AI writes the code. You make the right choice for the user. 🧩
PluginSidebar gives your plugin (or theme) its own panel in the WordPress block editor, next to Page & Block. It sees the whole document, live.
- When it fits: document-level tools: status, schema, preview, validation
- When it doesn’t: one block → InspectorControls · 1–3 fields → PluginDocumentSettingPanel · a check before publishing → PluginPrePublishPanel
- Count the clicks: pinned = 1, not pinned = 3, DocumentSettingPanel = 0
Real cases: YaKulinar Recipe Status (theme) and 4WP SEO Helper (plugin).
Learn it in the Lesson IDE: real code, when to use it, why. A practice case for every component.
Components are the alphabet. UX is the sentence.
Go deeper
- Full guide: 4wp.dev/components/plugin-sidebar