confusion by clearly identifying which layout is which.

Disable Layouts Without Deleting Content

Layouts can now be disabled without needing to delete them. Disabled layouts remain visible in the editor and retain all their data, but they won’t be rendered on the frontend.

This is ideal for staging content, archiving old sections, or temporarily hiding parts of a page – all without losing work or needing to recreate layouts later.

Highlight the Active Layout During Editing

When editing a field inside a Flexible Content layout, that layout is now visually highlighted in the editor.

This gives content editors a clearer sense of where they are in the page structure – particularly useful when working with long or complex Flexible Content fields.

Collapse and Expand Layouts in Bulk

You can now collapse or expand all layouts within a Flexible Content field at once.

Whether you want to tidy up the editor view or expand everything to get a better overview, this improvement makes navigating and managing layouts much faster.

Other Improvements

Date and Date Time Picker fields now include a new option to default to the current date. This small change can help streamline workflows and reduce clicks.

We’ve also removed the use of dynamic class properties across ACF’s codebase. This eliminates PHP 8.2 deprecation warnings in development environments, making it easier to maintain compatibility with modern PHP versions.

And More

To see a full list of all the updates, take a look at the changelog.

What’s Next

The team are working hard on some major features and improvements coming to later releases of ACF. These include a significantly improved sidebar editing experience for custom fields attached to an ACF Block, and a huge improvement to how content editors can edit ACF Blocks fields directly in the block editor.

If you want to be the first to hear about pre-release versions of these new features for testing, sign up to our beta news email list.

If there’s features or improvements you’d love to see in ACF, please drop them into our feedback board and vote on others that are important to you.

Keep up to date with what we’re working on in our monthly ACF Chat Fridays office hours.

Thanks to everyone in the ACF community who helped make this release possible!

Are you excited about the new features and improvements in ACF 6.5? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter.

The post ACF 6.5 Release – Flexible Content, Now Easier to Edit appeared first on ACF.

As it is a release candidate, we do not recommend using this on production sites, but have released it for the broader ACF community who wish to test on development and staging environments.

Testing the Release Candidate

To access this release, please log in to your account and navigate to the “Licenses” page. You can then select “6.5.0-RC1” from the available downloads or click on the ‘Install pre-release version’ tab for full instructions.

To hear about future pre-release versions as they are released, sign up to our Beta news email list.

What’s Next

We’re continuing work on ACF & ACF PRO 6.5 and expect to have another update available soon, which will contain any feedback implemented from this RC as well as some further improvements and bugfixes.

For the latest ACF news, follow us on X @wp_acf.

Changelog

• New – Flexible Content layouts can now be renamed in the post editor, giving content editors better clarity when managing layouts
• New – Flexible Content layouts can now be disabled, preventing them from rendering on the frontend without needing to delete their data
• New – Flexible Content layouts can now be collapsed and expanded in bulk for faster content editing
• New – Editing a Flexible Content layout now highlights the layout being edited, making it easier to identify
• New – The Date and Date Time Picker fields can now be configured to default to the current date
• Fix – Custom Icon Picker tabs now work correctly when used inside an ACF Block
• Fix – Duplicating a Field Group no longer causes a fatal error when using Russian translations
• Fix – ACF classes no longer use dynamic class properties, improving compatibility with PHP 8.2+
• Fix – ACF PRO no longer shows an update available immediately after updating to the latest version
• Fix – Field group metabox collapse and expand buttons are no longer misaligned in the post editor
• Fix – The ACF Site Health section no longer causes a PHP warning when field group location rules are incomplete

The post ACF PRO 6.5 Release Candidate 1 appeared first on ACF.