Chris Reynolds

23 Jan 2025

Preaching to the choir, I’m sure, but: Equity doesn’t mean giving up your piece of pie so someone else can take it. It means saying “hey, there’s pie over here, want some?”

jazzsequence.comWe are in the Uncanny ValleyI did something over the weekend that I’m still kinda coming to terms with and I’m not sure how to take. I am running a new TTRPG campaign. This one is using the very first game system I ever played, Mage: the Ascension, set in the 90s and using Severance as the thematic base. I’ve […]

21 Sept

I asked AI to create an album by a fictional character I designed. The album it made...was really fricking good.

youtube.comInterview with Nathan Wrigley #WCUS26YouTube video by Chris Reynolds

17 Sept

Here's the full video version of my interview/podcast episode with @wpbuilds.com at #WCUS26 www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkZd...

toderash.netThe CMS of the Future, Part I — Brent ToderashAfter 15 years of CMS architecture feeling settled, "the CMS quiet years are over." AI has made the structural layer *beneath the content* not only matter again, but with increased importance. Across ...

11 Sept

Honored to be mentioned alongside much smarter people than me. 😁

Brent Toderash@toderash.net

The CMS of the Future: www.toderash.net/blog/the-cms... Encapsulates ideas from smart people like @marucchi.com @joost.blog @provenpudding.bsky.social @joedolson.bsky.social @dries.bsky.social @typo3.com @jazzsequence.com Benni Mack, David Steeb, Pat Ramsey, Matt Garrepy, et al. Thx for the insight!

wptavern.com#233 – Chris Reynolds on Building Trust With Project Contracts for Reliable AI DevelopmentThe conversation focused on AI-assisted development in WordPress, exploring how large language models like Claude can be both powerful and unpredictable. We talked about the need for guardrails, st…

10 Sept

One of the most fun things I did at #WCUS2026 was sit down with @wpbuilds.com to record an episode of WP Tavern Jukebox in the *exclusive* media room. 😁 That episode is live now and you can listen to what we talked about. wptavern.com/podcast/233-...

10 Sept

I have a video recording, too, which I will throw up on my YouTube and share soon.

jazzsequence.comThe Lovecraft Test: Fable 5.1I haven’t used Claude Fable at all since it came out. Mostly I’ve been intimidated by the credit usage and feeling like I don’t really have anything that’s “Fable-worthy” (whatever that means). But it’s been a while since I ran a Lovecraft test and I decided to pit what’s maybe? arguably? the world’s best LLM […]

4 Sept

I ran the Lovecraft test against Fable 5.1. Not to make a clickbaity headline but...I was surprised by the result...

youtube.comMake One AI Agent Check Another Before You Ship | Chris Reynolds #tech #aiseo #wordcampusYouTube video by Ciphers Digital Marketing

31 Aug

I chatted with Mike Rux from Ciphers Digital at #WCUS26 about my talk. Here's what we talked about. youtube.com/shorts/2azFE...

gruhn.meDon't be a meat proxy

28 Aug

Using social media to do the thing that it was intended to do: sharing cool stuff I found. This post was shared with me and gave me a chuckle. But it's also a valid point. Don't be a meat proxy for Claude. gruhn.me/blog/2026-08...

youtu.beParenting Claude: Guardrails for AI-Assisted Development | Chris ReynoldsYouTube video by WordPress

19 Aug

Thank you to everyone who made it to my first #WCUS talk! For anyone who didn't catch it in person, here's the VoD: youtu.be/B1AFwetPVPI?...

Chris Reynolds reposted

Community + Code podcast

@communitycode.dev

19 Aug

Community + Code is taking a break this week for #WCUS26. We'll be back with a new episode in 2 weeks!

jazzsequence.comWhat I learned from building actualplaydb.comI spent the weekend chasing a rabbit down a hole. I built an IMDB for actual plays…mostly from my phone. The thought process went something like this: Aabriya Iyengar has been in a bunch of live TTRPG actual plays, both the mainstream kind (Dimension 20, Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, Dungeons & Dragons official) and […]

3 Aug

I built actualplaydb.com over the weekend...from my phone. #ttrpg #ai

25 July

See you in PHX peeps! 👋🏜️🌵 #WCUS2026 #WordPress

us.wordcamp.orgMore Big News! Meet the Third Wave of WordCamp US 2026 SpeakersWe’re excited to introduce the next group of speakers joining the WordCamp US 2026 lineup! This latest wave explores some of the biggest conversations shaping WordPress today, from practical …

18 July

I guess the cat's out of the bag: I'll be speaking at #WCUS26! us.wordcamp.org/2026/more-bi...

