WordPress MCP: How to Connect AI to Your WordPress Site

WordPress MCP is a way to connect an AI assistant directly to your WordPress site, so it can read content and make changes for you instead of you copying and pasting.

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets AI apps talk to other software through a set of allowed actions.

What It Lets an AI Do

Once connected, an AI assistant can work with whatever your site allows. Typical uses:

• Draft, edit, and update posts and pages.
• Fix titles, meta descriptions, and internal links across many pages at once.
• Check content for errors, broken links, or missing details.
• Answer questions about your own site, such as which pages mention a service.

Which Plugin to Use

The official option is the MCP Adapter, maintained by the WordPress project as part of its AI Building Blocks work.

• It needs WordPress 6.9 or newer, which includes the Abilities API it builds on.
• It exposes only the abilities you mark as public. Everything else stays private by default.
• AI clients sign in as a WordPress user, so normal user permissions still apply.

Automattic's older wordpress-mcp plugin was archived on September 17, 2026 and points users to the MCP Adapter. If you set up the old one, plan to move.

The MCP Adapter itself has no AI features. It is the bridge. The AI comes from the assistant app you connect.

How to Set It Up in 5 Steps

• Update WordPress to 6.9 or newer and take a full backup first.
• Install and activate the MCP Adapter plugin from wordpress.org.
• Create a dedicated WordPress user for the AI with the lowest role that can do the job, such as Editor rather than Administrator.
• Create an Application Password for that user under Users, Profile, so the AI never uses your real login.
• Add your site's MCP endpoint and the Application Password to your AI app's connection settings, then test with a read-only request first.

Keep It Safe

• Never connect with an Administrator account unless a task truly needs it.
• Expose only the abilities you need. Start read-only.
• Revoke the Application Password the moment you stop using it.
• Try changes on a staging copy before letting the AI edit the live site.
• Keep daily backups, so any bad edit can be rolled back.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to code? Not to install it. Exposing custom abilities beyond what your plugins provide does need a developer.

Is it safe? As safe as the account you connect with. A limited user, a separate Application Password, and backups keep the risk small.

Does it work on WordPress.com? The MCP Adapter is a plugin for self-hosted WordPress. WordPress.com plans that allow plugins can run it.

Can the AI break my site? It can make any change its user is allowed to make. That is why the user role and backups matter.

Want It Done for You

We run WordPress sites with AI every day, safely and with backups. Our SEO service connects an AI agent to your site and has it keep your SEO fixed, week after week.