WooCommerce variation gallery

Use this skill when a plugin or theme needs to read, write, render, or audit WooCommerce native variation gallery images. This is separate from attribute swatches: swatches choose an attribute value; variation gallery controls the images shown after a variation is selected.

Source-verified status in 11.0.0

• Feature ID: variation_gallery.
• Feature option: wc_feature_woocommerce_additional_variation_images_enabled.
• Rollout: experimental. Explicit yes or no in the option wins; when the option is absent, stores assigned to remote variant buckets 1–6 of 120 (5%) are enabled as a canary cohort.
• Merged package slug: woocommerce-additional-variation-images.
• Native storage: variation gallery_image_ids prop, stored in _product_image_gallery on the product_variation post.
• Primary image: still the variation image/thumbnail (set_image_id(), _thumbnail_id, REST image).
• Additional gallery images: set_gallery_image_ids() / REST gallery_image_ids; these exclude the primary image.
• Classic frontend data: WC_Product_Variable::get_available_variation() returns gallery_image_ids and gallery_images_html when the feature is enabled.
• Legacy Additional Variation Images meta: _wc_additional_variation_images; fallback is disabled by _wc_variation_gallery_legacy_fallback_disabled.
• Migration completion option: wc_variation_gallery_migration_completed_at.

Mental model