Icons: Support keyword-based search in the icons registry

[n8finch]

What?

See #75715

Adds keyword-based search to the icons registry. GET /wp/v2/icons?search=<term> now matches an icon's keywords in addition to its name and label, and the Icon block's icon library matches them too, so searching "hamburger" finds Menu, "poetry" finds Verse, and "gear" finds Settings.

storybook/stories/icons/library.story.tsx drops its own hardcoded keyword map and reads keywords from manifest.json instead, so the icon library and the icons registry search the same terms.

Also tightens an assertion in Tests_Icons_WpGetIcon that matched width= inside stroke-width=; it passed on trunk only through leftover state from earlier tests in the run, and fails in isolation there.

Why?

Icon search currently only matches an icon's name and label, so an icon is findable only if you already know what it is called. Searching for the concept or known alternatives, such as "hamburger", "gear", or "shopping", returns nothing.

Props/credit to @manhar-addweb who spotted the gap and proposed keyword search in #76481, thank you for raising it and for the original patch. 👏

#75878 laid the groundwork by adding label search to the registry, but stopped short of keywords. #76481 picked that thread up. This PR aims to finish it.

Two things in the current codebase mean keyword search needs a little more than a change to the search method, and they shaped this implementation:

1. WP_Icons_Registry_Gutenberg (in lib/class-wp-icons-registry-gutenberg.php) overrides get_registered_icons() and replaces the singleton on init priority 1, so all runtime behaviour comes from the subclass. Icons Registry: Extend search to include label and keywords fields #76481 changes lib/compat/wordpress-7.0/class-wp-icons-registry.php, which the subclass overrides, so that change is not reached at runtime. This is also what the disagreement on that thread came down to: label search had already landed, in the Gutenberg subclass, but not in the compat file.
2. register() validates properties against array( 'label', 'content', 'file_path' ) and rejects anything else via _doing_it_wrong(). No registered icon can carry a keywords key today, so a keyword loop has nothing to match until the property is allowed and populated from the manifest.

So the work here is the same idea, moved to the live class and given the manifest plumbing and allowed-property change it needs to function. @manhar-addweb was asked on the PR thread about taking it further and hasn't replied, so this carries it forward rather than leaving it stalled.

How?

In dependency order:

• packages/icons/src/manifest.json: adds an optional keywords array. All 88 "public": true icons (the ones emitted to PHP) get search terms; the other entries are untouched, with no empty arrays added.
• packages/icons/lib/generate-manifest-php.cjs: emits a conditional 'keywords' line between label and filePath. Each term is wrapped in _x( '…', 'icon keyword', 'gutenberg' ), matching how labels are localized, since keywords are user-facing search text. 'keywords' and 'filePath' are the same length, so the existing alignment padding needed no change. manifest.php is generated; regenerate it with npm run build --workspace @wordpress/icons.
• lib/compat/wordpress-7.1/icons.php: passes keywords through to wp_register_icon() when the manifest entry has them.
• lib/class-wp-icons-registry-gutenberg.php: adds keywords to the allowed properties; validates it as an array of strings; extracts the match into an icon_matches_search() helper rather than nesting a loop inside the existing && chain; and adds keywords to the icon replay in get_instance(), which otherwise silently drops a third-party icon's keywords when it upgrades an existing base registry.
• lib/class-wp-rest-icons-controller-gutenberg.php: exposes keywords in the response and the schema, alongside the existing collection field.
• packages/block-library/src/icon/components/custom-inserter/index.js: matches keywords in the icon library's filter.

The keyword list itself is very much up for debate. The terms were generated by Claude and reviewed by me, but they are editorial choices, not facts; "hamburger" for Menu, "gear" for Settings, "poetry" for Verse, and so on. Suggestions for keywords are welcome here, and the data is trivial to change: edit manifest.json, rerun the icons build, commit the regenerated manifest.php. If reviewers would rather land the implementation first and settle the vocabulary separately, I'm happy to trim the list to a smaller set, or remove the keywords for now, and add them later.

