[ellatrix]

What?

Only the selected rich text field stores its element in state, for the toolbar that needs it.

Why?

Since "Rich Text: Make inline toolbar more reactive for proper positioning" (#73853), every rich text field calls setAnchorElement( element ) from its ref when it mounts. The state change renders every field a second time, running all of the wrapper's hooks again, although only the selected field shows the format toolbar that reads the element.

Mounting 500 blocks, in µs per block (3 runs each):

	Trunk	This PR
Paragraph	92, 88, 87	73, 72, 69
Block with only RichText	78, 75, 71	64, 62, 61
Block without rich text	44, 40, 41	45, 43, 40

How?

The merged ref only includes setAnchorElement while the field is selected. When a field becomes selected, the merged ref calls it with the element before paint, so only that field renders again. The toolbar renders only while the field is selected, so it still gets the element.

Testing Instructions

1. Open a post with a few paragraphs and an image with a caption.
2. Select text in a paragraph: the block toolbar shows the formats. Add a link: the link popover opens below the selected text.
3. Select text in the image caption: the inline format toolbar appears next to the caption.
4. Remove the caption and add it again, then select its text: the inline toolbar appears next to the new caption.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

Select text with Shift and the arrow keys, and add a link with Cmd+K.

Screenshots or screencast

No visual change.

Use of AI Tools

Written with Claude Code (Claude Opus 5.5). Reviewed by the author.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

🤖 PR meta 🤖

🎉 Props

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Co-authored-by: ellatrix <ellatrix@git.wordpress.org>

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📦 Bundle size

Size Change: +2 B (0%)

Total Size: 8.56 MB

📦 View Changed

Filename	Size	Change
build/scripts/block-editor/index.min.js	542 kB	+2 B (0%)

_{79cc399 Run}

⚡ Performance

Show the results

Client side metrics exclude the server response time.

front-end-block-theme

Metric	e6dcf7c	trunk	% Change
timeToFirstByte	54 ms +5.83% -4.44%	53.55 ms +3.73% -5.7%	0.84%
largestContentfulPaint	88 ms +9.09% -4.55%	88 ms +9.09% -4.55%	0%
lcpMinusTtfb	34.1 ms +3.52% -4.4%	33.9 ms +0.88% -3.39%	0.59%
wpBeforeTemplate	27.91 ms +11.43% -2.62%	27.36 ms +8.22% -2.45%	2.01%
wpTemplate	21.57 ms +3.2% -4.54%	21.78 ms +4.32% -8.77%	-0.96%
wpTotal	49.93 ms +6.15% -4.93%	49.49 ms +4.16% -6.06%	0.89%
wpMemoryUsage	7.70 MB +0% -0%	7.67 MB +0% -0%	0.43%
wpDbQueries	16 +0% -0%	16 +0% -0%	0%

front-end-classic-theme

Metric	e6dcf7c	trunk	% Change
timeToFirstByte	43.35 ms +5.31% -1.61%	39.15 ms +6.64% -1.79%	10.73%
largestContentfulPaint	96 ms +4.17% -0%	86 ms +2.33% -2.33%	11.63%
lcpMinusTtfb	53.15 ms +1.03% -1.41%	45.95 ms +3.26% -0.87%	15.67%
wpBeforeTemplate	23.76 ms +9.64% -0.88%	23.44 ms +4.82% -0.55%	1.37%
wpTemplate	16 ms +4.19% -1.38%	12.14 ms +6.43% -3.95%	31.8%
wpTotal	40.24 ms +5.22% -2.46%	36.2 ms +7.04% -1.93%	11.16%
wpMemoryUsage	6.40 MB +0% -0%	6.25 MB +0% -0%	2.32%
wpDbQueries	13 +0% -0%	9 +0% -0%	44.44%

media-processing

Metric	e6dcf7c	trunk	% Change
mediaProcessingJpeg	418.51 ms +1.03% -1.46%	413.14 ms +2.36% -0.68%	1.3%
mediaProcessingAvif	6240.75 ms +0.93% -0.08%	6192.95 ms +0.32% -0.37%	0.77%
mediaProcessingJpegToAvif	4366.56 ms +0.14% -0.32%	4330.83 ms +0.33% -0.31%	0.83%

media-upload

Metric	e6dcf7c	trunk	% Change
jpegUploadProcessing	1728.53 ms +12.82% -15.58%	1471.06 ms +31.94% -1.7%	17.5%
pngUploadProcessing	187.67 ms +32.39% -12.8%	247.55 ms +4.45% -4.3%	-24.19%
largeJpegUploadProcessing	1493.4 ms +29.92% -2%	1702.46 ms +14.24% -13.74%	-12.28%
multipleImageUploadProcessing	2031.02 ms +0.13% -0.5%	2011.28 ms +4.33% -0.17%	0.98%

