Gutenberg 22.4: Pattern Overrides for Custom Blocks
The Hook Gutenberg 22.4 (January 20, 2026) quietly unlocked the feature I have been waiting on: pattern overrides for custom blocks. Synced patterns are finally useful beyond a handful of core blocks.
Why I Built It I use synced patterns to keep layouts consistent, but the lack of overrides on custom blocks meant I still had to fork or detach patterns for small copy changes. Gutenberg 22.4 fixes that gap, so I built a minimal plugin to prove the workflow end-to-end.
The Solution The release highlight list is solid: Font Library now works in classic and hybrid themes, the Image block gained focal point controls, and there is an experimental visibility toggle for responsive layouts. But the part that changes how I build sites is the pattern overrides expansion.
The trick is simple: any block attribute that supports Block Bindings can be overridden in synced patterns. So the job is to opt your custom block into bindings via the server-side filter, then ship a pattern that binds those fields to core/pattern-overrides.
add_filter(
'block_bindings_supported_attributes_g224/spotlight-card',
function ( $supported ) {
$supported[] = 'title';
$supported[] = 'summary';
return $supported;
}
);
Then the pattern sets metadata bindings to core/pattern-overrides so each synced instance can change text without breaking the sync.
<!-- wp:g224/spotlight-card {"title":"Launch faster","summary":"Swap this copy per instance using pattern overrides.","metadata":{"name":"spotlight-card","bindings":{"title":{"source":"core/pattern-overrides"},"summary":{"source":"core/pattern-overrides"}}}} /-->
The Code I shipped a small plugin with one custom block and a pattern ready for overrides. Clone it, activate it, and insert the Spotlight Card (Overrides Ready) pattern. Convert it to a synced pattern, then override the title and summary per instance.
What I Learned
- Pattern overrides are no longer a core-block-only feature; custom blocks can opt in with a tiny server-side filter.
- This is the first Gutenberg release in a while that immediately changes how I build reusable design systems.
- Focal point controls and responsive visibility are nice, but overrides on custom blocks are the real daily-driver upgrade.