Two more things worth a reviewer's attention:

Keywords are exposed over REST, and the block needed a client-side change. Server-side ?search= filtering works without exposing anything, so exposure looks unnecessary at first. But the icon library modal fetches every icon once via getEntityRecords( 'root', 'icon', … ) and then filters in the browser on name and label; it never sends search. Without exposing keywords and extending that filter, the feature would work over REST and be invisible in the only UI that consumes it. Icons without keywords always serialize as [] rather than omitting the field, so consumers do not have to handle a missing property.

Registration now ensures the Gutenberg registry is active first. gutenberg_register_default_icons() calls WP_Icons_Registry_Gutenberg::get_instance() before registering. Only that subclass accepts keywords; core's WP_Icons_Registry rejects it as an invalid property, which fails the whole registration and drops the icon entirely rather than just losing its keywords. Ordinarily gutenberg_override_wp_icons_registry() has already run on init priority 1, but the singleton can be reset, which is exactly what happens between PHPUnit suites, where this surfaced as core icons vanishing.

lib/compat/wordpress-7.0/ is deliberately untouched: it mirrors code shipped in WordPress 7.0, and this is new 7.1 work.

Testing Instructions

1. Run npm install && npm run build (or npm start), then npm run wp-env start.

2. Create a post and insert an Icon block, then open the icon library and search:

   • hamburger returns Menu, gear returns Settings, poetry returns Verse. The term is in neither the name nor the label.
   • email returns At Symbol, plus returns Create, folder returns File, caution returns Error. These four entries had drifted out of the generated
     manifest.php; a hit confirms the regenerated file is live.
   • arrow still returns the arrow icons and @ still returns At Symbol, so name and label search are unaffected.

3. Check the REST layer from any wp-admin console:

   wp.apiFetch( { path: '/wp/v2/icons?search=hamburger' } )
       .then( r => console.log( r.map( i => i.name ) ) ); // ["core/menu"]

4. Run npm run storybook:dev and open Icons → Icon → Library:

   • delete returns Trash, buoy returns Lifesaver, eye returns Seen, dislike returns Thumbs Down. These terms used to live in the story's own hardcoded
     list and now come from the manifest.
   • hamburger returns Menu and gear returns Settings. Storybook could not find these before, which is the clearest sign it is reading the manifest rather than
     a local list.
   • arrow still returns the eight arrow icons, and a nonsense term shows "No icons found."
   • Toggle Highlight public icons: non-public icons still dim, confirming the reworked manifest lookup keeps the public flag.

5. Run npm run build --workspace @wordpress/icons followed by git diff --exit-code packages/icons/src/manifest.php. It should report no changes, i.e. the
   committed generated file matches manifest.json.

6. Run npm run test:unit:php:base -- --filter Icon. All tests pass, including Tests_Icons_WpGetIcon.

Note that the ten icons whose keywords moved into the manifest (Trash, Seen, Unseen, Time, Lifesaver, Archive, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Cancel Circle Filled, Caution
Filled) are not public, so they appear only in Storybook. Searching buoy in the editor's icon library correctly returns nothing.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

1. Insert an Icon block and open the icon library with Enter or Space.
2. The search field takes focus, or is reachable with Tab. Type hamburger.
3. Confirm the result count is announced and that Tab and the arrow keys move through the filtered grid as before.
4. Select Menu with Enter and confirm the icon is inserted.

No markup, focus order, or ARIA changed; the only difference is which icons pass the filter.

Screenshots or screencast

Icon block in the Block Editor

Screen.Recording.2026-09-02.at.5.37.47.PM.mov

Icon library in Storybook

storybook-icons.mov

Before	After

Use of AI Tools

This PR was authored with Claude Code (Claude Opus 5). Claude wrote the implementation, the tests, and the keyword data; I directed the work, reviewed every change, and tested it in the browser. I take responsibility for what landed here.

