Automattic has introduced Telex, an experimental tool that generates WordPress blocks using generative AI from natural language instructions with the goal of speeding up development and reducing technical complexity. Telex is designed to turn descriptions into functional blocks and for the time being it is offered as an experiment free of charge (in the future we will see whether it does not become a paid service).
Developing blocks from scratch before AI required technical knowledge, understanding the WordPress core and working with technologies such as React, JavaScript and PHP among others. This has always been a challenge for non technical profiles although some tools already existed that could help in the process.
The interesting thing is that the flow with Telex is straightforward, you describe the desired block in natural language and the tool automatically generates the necessary code. The result can be downloaded as a plugin in the correct format, or it can be previewed in the browser through WordPress Playground with no initial configuration required in a very simple way.
With Telex it is very easy, for example, to generate quick prototypes for clients, create a foundation that can later be refined, or use it to learn faster and move faster among other uses.
Using Telex is very similar to programming with ChatGPT or Claude, the user can iterate by giving new instructions and editing the code until reaching the desired result.
Automattic reminds users that Telex is an experiment which means errors, inconsistent results or misinterpretations of instructions may appear. If a warning comes up it is advisable to ask Telex to fix it, copy the details and create a new prompt describing the expected outcome.
As for restrictions, as of today with Telex you cannot create blocks that require nested blocks and you also cannot make requests for common structures such as “Carousel with a top block Carousel and a bottom block Slider field”. Other limitations include the absence of version control, the inability to upload files to work on, the possibility that it may generate blocks with style issues, limited memory and so on.
Even so, the Automattic team encourages users to keep experimenting and sharing their experiences in order to prioritise improvements in future iterations of the product. On the horizon they are considering adding version history, visual descriptions and the ability to upload and customise existing blocks with the goal of making block development more fluid, faster and more accessible.
That said, at CMS MAG we encourage readers to play with this new tool, although not so much to use the plugins it generates in production and even less so without running them through the plugin check that is required before uploading them to the official repository. These plugins may be functional but they may not contain optimal code and they may have security issues. It is always advisable for a software engineer to review and optimise them if they are going to be used in production.
In the end, Telex leads us, as other generative AI tools do, toward the democratisation of this technology which is very easy to use since it is a chat interface that perfectly understands natural language. In this case it is an AI specialised in creating plugin blocks for WordPress that can generate plugins at lightning speed and this can have an impact on a congested official repository which has improved recently thanks precisely to automation but which may now face a tsunami of plugins of dubious quality.
Telex can be tested at the following address.
* Original article written in Spanish, translated with AI and reviewed in English by Jorge Mediavilla.
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