· ReadyStack
Worked example
Real numbers from this tool, line by line.
Six blockers in one readme.txt — that is what came back for a solo WordPress plugin developer in Porto who was one command away from submitting an SEO plugin to the wordpress.org directory. The PHP was fine. The header block was not:
=== Speedy SEO Toolkit === Contributors: alexdev Tags: seo, sitemap, schema, meta tags, performance Requires at least: 6.9 Tested up to: 6.8.2 Stable tag: trunk License: GPLv2 or later
Six things in those seven lines will either send the submission back or, quietly, stop the release from ever reaching the installs the plugin already has.
Stable tag: trunk. This is the expensive one, and it does not look like an error. The directory serves whatever sits in trunk to every install. You tag 2.4.1, you push, you write the changelog — and users get trunk, which may be the half-finished commit from Tuesday. The fix is one word: Stable tag: 2.4.1.
No Requires PHP line. Without it, WordPress offers the plugin to every PHP version there is. Requires PHP: 7.4.
Tested up to: 6.8.2. The directory reads the major version only. A patch number in that field is not the compliment you think it is; write Tested up to: 6.8.
Tested up to 6.8, Requires at least 6.9. Two lines that contradict each other: the plugin claims to need a WordPress newer than the newest one it was tested against, so no install satisfies both. One of the two numbers is wrong, and only you know which.
A short description of 179 characters. That line is the one sentence shown on the plugin card. The directory cuts it at 150, mid-word, so 29 characters are gone.
No License URI. License: GPLv2 or later is there; the URI line is not. The directory wants both, and a reviewer will ask.
None of these are code review. They are a reading of two files — readme.txt and the header comment at the top of the main plugin file — against the rules the wordpress.org Plugin Review Team reads them against. That is what WP Plugin Review Gate does: 21 rules, run on the file you have open in VS Code, each finding with a line number and the exact line to write instead. Run it on a clean readme.txt and it returns nothing at all.
The rest live in the plugin file: a header comment with no Version, no Requires PHP, no License or no Text Domain; no defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit; guard; wp_enqueue_script() pointing at a remote URL instead of a file you ship; eval() or base64_decode(), which a reviewer reads as obfuscated code; a hard-coded wp-content/plugins path.
Why not ask an assistant? An assistant writes a fresh, plausible readme.txt from a prompt; it has never seen your file. It does not know your Stable tag says trunk, that Tested up to picked up a patch number, or that your short description grew to 179 characters. The check has to run on the file in front of you, and it has to count.
The free part is the whole file you have open — all 21 rules, every line number, in the editor or in the browser at getreadystack.com/tools/wp-plugin-review-gate, with nothing uploaded. The paid part is a different axis, not a crippled version of the same one: the whole plugin folder in one pass, readme.txt read against the plugin header, Stable tag checked against Version across files, and a dated report you keep for the submission. $29 once, one licence key per person or team seat.
A freelance WordPress developer bills $30 to $90 an hour; a pre-submission read is an hour or two. The readme takes four minutes to fix. The queue does not give the four minutes back.
15 seconds — what it actually does
Questions people ask
What does WP Plugin Review Gate actually do?
It reads the readme.txt or the main plugin PHP file you have open and applies 21 rules the wordpress.org Plugin Review Team applies: Stable tag, Requires at least, Requires PHP, Tested up to, the 150-character short description, five tags, License lines, the ABSPATH guard, remote enqueues and obfuscated code. Each finding carries a line number and the replacement line.
Who is it for?
Solo WordPress plugin developers and small agencies who publish to the wordpress.org directory, plus anyone maintaining an inherited plugin. If you have ever pushed an update and then found that Stable tag still said trunk, so the release never reached the installs you already had, this was written for you.
Why is a free chatbot or a text editor not enough?
An assistant writes a plausible readme.txt from scratch; it cannot see the state of your file. It does not know your Stable tag says trunk, that Tested up to picked up a patch number, or that your short description grew to 179 characters against a 150-character cut. This runs on your file and counts.
What is free and what costs money?
Free, with no licence key: the file you have open is checked in full, all 21 rules, every line number, in the editor or in the browser. Paid: the whole plugin folder in one pass, readme.txt read against the plugin header and Stable tag against Version across files, plus a dated report you keep.
What would this cost me otherwise?
A freelance WordPress developer bills $30 to $90 an hour; a pre-submission read is an hour or two. The other price is time: a rejected submission goes back to the end of the review queue, and a wrong Stable tag means the version you released is not the version your users get.
Why not just ask ChatGPT or another AI chat?
A general AI chat answers from training data with a cutoff date, cannot read your repository and names no rule version. WordPress Plugin Review Gate - wp.org pre-submission check checks the file you open against 21 rules from a rule set dated 2026-09-20, and points at the exact line with the fix. For a filing, an audit or a client you need that dated result on your own files.
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