[draganescu]

What?

Behind the gutenberg-grid-interactivity and gutenberg-block-rotation experiments, a selected block in a manual placement grid has a rotate handle outside its bottom right corner on the canvas. Part of the stack split out of #84340, on top of #84509. It also merges #84505 (the rotate block support) and #84504 (blocks fill fixed-size cells in manual grids), so from this branch up, the stack has the complete feature set of #84340. #84894 builds on it.

The stack:

1. Grid: Give manual placement grids same-size cells #84499 Same-size cells for manual placement grids
2. Grid: Snap drags to cells in manual placement grids #84500 Drag blocks in manual grids with cell snapping
3. Grid: Show alignment guides while dragging in manual grids #84501 Alignment guides while dragging
4. Grid: Add and remove rows of manual placement grids #84502 Grid row handles, and resizing past the last row
5. Grid: Draw blocks across cells in manual placement grids #84503 Draw to insert
6. Grid: Stack manual grids on mobile, and edit them from the stack #84509 Stack manual grids on mobile
7. Grid: Rotate manual grid items from the canvas #84512 Rotate manual grid items from the canvas (this PR), merging Add a rotation block support #84505 and Blocks: Fill fixed-size cells in manual placement grids #84504
8. Grid: Show block toolbars over manual grids and add a drag handle #84894 Block toolbars over manual grids, and a drag handle on the canvas
9. Grid: Show the canvas handles in a small toolbar, and add a Canvas block #84947 The canvas handles in a small toolbar, with a delete button

Why?

#84505 adds rotation as a general block support with a Rotation control in the block settings. In a manual grid, where blocks are placed and sized directly on the canvas, rotating them should work the same way, without going to the sidebar.

How?

• GridItemRotator (components/grid/grid-item-rotator.tsx) is a handle outside the block's bottom right corner, clear of the resize handles in the middle of each side, in a popover over the block.
  • The handle is a GridItemHandle (components/grid/grid-item-handle.tsx), which looks like a block toolbar with a single button: the toolbar's border and corners, a 32px square and a 24px icon. Its colors and corners come from the design system tokens (--wpds-*). No stroke token is as dark as the toolbar's border, so the border stays $gray-900. The handle turns against the block's rotation, so it stays upright like the toolbar. Grid: Show block toolbars over manual grids and add a drag handle #84894's drag handle shares it.
  • Dragging the handle previews the angle with an inline rotate style on the block element, and shows the angle in the handle in place of its icon. The rotate support's rules have no !important, so the inline preview wins over them. Nothing is written to the block while dragging.
  • The block turns by as much as the pointer turns around the block's center, starting from the block's current angle (getPointerAngle() and the offset of getRotationFromPointer()). The handle is at a corner, so an angle taken straight from the pointer's direction would make the block jump as soon as the handle is pressed.
  • A press starts a rotation in startRotation(), from pointerdown or from a pointermove that presses the main button (button 0, buttons 1). In WebKit, the first press after a drag that started outside the canvas comes that way, as if the button were still held from the drag, and the block only turned on a second press.
  • Releasing the pointer writes the angle once, so a rotation is one undo step. Escape cancels it, and the inline style is cleared on release, cancel, or if the handle goes away mid-drag. Escape is handled in the capture phase in both the canvas and the editor document and claimed with preventDefault(), so writing flow doesn't also move focus away from the block.
  • The angle snaps to multiples of 15° within 5°, holding Shift rotates freely in whole degrees, and angles within 2° of 0 count as no rotation. The maths is in utils/rotation.ts, next to the support's own angle helpers (components/grid/rotation.ts was merged into it).
• The handle shows only when the block is in a manual grid with the grid interactivity experiment on and isRotateEnabled( blockName ) is true, which means the block rotation experiment is on and the block supports rotation. Like the support's control, it is only offered for blocks in the default editing mode, and not in a pseudo state such as :hover.
• The handle reads the rotation with the support's getRotateForState() and writes it with getUpdatedRotateStyle(), both in utils/rotation.ts (Add a rotation block support #84505 moved them out of the rotate hook, so grid data code such as getGridChildUpdates doesn't import the hook and its controls), so it stores style.rotate, or style['@tablet'].rotate / style['@mobile'].rotate in a viewport state, exactly as the Rotation control does. The write goes through useUpdateGridChildLayout as a style function, so rotating a block of a grid stacked on mobile first gives the grid its own mobile layout, in the same undo step.
• Overlays follow the rotation. getRotatedOverlayStyle() and useRotatedOverlayStyle() move a block popover from the corner of the rotated block's bounding box to its center and rotate it by the same angle, so the resize handles stay on the block's edges, in any grid, and the rotate handle stays at the block's corner. While a block is rotated, its unrotated size is tracked with a ResizeObserver, so the overlays follow it when an image loads or the grid changes width.
• Grid maths ignores rotation. getGridItemPixelRect() measures blocks by their offsets, which leave out the rotate property, so dragged blocks land by the cells they take up, and alignment guides compare unrotated grid areas.
• Mobile stacking:
  • The stacking rule adds rotate: none to stacked children, in the editor (getMobileStackingStyle) and on the front end (layout.php). Its repeated container class (.c.c > *) is more specific than the support's single .wp-rotate-… class, inside and outside the media query.
  • When a stacked grid gets its own mobile layout (getUnstackedMobileUpdates), children that are rotated on mobile get style['@mobile'].rotate = 0 through getUpdatedRotateStyle(), so nothing turns when the stack goes away.
  • The Rotation control in the block settings works the same way in the Mobile state of a stacked grid: it shows 0, as the stack shows the block unrotated, and an edit goes through useUpdateGridChildLayout, so it turns stacking off for the grid first, with the same snackbar. Before, edits there had no visible effect.
• While the handle is dragged, GridTools only keeps whether the previewed angle rotates the block, which hides the resizer. The angle itself stays in the handle, so GridTools doesn't re-render for every degree. GridVisualizer is also memoized: from Grid: Show block toolbars over manual grids and add a drag handle #84894 up, the drag handle and the handles toolbar turn with the preview, so the angle is back in GridTools there, and the memo keeps the visualizer's work per cell and grid item out of each degree.
• Rotation is no longer tied to the grid, so switching a grid out of manual placement, or moving a block out of the grid, keeps its rotation.