post-editor

Metric	e6dcf7c	trunk	% Change
serverResponse	353.92 ms +1.53% -3.34%	360.47 ms +1.61% -10.98%	-1.82%
firstPaint	330.91 ms +18.91% -36.4%	316.89 ms +31.4% -46.91%	4.42%
domContentLoaded	667.32 ms +0.72% -1.26%	704.55 ms +0.72% -0.94%	-5.28%
loaded	668.32 ms +0.72% -1.26%	705.51 ms +0.74% -0.94%	-5.27%
firstContentfulPaint	391.35 ms +3.64% -2%	416.95 ms +1.19% -7.34%	-6.14%
firstBlock	2085.69 ms +0.8% -1.83%	2271.58 ms +1.41% -1.55%	-8.18%
type	15.12 ms +7.67% -10.32%	17.46 ms +5.44% -8.82%	-13.4%
typeWithoutInspector	14.69 ms +8.85% -4.36%	16.62 ms +3.55% -9.81%	-11.61%
typeWithTopToolbar	19.16 ms +3.39% -2.04%	21.16 ms +5.81% -7.37%	-9.45%
typeContainer	6.79 ms +8.54% -10.16%	7.12 ms +7.58% -3.37%	-4.63%
focus	97.26 ms +4.29% -2.83%	95.8 ms +2.63% -3.95%	1.52%
firstFocus	209.59 ms +0% -0%	195 ms +0% -0%	7.48%
selectAll	359.25 ms +1.59% -0.04%	357.81 ms +5.09% -1.75%	0.4%
undo	27.45 ms +5.43% -4.7%	26.83 ms +6.6% -4.03%	2.31%
listViewOpen	61.41 ms +4.67% -2.57%	60.56 ms +6.98% -5.22%	1.4%
inserterOpen	33.38 ms +3.51% -6.92%	33.47 ms +6.27% -6.66%	-0.27%
inserterHover	9.52 ms +9.56% -6.62%	9.39 ms +5.86% -5.11%	1.38%
inserterSearch	7.21 ms +10.54% -9.15%	7.03 ms +11.52% -4.98%	2.56%
loadPatterns	512.24 ms +3.5% -3.67%	507.71 ms +6% -1.69%	0.89%
wpTotal	344.38 ms +1.73% -3.3%	351.61 ms +1.59% -11.26%	-2.06%
wpMemoryUsage	14.73 MB +0% -0%	14.72 MB +0% -0%	0.1%
wpDbQueries	55 +0% -0%	55 +0% -0%	0%

site-editor

Metric	e6dcf7c	trunk	% Change
serverResponse	547.77 ms +4.75% -3.05%	536.25 ms +1.4% -6.08%	2.15%
firstPaint	302.56 ms +15.52% -10.45%	268.53 ms +21.3% -9.61%	12.67%
domContentLoaded	948.11 ms +0.78% -0.92%	955.7 ms +0.94% -1.17%	-0.79%
loaded	949.39 ms +0.76% -0.93%	957.11 ms +0.96% -1.18%	-0.81%
firstContentfulPaint	541.03 ms +0.61% -6.47%	534.67 ms +2.06% -1.52%	1.19%
firstBlock	4035.03 ms +0.85% -1.6%	4129.94 ms +0.49% -0.55%	-2.3%
type	20.8 ms +13.32% -11.44%	20.94 ms +18.58% -5.11%	-0.67%
navigate	127.53 ms +4.52% -4.87%	134.78 ms +1.18% -3.12%	-5.38%
loadPatterns	1176.12 ms +1.83% -4.09%	1257.67 ms +8.64% -6.56%	-6.48%
loadPages	1062.47 ms +2.24% -4.78%	1056.51 ms +5.25% -2.87%	0.56%
wpTotal	537.85 ms +4.75% -3.11%	525.51 ms +1.53% -6.13%	2.35%
wpMemoryUsage	12.77 MB +0% -0%	12.73 MB +0% -0%	0.27%
wpDbQueries	44 +2.27% -0%	44 +2.27% -0%	0%

_{79cc399 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.

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": 6,
+   "offset": 6,
  }

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

can be created by selecting text and using keyboard shortcuts in /test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/links.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toMatchObject(expected)

- Expected  - 1
+ Received  + 1

  Array [
    Object {
      "attributes": Object {
-       "content": "This is Gutenberg",
+       "content": "This is h",
      },
      "name": "core/paragraph",
    },
  ]

Call Log:
- Timeout 5000ms exceeded while waiting on the predicate
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/links.spec.js:563:41

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": "23",
      },
      "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:786:41

_{79cc399 Run}