Guidelines CPT: Rename references from content guidelines to guidelines

[iamchughmayank]

What?

Follow-up to #77147 (CPT slug rename). See #76384.

Renames all internal references from "Content Guidelines" to "Guidelines" — class names, file names, directories, experiment flag, REST base, Redux store, CSS class prefix, meta keys, and route package name.

Why?

Before the 22.7 release, the public-facing name was simplified from "Content Guidelines" to just "Guidelines" — recognizing the feature extends beyond content to design guidelines, coding standards, and more (announcement
post).

In #77147, the CPT slug was aligned to wp_guideline. As noted in the review, the rest of the code still referenced the old "Content Guidelines" naming. This PR completes that
alignment.

How?

PHP:

• Classes: Gutenberg_Content_Guidelines_* → Gutenberg_Guidelines_*
• Files: class-gutenberg-content-guidelines-* → class-gutenberg-guidelines-*
• Directory: lib/experimental/content-guidelines/ → lib/experimental/guidelines/
• Functions: gutenberg_*_content_guidelines_* → gutenberg_*_guidelines_*

Identifiers:

• Experiment flag: gutenberg-content-guidelines → gutenberg-guidelines
• REST base: content-guidelines → guidelines
• Meta keys: _content_guideline_* → _guideline_*
• Redux store: core/content-guidelines → core/guidelines
• CSS prefix: .content-guidelines__ → .guidelines__
• Package: @wordpress/content-guidelines-route → @wordpress/guidelines-route

Unchanged: Admin page slug (guidelines-wp-admin), render function names that already use "guidelines" without "content".

Breaking Changes

This PR renames all internal identifiers for the Guidelines feature. Sites with the experiment
already enabled will be affected:

What breaks:

• The experiment flag changed from gutenberg-content-guidelines to gutenberg-guidelines —
  users will need to re-enable the experiment in Settings > Experiments
• Meta keys changed from _content_guideline_* to _guideline_* — previously saved guidelines
  will not load under the new keys. Users will need to re-enter their guidelines.
• REST endpoint moved from /wp/v2/content-guidelines to /wp/v2/guidelines
• Redux store renamed from core/content-guidelines to core/guidelines

Impact: Low — the feature is behind an experimental flag in early stages. Users are requested to re-enable the experiment and re-setup the guidelines.

Testing Instructions

Setup: npm run wp-env start

1. Navigate to Settings > Experiments, enable Guidelines, save.
2. Navigate to Settings > Guidelines.
3. Add text in Copy and Images fields, click Save.
4. Refresh — verify saved guidelines load correctly.
5. In browser devtools (Network tab), verify the fetch to /wp/v2/guidelines returns data while on the Guidelines admin page.
6. Run PHPUnit tests: vendor/bin/phpunit --filter Gutenberg_Guidelines — all 31 tests pass.
7. Run e2e tests: npm run test:e2e -- test/e2e/specs/admin/guidelines.spec.js — all 3 tests pass.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

No special keyboard testing required.

Screenshots or screencast

No visual changes.

Use of AI Tools

Claude Opus used for planning the rename scope and executing the find-and-replace across the codebase.

[iamchughmayank]

Since this is experimental feature, perhaps, the Core back port may not be required. I understand that adding a specific label should skip the CI check failure of "Verify Core Backport"

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Co-authored-by: iamchughmayank <iamchughmayank@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: aagam-shah <aagam94@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: gziolo <gziolo@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: aswasif007 <aswasif007@git.wordpress.org>

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[gziolo]

Nice, thank you for working on the follow-up. The changes are straightforward, so it mostly needs some testing.

[aagam-shah]

Nice cleanup @iamchughmayank — the mechanical rename is thorough and consistent across PHP, JS, SCSS, and tests. A couple of concerns:

Incomplete JS/TS internal rename: The store STORE_NAME and CSS classes were renamed, but all JS/TS identifiers still say "ContentGuidelines" — fetchContentGuidelines, ContentGuidelinesState, coreContentGuidelinesStore, etc. Not blocking since these are private to the route package, but worth noting whether this is intentional or a follow-up.

Nit: package-lock.json includes an unrelated @babel/eslint-parser version hoist — lockfile regeneration noise.