Merge notes: #84505 merged cleanly. After #84504 moved filling into block styles, merging it and #84509 again replaced the image-specific stacking rules from this branch with --wp--style--grid-cells: auto, keeping rotate: none. #84504's useIsInFixedGridCell also returns false on mobile here when the grid stacks its blocks (isGridStackedOnMobile), so the size controls it hides come back in the stack. Merging #84504 conflicted in packages/block-editor/CHANGELOG.md (both entries kept) and phpunit/block-supports/layout-test.php (both sets of tests kept). Merging #84509's final version conflicted in the changelog and in the JSDoc of getUnstackedMobileUpdates, which now describes both skipping blocks hidden on mobile and unrotating rotated ones. The merge that brought in #84500's measuring once per drag (2840864) also moved this PR's rotation into it, because the two conflicted: getGridItemMeasurements() now reads each block's rotation when the drag starts, with its position, instead of the drop layer reading every block's rotation on every dragover. It has its own unit test. The grid item handles also use the visualizer's z-index again (7d5b2df), since the visualizer no longer remounts during drags.

Core backport: the stacking rule's rotate: none only reaches the front end in core if rotate is in core's safe_style_css, or safecss_filter_attr() drops it. #84505's core PR WordPress/wordpress-develop#14707 already adds rotate to that list, with a test that rotate: none is kept, so this PR's backport needs nothing more as long as #14707 lands first.

Differences from #84340:

• Rotation is the rotate block support from Add a rotation block support #84505 (style.rotate, behind its own experiment, with the Rotation control in the Dimensions panel), not a grid child layout value (style.layout.rotate) with a control in the grid item settings.
• Leaving manual placement no longer removes rotation.
• All grid output, including stacking, is behind the grid interactivity experiment, so with it off the output equals trunk.
• Stacked blocks keep their own size because Grid: Stack manual grids on mobile, and edit them from the stack #84509's stacking rule sets --wp--style--grid-cells: auto, which turns off the fill rules from Blocks: Fill fixed-size cells in manual placement grids #84504. Grid: Canvas exploration #84340 reset image sizes in the stacking rule instead.
• Review fixes made along the stack, such as American spelling of center in guide names, are kept.

Still to do:

• Resizing a rotated block works along the screen's axes rather than the block's own: the handles sit on the rotated edges, but dragging them changes the block's span in screen directions. This was on Grid: Canvas exploration #84340's to-do list too.