Chris Reynolds reposted

The WP Open Community Collective

@thewpocc.bsky.social

2 July

The State of the Community survey is open through July 17! We want to hear about how YOU are feeling about the future of #WordPress. Take it, pass it on, and stay tuned for the results before #WCUS! www.thewpcommunitycollective.com/state-of-the...

thewpcommunitycollective.comThe State of the Community - The WP Community CollectiveThe State of the Community survey aims to understand the current perspective of the people in and around the WordPress open source project community. The survey is open for responses from May 27 throu...

seriouslybud.comChris Reynolds on Homeschooling, Curiosity, Family, and Finding Purpose Beyond WordPress | Seriously, BUD? - Seriously, BUD?Chris Reynolds shares his journey from growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area to becoming a developer advocate at Pantheon. Along the way, he discusses homeschooling his children, embracing lifelong...

26 June

My conversation on @seriouslybud.bsky.social is now live! I loved being able to share about family and relationships and travel. I'm excited to share this podcast appearance because it's so different from the sorts of things I'm usually talking about. seriouslybud.com/episode/chri...

25 June

I don't care if the kids think he's wack or whatever. Ed Sheeran is still amazing.

5 June

New Sad Bastard Music Club coming on Monday. Subscribe to my very occasional emails to get it in your inbox. s3q.us/sad-bastard-...

jazzsequence.comI don’t miss not writing codeFive years ago, I was so burnt out, I didn’t think I had a future being a software engineer. Five years ago, I thought I couldn’t cut it. I didn’t have the chops. I couldn’t keep up. Coding was not fun. I began to wonder if it ever was fun. One of the arguments against […]

16 Apr

Turns out I never cared that much about typing code. I cared about making weird shit on the web that did stuff.

7 Apr

So I legit like @anginedepoitrine.bsky.social (at least from everything I have heard so far) but y’all that are breathlessly saying that you’ve never heard anything like them before…y’all know math rock existed before them, right?

7 Apr

Is this one of those things where Gen Z didn’t notice that Gen X got there first? I can name at least five other bands that used microtonal scales and weird time signatures that all existed before 2010 off the top of my head.

7 Apr

I’m not saying they’re not phenomenal and really exciting—it’s been a really long time since something truly unique and transgressive has shaken mainstream music—but I like them BECAUSE of where they came from. “I’ve never heard anything like it”? Cool, hold my beer.

jazzsequence.comThe CMS is dead. Long live the CMS.I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day from a self-proclaimed 20 year agency veteran of WordPress saying that was it, they’re moving the entire agency off of WordPress and onto AI. Now, because I, too, am a 20 year veteran of WordPress, this kind of story catches my attention. He posted that they […]

3 Apr

Rumors of WordPress' demise have been greatly exaggerated

next.jazzsequence.comThe CMS is dead. Long live the CMS.This entry is part 22 of 22 in the series Artificial IntelligenceI saw a post on LinkedIn the other day from a self-proclaimed 20 year agency veteran of WordPre

3 Apr

Now on a shiny new front-end next.jazzsequence.com/posts/the-cm...

warp.devWarp: The Agentic Development EnvironmentWarp is the platform for agentic development — a modern terminal and cloud agent platform used by 700K+ developers at leading enterprises. Explore docs, features, pricing, and more.

Can I just express how my development workflow/open windows has shifted dramatically over the past month? A lot of it (but not ALL of it) has to do with Claude Code. Previously, I would have a terminal window (I've been using Warp for a long time www.warp.dev/)...