Flagging the keyword list specifically: those terms are AI-generated. I reviewed them all and think they're reasonable, but they're the most subjective part of this PR and the part most worth a human second opinion; see the note in How? above.

Two corrections came out of review rather than the first pass, and both are reflected above: the missing REST exposure was caught by inspecting the actual /wp/v2/icons payload in the browser and noticing keywords wasn't in it, and a PHPUnit failure caught the registration-ordering bug where passing keywords to a base registry dropped icons entirely. Test results quoted here were run locally; the full PHP suite passes at 2292 tests, 0 failures.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Icon searches now match names, labels, and optional keywords, including case-insensitive and multilingual terms.
  • Icon metadata supports localized keywords for synonyms, related concepts, and usage contexts.
  • Icon API responses consistently include a keywords array, defaulting to empty when unavailable.
  • Storybook and inserter searches now use manifest-provided keyword data.

• Documentation

  • Updated icon and block library documentation and changelogs.

• Tests

  • Added coverage for keyword registration, validation, searching, API responses, and registry restoration.

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Co-authored-by: n8finch <n8finch@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: t-hamano <wildworks@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: aaronrobertshaw <aaronrobertshaw@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: juanmaguitar <juanmaguitar@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: ntsekouras <ntsekouras@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: mirka <0mirka00@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: manzoorwanijk <manzoorwanijk@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: desrosj <desrosj@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: simison <simison@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: mcsf <mcsf@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: dmsnell <dmsnell@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: jasmussen <joen@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: annezazu <annezazu@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: aduth <aduth@git.wordpress.org>

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Icon manifests now define optional keywords. The registry validates and searches them, REST responses expose them, default registration preserves compatibility, and icon clients match keyword text.

Changes

Icon keyword support

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Registry keyword contract and search lib/class-wp-icons-registry-gutenberg.php, phpunit/class-wp-icons-registry-gutenberg-test.php	The registry validates keyword arrays, matches names, labels, and keywords case-insensitively, preserves keywords during restoration, and tests invalid and multibyte values.
Manifest keyword generation and data packages/icons/lib/generate-manifest-php.cjs, packages/icons/src/manifest.json, packages/icons/src/manifest.php, packages/icons/README.md, packages/icons/CHANGELOG.md	Icon manifests define searchable keywords. PHP generation emits escaped localized keyword arrays, and documentation describes their use.
Default icon registration compatibility lib/compat/wordpress-7.1/icons.php	Default registration activates the Gutenberg registry when available and passes valid manifest keywords only when supported.
REST and client search integration lib/class-wp-rest-icons-controller-gutenberg.php, phpunit/class-wp-rest-icon-controller-test.php, packages/block-library/src/icon/components/custom-inserter/index.jsx, storybook/stories/icons/library.story.tsx, packages/block-library/CHANGELOG.md	REST responses expose normalized keyword arrays. The custom inserter and Storybook search match keyword text. Tests cover search, response fields, and empty defaults.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~25 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 1366f

This change adds manifest-backed icon keyword matching across registry, REST, client, and Storybook search paths, with no remaining concrete merge-readiness risk identified.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant IconManifest
  participant DefaultRegistration
  participant WP_Icons_Registry_Gutenberg
  participant RESTController
  participant CustomInserter
  IconManifest->>DefaultRegistration: provide icon keywords
  DefaultRegistration->>WP_Icons_Registry_Gutenberg: register supported keywords
  RESTController->>WP_Icons_Registry_Gutenberg: search registered icons
  WP_Icons_Registry_Gutenberg-->>RESTController: return keyword matches
  RESTController-->>CustomInserter: expose normalized keyword arrays
  CustomInserter->>CustomInserter: match search text against keywords

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Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: adding keyword-based search support to the icons registry. It aligns with the registry, REST, and Icon block library changes.