Testing Instructions

1. In Gutenberg > Experiments, enable "Grid interactivity" and "Block rotation".
2. Add a Grid block, set "Grid item position" to Manual, and add a few blocks, including an Image.
3. Select a block. A handle that looks like a one-button toolbar appears outside its bottom right corner. Drag it around the block: the block turns, the handle stays upright, and it shows the angle. It snaps to 15° steps; hold Shift to rotate freely.
4. Release. Undo once and check the block goes back to its previous angle in one step.
5. Start another rotation and press Escape before releasing. The block goes back to its angle and nothing is stored.
6. With a rotated block selected, check the resize handles sit on its edges, and resizing still snaps to cells.
7. Drag a rotated block by its toolbar drag handle to another cell. It lands by the cells it takes up, not by its rotated bounding box.
8. Open the Code editor and check the block has "style":{"rotate":30} (or the angle you chose), not a layout.rotate value. The block settings' Rotation control in the Dimensions panel shows the same angle.
9. Save and view the front end: the block is rotated. At 480px wide or less, the grid stacks, the block is unrotated, and images have their natural height.
10. In the editor, switch the preview to Mobile and rotate a stacked block. The grid gets its own mobile layout, the other blocks stay unrotated, and one undo brings the stack back.
11. Switch the grid back to Auto placement. Rotated blocks keep their rotation, and there is no rotate handle.
12. Disable "Block rotation". The handle is gone, but rotated blocks still show rotated. Disable "Grid interactivity" too, and check the grid's CSS matches trunk.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

The rotate handle only works with a pointer and is hidden from assistive technology. Keyboard users rotate blocks with the Rotation control from #84505: open the Dimensions panel's options menu, turn on Rotation, and type an angle. In the Mobile preview of a grid stacked on mobile, the control shows 0, and typing an angle turns stacking off for the grid, as the handle does.

Screenshots or screencast

To add.

Use of AI Tools

Split out of #84340 with Claude Code (Claude Opus 5.5), which ported the code and tests from that branch. The split and its decisions were made in conversation with the PR author.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

🤖 PR meta 🤖

📦 Bundle size

Size Change: +3.77 kB (+0.04%)

Total Size: 8.6 MB

📦 View Changed

Filename	Size	Change
build/modules/lazy-editor/index.min.js	14.4 kB	+13 B (+0.09%)
build/scripts/block-editor/index.min.js	555 kB	+2.73 kB (+0.49%)
build/scripts/block-library/index.min.js	415 kB	+30 B (+0.01%)
build/scripts/blocks/index.min.js	44.9 kB	+18 B (+0.04%)
build/scripts/core-data/index.min.js	76.7 kB	+16 B (+0.02%)
build/scripts/edit-site/index.min.js	376 kB	+30 B (+0.01%)
build/scripts/editor/index.min.js	559 kB	+76 B (+0.01%)
build/scripts/style-engine/index.min.js	2.34 kB	+95 B (+4.23%)
build/styles/block-editor/style-rtl.css	21 kB	+169 B (+0.81%)
build/styles/block-editor/style-rtl.min.css	18.1 kB	+177 B (+0.99%)
build/styles/block-editor/style.css	21.1 kB	+169 B (+0.81%)
build/styles/block-editor/style.min.css	18 kB	+176 B (+0.99%)
build/styles/block-library/image/style-rtl.css	3.12 kB	+9 B (+0.29%)
build/styles/block-library/image/style-rtl.min.css	2.05 kB	+10 B (+0.49%)
build/styles/block-library/image/style.css	3.13 kB	+9 B (+0.29%)
build/styles/block-library/image/style.min.css	2.04 kB	+10 B (+0.49%)
build/styles/block-library/style-rtl.css	23.2 kB	+11 B (+0.05%)
build/styles/block-library/style-rtl.min.css	19.6 kB	+7 B (+0.04%)
build/styles/block-library/style.css	23.3 kB	+11 B (+0.05%)
build/styles/block-library/style.min.css	19.6 kB	+8 B (+0.04%)

_{3ce4afd Run}

⚡ Performance

Show the results

Client side metrics exclude the server response time.

front-end-block-theme

Metric	9492791	trunk	% Change
timeToFirstByte	56.25 ms +6.67% -3.82%	55.1 ms +6.53% -2.27%	2.09%
largestContentfulPaint	90 ms +11.11% -2.22%	88 ms +9.09% -0%	2.27%
lcpMinusTtfb	34.05 ms +15.27% -5.58%	34.15 ms +12.3% -3.66%	-0.29%
wpBeforeTemplate	29.26 ms +7.72% -3.55%	29 ms +2.48% -2.55%	0.9%
wpTemplate	23.01 ms +4.56% -5.52%	22.48 ms +2.36% -4.09%	2.36%
wpTotal	52.48 ms +6.5% -3.81%	51.15 ms +7.12% -1.92%	2.6%
wpMemoryUsage	7.71 MB +0% -0%	7.67 MB +0% -0%	0.49%
wpDbQueries	16 +0% -0%	16 +0% -0%	0%