I think this is the better way to work, though. (Almost) everything I need is in one place. And since I can have multiple tabs open in Warp, I can be simultaneously monitoring different projects. And honestly, I'm probably not even using all of Warp's tools like I could be. I guess all this to say

I really like Warp. 😅

90% of the time, I no longer even need VS Code. I can see all my files in the file browser and edit them directly. Warp renders markdown natively. When what I'm doing is reviewing Claude Code and making simple text changes, almost everything I do now is just inside Warp. (So, good job @warp.dev!)

gitkraken.comGitKraken Legendary Git Tools | GitKrakenMeet GitKraken, the creator of legendary Git tools for developers and teams - like the GitKraken Desktop, with Git GUI and CLI, Git Integration for Jira, and GitLens for VS Code.

The only time I use VS Code now is if I need to search across the codebase. In practically all other contexts, I'm just using Warp for everything. The only thing I miss is multi-cursor/multi-select support. (I hope it's coming 😉 @warp.dev.) It's weird not operating out of so many different apps.

...in the lower-right corner of one of my monitors. The right half of the monitor would be a browser window. The left half was VS Code. I would ⌘+TAB to get to the terminal (which was rare). In the top right corner, I would have GitKraken (www.gitkraken.com) which I still like to have handy for...

...visualizing my commits and managing merge conflicts. Since starting to dig into Claude Code, the size of my terminal window has gotten larger and larger. I now fullscreen it. This might seem weird, why fullscreen a text editor? Because Warp includes a built-in IDE and file browser.

jazzsequence.comThings I’ve learned from a year of doing circusIt’s just about a full year since I finally gathered up the courage to don short shorts and tights, expose parts of my body that are so white you’d need sunglasses against the glare, and flip myself upside down using only the power of my actual human muscles. And I’m still here, still doing it. […]

1 Apr

It's been about a year since I drummed up the courage to go to my first aerials class. Here's some stuff I learned along the way.

Chris Reynolds reposted

Community + Code podcast

@communitycode.dev

23 Mar

Four WordPress nerds walk into a Podcastathon. All of them are on the board of a nonprofit trying to fix how open source contribution works. One of them is me.

communitycode.devThe WP Community Collective on feeding humans into the boilerThis is a first for Community + Code: a full board meeting (almost), on the podcast. For this special Podcastathon episode, I sat down with three of my fellow WP Community Collective board members — Courtney Robertson, Sé Reed, and Jono Alderson — to talk about something I care about deeply and probably doesn’t get discussed […]

jazzsequence.comDisclosing AI useThis is based on a thread that I posted to Bluesky that I decided to keep here for posterity. If you want to discuss on Bluesky, follow me at @jazzsequence.com and let’s chat. Let’s talk about AI. I’ve been using it a lot recently. It’s not that I don’t see or care about the environmental […]

I wrote a thread on AI and then i turned that thread into a post where I added some more thoughts.

Let's talk about AI. I've been using it a lot recently. It's not that I don't see or care about the environmental impact, the human/social impact. I do. I strongly believe that we need regulatory bodies to apply rules and guidelines around how AI is used. But regulation moves slow and needs...

without any real fanfare on the @communitycode.dev site. Previously, I had written an AI disclosure and sort of hid it on the Privacy Page. I didn't _intentionally_ hide it. But as I started creating skills and recipes for Claude to do more with the management of the show, I decided it was ...

communitycode.devAI Disclosure - Community + CodeAI is used in many ways on this site, but most importantly as it pertains to our Privacy Policy, your personal data is never shared with an AI. AI is used to assist in the development of site features...

important to disclose how I am using AI for the pod and how I'm not. So, here's my AI Disclosure on Community + Code. I don't have all the answers. But I'm trying to find a middle ground where we can be informed and conscientious about how and where AI is used. communitycode.dev/ai-disclosure/

the underlying problem, we're just creating tools to do EVEN MORE WORK with fewer people. AI didn't create the problem. It's also not a solution, it's a band-aid. People don't want AI shoved down their throats. They don't want AI in their fridge (probably). They don't want it turned on by default..

