Gutenberg Block Theme Development Resources

I’m using this post to document some helpful resources I have come across while researching building my own WordPress Block Starter Theme using native and React blocks (not ACF blocks). This post is a work in progress where I will update as I come across new resources.

10up Block Editor Best Practices

10up’s Block Editor Best Practices for developing Gutenberg Blocks and themes is an incredibly useful resource for better understanding how to navigate block theme development within an agency environment. I love how much they share about their process and approach to theme development. Their willingness to share this information freely is what I love about the WordPress community.

Full Site Editing (fullsiteediting.com)

Another useful resource for learning more about Gutenberg block themes, aka Full Site Editing(FSE) themes has been the aptly named site Full Site Editing. The site includes tutorials on block and FSE theme development and a Block Theme Generator to download a starter theme. 

WordPress Official Developer Resources

The Developer Resources page is a landing page with links to documentation for theme and block development as well as latest news.

Learn WordPress tutorials

In particular, the Intermediate Theme Developer lessons are helpful for understanding core concepts to building block-based themes.

Starter Themes

Here are some starter themes that have been useful to me while researching what to include in my custom starter theme:

• 10up wp-scaffold
  • It contains a bare bones theme and must use plugin for you to base your development off of. Asset bundling is handled entirely by 10up Toolkit.
  • I have a post with instructions on how to quickly spin up an environment using 10up wp-scaffold and wp-env.
• Full Site Editing Block Theme Generator
  • A Underscores-based starter theme generator.
• Web Dev Studios: https://github.com/WebDevStudios/wds-bt
  • Includes accessibility and other testing.
  • Based on Powder.
  • Documentation.
• Air light –
  • Builds upon Underscores starter theme (which is no longer being maintained):
  • Is “accessible-ready as possible”.
• Block Theme
  • Lightweight theme that Includes basic setup for build process.