[aswasif007]

Few observations:

• The rest_base rename from content-guidelines to guidelines and meta key prefix rename from content_guideline to guideline are breaking changes for any existing stored data. Posts saved with old meta keys won't be readable under the new keys without a migration. I supposed we already know that and fine with it, but still raising just in case.
• Four JSDoc/inline comments in the codebase still reference "content guidelines" instead of "guidelines":
  api.ts ~L113: * Opens file selector, reads the selected file and imports the content guidelines.
  api.ts ~L114: * @param file Content Guidelines JSON file
  api.ts ~L177: * Exports the content guidelines as a JSON file.
  stage.tsx ~L66: // Populate the store with the content guidelines.

[iamchughmayank]

Few observations:

• The rest_base rename from content-guidelines to guidelines and meta key prefix rename from content_guideline to guideline are breaking changes for any existing stored data. Posts saved with old meta keys won't be readable under the new keys without a migration. I supposed we already know that and fine with it, but still raising just in case.
• Four JSDoc/inline comments in the codebase still reference "content guidelines" instead of "guidelines":
  api.ts ~L113: * Opens file selector, reads the selected file and imports the content guidelines.
  api.ts ~L114: * @param file Content Guidelines JSON file
  api.ts ~L177: * Exports the content guidelines as a JSON file.
  stage.tsx ~L66: // Populate the store with the content guidelines.

Thanks, @aswasif007
There is an ongoing conversation ( Slack ) on the topic of meta key prefix. Do you have inputs on how can we validate the real world impact? How many sites have setup the guidelines that will "break" and may require setting up. Given the feature is experimental, do you think it is of less impact?

Additionally, thanks for pointing out the pending changes. I have added those.

[gziolo]

Nice cleanup overall — the rename is thorough and consistent, and the earlier JS/TS identifier concern from @aagam-shah has been addressed in the latest commit.

One suggestion on the experiment flag rename:

Renaming gutenberg-content-guidelines → gutenberg-guidelines also changes the persisted key under the gutenberg-experiments option, so anyone who had the experiment enabled will silently see it disabled after upgrading. Since this is low-cost to avoid, it might be worth keeping the stored key as the legacy gutenberg-content-guidelines (i.e. pass the old id to add_settings_field and gutenberg_is_experiment_enabled()) while all other symbols, REST base, meta keys, etc. move to the clean name. That preserves existing enablers without constraining the internal naming.

That said — this is acceptable this early in the experimentation phase while we're still iterating on the final API design. If we go ahead with the rename as-is, it's worth calling out in the Gutenberg release post on make.wordpress.org/core so folks know that previously saved guideline content stored under _content_guideline_* meta keys won't be picked up by the new _guideline_* keys). The PR is already correctly labeled [Type] Breaking Change. A summary in the PR description covering consequences would also help testers.

[iamchughmayank]

Nice cleanup overall — the rename is thorough and consistent, and the earlier JS/TS identifier concern from @aagam-shah has been addressed in the latest commit.

One suggestion on the experiment flag rename:

Renaming gutenberg-content-guidelines → gutenberg-guidelines also changes the persisted key under the gutenberg-experiments option, so anyone who had the experiment enabled will silently see it disabled after upgrading. Since this is low-cost to avoid, it might be worth keeping the stored key as the legacy gutenberg-content-guidelines (i.e. pass the old id to add_settings_field and gutenberg_is_experiment_enabled()) while all other symbols, REST base, meta keys, etc. move to the clean name. That preserves existing enablers without constraining the internal naming.

That said — this is acceptable this early in the experimentation phase while we're still iterating on the final API design. If we go ahead with the rename as-is, it's worth calling out in the Gutenberg release post on make.wordpress.org/core so folks know that previously saved guideline content stored under _content_guideline_* meta keys won't be picked up by the new _guideline_* keys). The PR is already correctly labeled [Type] Breaking Change. A summary in the PR description covering consequences would also help testers.

Thanks, @gziolo ! I am slightly leaning towards changing the persisted key. Although it will be a breaking change but a clean pivot and complete rename may benefit in long run to avoid any confusion. Feels like the correct time to do it. However, I will let @aagam-shah chime in here. If it is okay to go ahead, I will update the summary of the PR description to include the breaking change detail.

[aagam-shah]

🚢