front-end-classic-theme

Metric	9492791	trunk	% Change
timeToFirstByte	42 ms +10.71% -1.79%	47.2 ms +5.19% -2.54%	-11.02%
largestContentfulPaint	88 ms +6.82% -0%	100 ms +2% -0%	-12%
lcpMinusTtfb	46.75 ms +1.39% -1.07%	53.35 ms +1.87% -1.78%	-12.37%
wpBeforeTemplate	26.72 ms +12.76% -1.61%	27.05 ms +8.58% -2.29%	-1.22%
wpTemplate	12.47 ms +8.1% -4.49%	16.61 ms +8.31% -3.55%	-24.92%
wpTotal	39.14 ms +10.02% -1.71%	43.9 ms +6.22% -1.87%	-10.84%
wpMemoryUsage	6.29 MB +0% -0%	6.36 MB +0% -0%	-1.16%
wpDbQueries	9 +0% -0%	13 +0% -0%	-30.77%

media-processing

Metric	9492791	trunk	% Change
mediaProcessingJpeg	404.49 ms +4.79% -0.09%	402.44 ms +1% -1%	0.51%
mediaProcessingAvif	6178.78 ms +0.54% -0.22%	6209.58 ms +0.04% -0.57%	-0.5%
mediaProcessingJpegToAvif	4249.42 ms +0.47% -0.2%	4273.08 ms +0.65% -0.21%	-0.55%

media-upload

Metric	9492791	trunk	% Change
jpegUploadProcessing	1726.91 ms +14.91% -15.82%	1457.47 ms +2.76% -0.44%	18.49%
pngUploadProcessing	213.16 ms +18.08% -17.92%	170.19 ms +6.37% -2.76%	25.25%
largeJpegUploadProcessing	1456.06 ms +0.51% -0.57%	1449.03 ms +0.57% -0.36%	0.49%
multipleImageUploadProcessing	2036.89 ms +0.37% -1.14%	2012.8 ms +0.87% -0.43%	1.2%

post-editor

Metric	9492791	trunk	% Change
serverResponse	426.41 ms +4.09% -5.44%	439.15 ms +1.01% -0.9%	-2.9%
firstPaint	424.73 ms +14.06% -24.44%	485.95 ms +1.97% -36.62%	-12.6%
domContentLoaded	853.83 ms +3.13% -0.78%	846.34 ms +1.68% -0.31%	0.88%
loaded	854.75 ms +3.14% -0.76%	847.44 ms +1.67% -0.31%	0.86%
firstContentfulPaint	497.44 ms +1.21% -2.61%	496.42 ms +1.01% -1.7%	0.21%
firstBlock	2152.48 ms +3.86% -0.75%	2153.96 ms +0.52% -0.86%	-0.07%
type	18.94 ms +6.23% -10.19%	18.19 ms +11% -5.28%	4.12%
typeWithoutInspector	20.02 ms +1.9% -10.99%	19.21 ms +21.86% -12.08%	4.22%
typeWithTopToolbar	23.67 ms +4.52% -7.39%	23.96 ms +12.35% -11.44%	-1.21%
typeContainer	8.3 ms +19.04% -4.82%	8.43 ms +11.15% -4.98%	-1.54%
focus	122.01 ms +3.33% -2.48%	123.12 ms +4.41% -6.44%	-0.9%
firstFocus	272.05 ms +0% -0%	259.12 ms +0% -0%	4.99%
selectAll	410.64 ms +0.62% -2.64%	405.03 ms +6.73% -2.97%	1.39%
undo	30.47 ms +3.58% -4.86%	32.71 ms +6.94% -8.13%	-6.85%
listViewOpen	77.15 ms +3.49% -6.1%	80.46 ms +6.49% -8.35%	-4.11%
inserterOpen	41.96 ms +10.75% -10.1%	42.38 ms +10.71% -10.1%	-0.99%
inserterHover	11.68 ms +5.14% -6.42%	11.04 ms +10.33% -8.88%	5.8%
inserterSearch	9.28 ms +4.31% -10.67%	8.31 ms +6.5% -6.38%	11.67%
loadPatterns	660.08 ms +2.64% -2.48%	630.64 ms +6.83% -4.03%	4.67%
wpTotal	415.49 ms +4.21% -5.62%	427.61 ms +1.09% -0.77%	-2.83%
wpMemoryUsage	14.76 MB +0% -0%	14.72 MB +0% -0%	0.27%
wpDbQueries	55 +0% -0%	55 +0% -0%	0%

