1.28.0 - Take control of the document sidebar

Version 1.28.0 gives administrators two ways to fix a document sidebar that has grown unusable. Panels can be dragged into the order editors actually work in, saved once for everyone on the site. And a post type's taxonomies can be collapsed into a single panel of chip fields, chosen in the editor by the person looking at the sidebar they are fixing. Both replace the hand-written nth-child() CSS that sites have been using for this, which silently reorders the wrong panel the moment a conditional panel appears.

• [NEW FEATURE] Adds Sidebar Panel Order — ⋮ Options → Reorder sidebar panels collapses every panel to its title bar and lets them be dragged, or moved with ↑/↓ for keyboard users. Save applies the order to that post type for every user on the site, with no reload. Panels are matched by a derived key rather than by position, so a panel that only appears on some posts can never push another one out of place.
• [NEW FEATURE] Adds the Consolidated Taxonomy Panel — turns several of a post type's taxonomies into one panel of chip fields instead of one collapsible panel each. An administrator picks which ones via Choose panels in the Taxonomies panel; ticking a taxonomy hides its own panel and adds its field immediately, unticking brings it back, and nothing is stored until Save.
• [CLI] Adds wp yoko panel_order and wp yoko taxonomy_panel for reading, setting and resetting both from the command line — for a scripted rollout, or for a site whose sidebar is too broken to fix from the sidebar.
• [NEW FEATURE] Adds the yoko_panel_order_capability and yoko_taxonomy_panel_capability filters for changing who may edit each (both default to manage_options), yoko_taxonomy_panel_title for renaming the panel, and the yoko.panelOrder.panelKey JavaScript filter for plugins that want a stable key of their own.

Both choices are site settings, not preferences

Everything in the block editor's Preferences dialog is per user. These are one decision for the whole site, saved by an administrator and applied to every editor — which is the point, since the person who knows the right order is rarely the person suffering the wrong one.

The taxonomy choice is per post type

A taxonomy attached to two post types can be consolidated on one and left alone on the other. Seven taxonomies on pet is a sidebar worth collapsing; the two on stray are not, and the setting is keyed by post type so they never have to share an answer.

The Summary section and meta boxes do not move

Since WordPress 6.7 the featured image, status, publish date, author, template, discussion and parent are rows in one fixed Summary section rather than separate panels. They stay at the top, classic meta boxes stay in their own area at the bottom, and panels are only permuted among the slots panels already occupy.

If a site still has admin CSS reordering these panels, delete it — the two will fight.