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Ghost Kit 3.8.0. It is a minor release because the PHP requirement rises from 7.4 to 8.3: WordPress recommends 8.3+, and PHP 8.2 security support ends on 2026-12-31. The release carries everything merged since 3.7.2: the template REST route and custom CSS security fixes (#274, #277), icons loaded on demand (#275), motion 14.5 (#273), the inner block stagger teaser (#276, #283), the Instagram and Twitter blocks removed (#285), the redesigned icon picker with recent icons (#287), FontAwesome 7.3.1 (#288), breakpoints in the WordPress View menu (#284), effect rows and the one-line Pro note (#289), accordion and Lottie editor fixes (#282) and dead code removed for WordPress 6.6+ (#286). The changelog also lists the Pro half (ghostkit-pro #64 to #72).

Do not merge until you are ready to release. A push to master publishes readme.txt to WordPress.org through push-asset-readme-update.yml, including Requires PHP: 8.3 and Stable tag: 3.8.0 and Tested up to: 7.2.

PHP 8.3 is declared in readme.txt and in the PHPCompatibility testVersion (8.3-). The CI matrix drops the 8.1 legs: pull requests run 8.3 on latest WordPress and 8.3 on the previous WordPress, and the phpcs job runs on 8.3. The plugin header, composer.json, .wp-env.json and the PHP code name no PHP version, so they are unchanged. No code changes for 8.3.

Translations are regenerated (the retired social block strings drop out, the new permission and stagger strings come in).

Checked locally on PHP 8.3.36 in wp-env:

npm run lint            biome + stylelint: exit 0
npm run test:unit:php   OK (92 tests, 207 assertions)
npm run lint:php        62 files, no errors

Updated since the last push

• Merged master (fix(editor): match accordion layout and play relative Lottie URLs #282 to feat(editor): effect rows and a one-line Pro note #289). No conflicts; npm run build reproduces the merged build/ byte for byte.
• Changelog: added the changes from those PRs. The Instagram and Twitter line now says the blocks are removed (saved ones show as unsupported in the editor and print nothing). The Pro lines name the Stagger option, the Image Scroller animating back, and the Heroicons, Octicons and Lucide sets.
• Tested up to: 7.2 in readme.txt.
• README.md development requirements: PHP >= 8.3, Node.js >= 22.0.
• Translations regenerated.
• Changelog: "added WordPress 7.2 compatibility" is now the first line of the 3.8.0 entry in readme.txt and CHANGELOG.md, worded like the 7.1 line of the previous release.

Before merging:

• set the changelog date if the release is not on Oct 22, 2026 (readme.txt and CHANGELOG.md)
• merge, tag v3.8.0, then point the ghostkit-pro release PR's core-plugin at the merge commit