site-editor

Metric	9492791	trunk	% Change
serverResponse	293.14 ms +1.28% -2.76%	285.32 ms +4.98% -4.17%	2.74%
firstPaint	290.4 ms +23.49% -12.62%	252.13 ms +7.6% -8.72%	15.18%
domContentLoaded	613.99 ms +1.43% -2.08%	618.46 ms +3.18% -3.54%	-0.72%
loaded	614.9 ms +1.44% -2.09%	619.35 ms +3.19% -3.53%	-0.72%
firstContentfulPaint	360.36 ms +5.25% -2.51%	358.63 ms +4.57% -2.19%	0.48%
firstBlock	1809.38 ms +5.08% -2.78%	1800.59 ms +2.47% -0.98%	0.49%
type	14.69 ms +8.17% -7.9%	15.16 ms +4.29% -6.07%	-3.1%
navigate	105.76 ms +4.99% -9.12%	96.43 ms +5.48% -6.9%	9.68%
loadPatterns	926.96 ms +14.72% -11.56%	982.38 ms +8.42% -8.01%	-5.64%
loadPages	1018.45 ms +1.46% -2.36%	1045.91 ms +1.09% -3.42%	-2.63%
wpTotal	286.31 ms +1.38% -2.72%	278.64 ms +5.01% -4.3%	2.75%
wpMemoryUsage	12.77 MB +0% -0%	12.74 MB +0% -0%	0.31%
wpDbQueries	45 +0% -0%	45 +0% -0%	0%

_{3ce4afd Run}

🏁 Flaky tests

Some tests passed with failed attempts. The failures may not be related to this commit but are still reported for visibility. See the documentation for more information.

Page List converts to Navigation Links with entity bindings in /test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/navigation.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(locator).toContainText(expected) failed

Locator: getByRole('region', { name: 'Editor settings' }).getByRole('tabpanel', { name: 'Content' }).getByRole('button', { name: /Link to:/ })
Expected substring: "test-page-1"
Received string:    "Link to:Cat/catPagePublished"
Timeout: 5000ms

Call log:
  - Expect "toContainText" getByRole('region', { name: 'Editor settings' }).getByRole('tabpanel', { name: 'Content' }).getByRole('button', { name: /Link to:/ }) with timeout 5000ms
  - waiting for getByRole('region', { name: 'Editor settings' }).getByRole('tabpanel', { name: 'Content' }).getByRole('button', { name: /Link to:/ })
    14 × locator resolved to <button type="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="dialog" class="components-button link-preview-button is-next-40px-default-size is-secondary">…</button>
       - unexpected value "Link to:Cat/catPagePublished"

    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/navigation.spec.js:1949:31

Undo restores the post selection when another synced entity is loaded (RTC WebSocket) in /test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-undo-redo.spec.ts, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toMatchObject(expected)

- Expected  - 2
+ Received  + 2

  Object {
    "attributeKey": "content",
    "blockIndex": 0,
    "content": "abcdef",
-   "endOffset": 3,
-   "offset": 3,
+   "endOffset": 1,
+   "offset": 1,
  }

Call Log:
- Timeout 5000ms exceeded while waiting on the predicate
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-undo-redo.spec.ts:363:5

should keep correct selection when dragging outside block (-firefox) in /test/e2e/specs/editor/various/multi-block-selection.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toMatchObject(expected)

- Expected  - 1
+ Received  + 1

  Array [
    Object {
      "attributes": Object {
-       "content": "1",
+       "content": "13",
      },
      "name": "core/paragraph",
    },
  ]

Call Log:
- Timeout 5000ms exceeded while waiting on the predicate
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/various/multi-block-selection.spec.js:787:41

should select by dragging into separator in /test/e2e/specs/editor/various/multi-block-selection.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toEqual(expected) // deep equality

- Expected  - 1
+ Received  + 0

  Array [
    1,
-   2,
  ]

Call Log:
- Timeout 5000ms exceeded while waiting on the predicate
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/various/multi-block-selection.spec.js:2182:5

should undo without broken temporary state in /test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/image.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toBe(expected) // Object.is equality

- Expected  - 2
+ Received  + 2

- <!-- wp:image -->
- <figure class="wp-block-image"><img alt=""/></figure>
+ <!-- wp:image {"id":23,"sizeSlug":"full","linkDestination":"none"} -->
+ <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="http://localhost:8889/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/6f8b4ea7-9c5f-4583-b87b-aaaa9261bb50.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23"/></figure>
  <!-- /wp:image -->
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/image.spec.js:432:49

_{From 99f3f97, not the current head. Run}