They want to be able to opt out. They want an understanding of where their data is going. They want to know where the humans live in the equation. (This thread isn't written by AI, by the way.) I've been thinking about all these things a lot. The thing I wanted to share is something I did...

experts to advise on what those regulations and standards should be. And that can't exist in a vacuum. It can only happen through deep usage and understanding of the merits and the flaws of the system. I also understand that a lot of people are fundamentally opposed to AI use full stop. I see you..

I don't assume that AI is something that everyone wants or needs. I use it in my work because in my role, I feel like I need to split my brain in many different pieces to do my job. That ties into US-based tech hustle culture which is not great, either. AI accelerates that. Rather than solving...

jazzsequence.comTeaching an AI to Read My Website (Over MCP)For the last couple weeks, I’ve been building a headless Next.js frontend for this site — a project I’ve been calling jazz-nextjs. The idea is straightforward enough: keep WordPress as the content management layer (where I actually like writing) while serving the public-facing site through a modern React frontend hosted on Pantheon’s Next.js infrastructure. What’s […]

16 Mar

I spent way too long debugging why Claude Code wouldn't register WordPress MCP tools. The culprit? `enum` and `default` in JSON Schema. Zero error messages. Here's the full story of building the stdio proxy and getting 66 native tools working. 🧵

8 Mar

No one: My brain: You know what’s weird? Tea is just dried leaves that someone decided to make wet again. No one: My brain: You think that’s weirder than someone who decided to break open a plant, dry out its beans, cook them, crush them up and then make THEM wet again??

rsl.comThe Swarm Kit | Utah RoyalsThe Official Website of the Utah Royals.

26 Feb

The new @utahroyalsfc.com Swarm kit is fire 🔥 Can't wait to get mine! www.rsl.com/utahroyals/j...

blockaccessibilitychecks.comBlock Accessibility Checks - Block Accessibility ChecksCreate accessible WordPress content with real-time checks. Fix issues before publishing using the Block Accessibility Checks plugin.

25 Feb

🙌 eyyyy thanks for coming on and showing off your cool plugin @troychaplin.bsky.social!

Troy Chaplin@troychaplin.bsky.social

Thanks to @jazzsequence.com for having me on a @pantheon.io stream today to talk about my work around accessibility and validation for #WordPress! Don't mind me, I'm just over here creating new issues for bugs and new features for Block Accessibility Checks. blockaccessibilitychecks.com

jazzsequence.comYes, I am the (interim) President of the WPCCThe cat is finally out of the bag. I was officially named Interim President of the WP Community Collective this week. When I joined the WPCC as a member last year, it was not too long after going to my first DrupalCon. DrupalCon Atlanta was enlightening for a lot of reasons. But most relevant to […]

19 Feb

Yes, indeed, I did join @thewpcc.bsky.social Board of Directors as its Interim President. Here are some words about it.

jazzsequence.comfor valentine’s dayas today is yesterday was valentine’s day, and also, coincidentally for some, the traditional day of rest and reaffirming their faith in their chosen higher deity, i thought it would be appropriate to...

14 Feb

From the archive: jazzsequence.com/2010/02/vale... Throwback to the original greeting card holiday 💕

Chris Reynolds reposted

Community + Code podcast

@communitycode.dev

14 Feb

Oh hey, have you seen the new site design? communitycode.dev

communitycode.devCommunity + CodeCommunity + Code is a podcast about the people behind the technology we use.We talk about this thing called “community” within developer spaces, but sometimes forget that community is about people. Co...

Chris Reynolds reposted

The Drop Times

@thedroptimes.bsky.social

28 Jan

@mike.herchel.com of @dripyard.com joined @pantheon.io’s Chris Reynolds @jazzsequence.com to unpack the future of the Drupal marketplace. They explored component-based themes, site recipes, and the push toward faster, commercial-grade builds. Catch the recap via TDT. 🔗 https://bit.ly/45y0Ag7

bit.lyDripyard Discusses Drupal Marketplace on Pantheon LivestreamMike Herchel, founder of Dripyard, joined Pantheon’s Chris Reynolds in a recent livestream to discuss the evolving commercial ecosystem in Drupal. The conversation covered Dripyard’s role in the upcoming marketplace, component-driven themes, and inno...