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Inline comments:
In `@lib/class-wp-icons-registry-gutenberg.php`:
- Line 106: Update the keywords validation in the icon registration logic to use
array_key_exists() so explicitly provided null values are detected, then
classify null keywords under data_invalid_keywords while preserving validation
for arrays of strings.
- Line 276: Update the keyword matching condition in the icon registry search
logic to use the project’s PHP 7.4-compatible Unicode-aware, case-insensitive
matcher instead of stripos(), preserving substring matching for localized
keywords. Add a test covering a non-ASCII case pair such as query “äpfel”
matching keyword “Äpfel”.

In `@phpunit/class-wp-rest-icon-controller-test.php`:
- Around line 244-245: Ensure the test cleanup for the core/no-keywords icon
runs even when an assertion fails by moving wp_unregister_icon into a finally
block or the test teardown, while preserving the existing assertions and test
behavior.

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[simison]

There are some icon keywords defined in Storybook as well;

gutenberg/storybook/stories/icons/library.story.tsx

Lines 17 to 37 in 87dfe3b

	const keywords: Partial< Record< string, string[] > > = {
	archive: [ 'folder' ],
	atSymbol: [ 'email' ],
	audio: [ 'music' ],
	cancelCircleFilled: [ 'close' ],
	caution: [ 'alert', 'warning' ],
	cautionFilled: [ 'alert', 'warning' ],
	create: [ 'add', 'new', 'plus' ],
	envelope: [ 'email' ],
	error: [ 'alert', 'caution', 'warning' ],
	file: [ 'folder' ],
	lifesaver: [ 'buoy' ],
	seen: [ 'show', 'visible', 'eye' ],
	starFilled: [ 'favorite' ],
	pencil: [ 'edit' ],
	thumbsDown: [ 'dislike' ],
	thumbsUp: [ 'like' ],
	time: [ 'clock', 'duration', 'hour', 'minute', 'second' ],
	trash: [ 'delete' ],
	unseen: [ 'hide' ],
	};

I suggested a few missing ones as inline suggestions.

Another thing (and fine in a separate PR) would be to use manifest.json keywords in Storybook and remove the duplicate list.

[jasmussen]

This seems valid, thanks for contributing. Are there any icons in particular you're unsure the meaning of, which I can help suggest keywords for?

[simison]

Just FYI this other PR in case it merges first, needs rebasing and potentially adding more keywords:

• Icons: ship required icons for admin bar and menu with public: false #79451

[n8finch]

This seems valid, thanks for contributing. Are there any icons in particular you're unsure the meaning of, which I can help suggest keywords for?

@jasmussen not at the moment, everything is pretty clear, thanks! 🙂

I suggested a few missing ones as inline suggestions.

Another thing (and fine in a separate PR) would be to use manifest.json keywords in Storybook and remove the duplicate list.

Thanks for the suggestions @simison, I've added those, and I'll check what Storybook has. I can make that switch for Storybook as well in this PR. Should have that up for review by the end of the day.

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[mcsf]

I'm almost ready to approve this! At this point, IMO, we just need to remove the proposed keywords from the core manifest(s) so we can do those piecemeal (cc @t-hamano)

[n8finch]

I'm almost ready to approve this! At this point, IMO, we just need to remove the proposed keywords from the core manifest(s) so we can do those piecemeal (cc @t-hamano)

@mcsf I've got the keywords removed and back over to Storybook, and the manifest is clean now.

Let me know if there's anything else 🙂

[t-hamano]

@n8finch Thanks for the update. Lastly, I just added some feedback regarding the DocBlocks and the changelog, but I think this is now ready to ship.

Just in case, it would be great to make sure that all the changes and feedback from the Gutenberg PR have been reflected in the Core PR as well.

[n8finch]

@n8finch Thanks for the update. Lastly, I just added some feedback regarding the DocBlocks and the changelog, but I think this is now ready to ship.

Just in case, it would be great to make sure that all the changes and feedback from the Gutenberg PR have been reflected in the Core PR as well.

@t-hamano I think everything is good here, and I just checked the backport and I think it's good too 😅

[mcsf]

Thanks for all the work here!

[t-hamano]

@n8finch Really appreciate your great work! 👍