Toolbar: Display the toolbar in the Site Editor and Block Editor

[lucasmdo]

Problem / Current Behavior

The WordPress Admin Bar (Toolbar) is displayed on the front end and across wp-admin screens, but it is hidden in both the Site Editor and the Block Editor. This creates a navigation inconsistency: users who rely on the Admin Bar as their primary way to move between areas of WordPress lose that affordance the moment they enter either editor.

As WordPress has evolved, the editors have introduced their own navigation patterns, the Site Editor sidebar, the back arrow / WordPress logo button, the Template · Page Title breadcrumb, that differ from the rest of the admin experience. The result is multiple, competing navigation models:

• wp-admin screens: Admin Bar + left sidebar menu.
• Front end (logged in): Admin Bar.
• Site Editor: Custom sidebar (Design panel) with no Admin Bar.
• Block Editor (fullscreen, the default): Custom top toolbar with no Admin Bar and no wp-admin sidebar.

This fragmentation means:

• It is not immediately clear how to exit the editor and return to wp-admin or the front end.
• Users must learn different navigation patterns depending on which screen they are on.
• The Admin Bar, the one element that is consistent across the front end and wp-admin, is absent precisely where users may need it most.

Proposed Enhancement

Display the Admin Bar in the Site Editor and Block Editor, just as it is rendered on wp-admin screens and the front end. The full Toolbar should appear at the top of the viewport, above the editor chrome, preserving all standard nodes and any nodes added by plugins.

This would unify the navigation model across all WordPress contexts:

• wp-admin screens: Admin Bar + left sidebar.
• Front end: Admin Bar.
• Site Editor: Admin Bar + editor sidebar.
• Block Editor: Admin Bar + editor toolbar.

The Admin Bar becomes the single, persistent navigation element users can always rely on.

Rationale

Why Core and not a plugin:

• The Admin Bar is a Core feature and its visibility is a Core decision.
• Navigation consistency across all of WordPress is a platform-level concern, not a plugin concern.
• The current situation, where Core itself hides Core's own navigation element, is an inconsistency that should be resolved in Core.

Who benefits:

• All users: consistent, predictable navigation regardless of context.
• New users: fewer navigation patterns to learn.
• Power users and site administrators: quick access to +New, user menu, and plugin-added toolbar nodes without leaving the editor.
• Plugin developers: toolbar nodes they register via the standard API become available in the editors without extra work.

Supporting context:

Related tickets and issues confirm that editor navigation is a recognized pain point:

• ​Gutenberg #38554: Users requesting Add New access from within the Block Editor, which the Admin Bar already provides.
• ​Gutenberg #72135: Proposal to unify the Site Editor layout, including consistency between admin and editor views.

Backward Compatibility

This change is additive. No existing functionality is removed or altered

Future Considerations

If this enhancement is accepted and implemented, follow-up tickets should be filed to address editor UI adjustments that ensure visual and functional consistency with the Admin Bar present. These may include, but are not limited to:

• Aligning the Block Editor top toolbar layout and spacing with the Admin Bar above it.
• Revisiting the Site Editor sidebar header and back-navigation affordances to complement (rather than duplicate) what the Admin Bar already provides.
• Ensuring responsive behavior on smaller screens accounts for the combined height of the Admin Bar and editor toolbar.

Each of these would be filed as a separate ticket and cross-referenced back to this one.

[fushar]

For now, I added a Gutenberg experiment that shows the admin bar in edtors, in this PR: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/77964.