To make a WordPress site usable by AI agents, give its capabilities a deliberate machine-readable interface and control each operation with permissions. For a custom or self-hosted site, the developer route is to register narrowly scoped Abilities and expose eligible ones through the official MCP Adapter. WordPress.com also offers a hosted MCP service for eligible accounts and supported Jetpack-connected sites. These are different paths: one lets you define the agent-facing capabilities; the other provides WordPress.com’s documented tools.
What it means to build WordPress for agents
A human visitor navigates pages and forms. An AI agent needs a way to discover what a site can do, understand what information an operation expects, and receive a defined result. A page that looks clear to a person does not, by itself, provide that interface.
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In WordPress’s developer approach, an Ability is a registered unit of functionality. It has a unique name, typed input and output schemas, a permission callback, and an execution callback. An Ability might retrieve information, update a post, or run a diagnostic. Registered Abilities can be discovered and executed from PHP, JavaScript, and the REST API. The WordPress Developer Blog’s introduction to the MCP Adapter describes how these building blocks fit together.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the integration layer that lets a compatible agent interact with exposed capabilities. It does not decide that an agent should be allowed to perform every operation: the site’s exposure choices and permission checks still matter.
Choose the route that fits your site
| Route | Best fit | Where capabilities come from | Eligibility or setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted Abilities plus MCP Adapter | A developer who needs custom agent-facing actions on a WordPress installation they control. | Abilities defined by the site or its plugins; the adapter maps eligible Abilities to MCP tools or resources. WordPress Developer Blog | Install and activate the adapter, register the Abilities, and explicitly opt intended ones into the default MCP server. |
| WordPress.com hosted MCP | An account owner who wants an agent to work with supported WordPress.com account sites using the hosted catalog. | WordPress.com’s documented tools for site and content areas. Supported Jetpack-connected self-hosted sites use this same service. Developer documentation | Connect and authorize a compatible client through OAuth 2.1. Plan eligibility applies; see the current capability reference and WordPress.org MCP documentation. |
The two routes are not necessarily mutually exclusive across a larger setup. Choose based on whether you need custom-defined site operations or WordPress.com’s hosted tool catalog, and verify compatibility and eligibility for the actual site and client before enabling an agent.
Build a custom interface with Abilities and the MCP Adapter
This route is for site owners or plugin developers who want to define what an agent can do rather than rely only on a hosted catalog. WordPress describes its MCP Adapter as an official package in the AI Building Blocks initiative; its default server registers discovery, information, and execution abilities. Actions are generally represented as MCP tools, while read-only information can be exposed as resources.
- Define a narrow operation. Give each Ability a distinct purpose, such as retrieving a specific kind of content or updating a defined field, rather than offering an unnecessarily broad administrative action.
- Specify its contract. Register the Ability with a unique name and typed input and output schemas. Validate inputs and make the result predictable for the calling client.
- Enforce authorization in the operation. Implement the permission callback for the relevant WordPress capability, and put the work itself in the execution callback. Do not treat discoverability as permission to execute.
- Install and activate the official MCP Adapter. Check its current package and compatibility requirements against the site’s WordPress and plugin stack before deployment; exact version compatibility is not established here.
- Opt in only intended Abilities. The default MCP server exposes an Ability only when it is explicitly marked public through
meta.mcp.public. Treat this as the exposure boundary, not as a substitute for the Ability’s permission callback. - Connect a compatible MCP client and inspect discovery. Confirm which tools or resources that client can see, then verify that the account and permissions available to it match the intended scope.
WordPress documents the mechanisms above, but they are not a security audit or a guarantee that a particular plugin stack is safe. Before enabling write-capable workflows, test on staging with a least-privilege account and review the operations the client can invoke.
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WordPress.com publishes its MCP endpoint at https://public-api.wordpress.com/wpcom/v2/mcp/v1. Its developer documentation describes account-level access to every site on that account and browser-based OAuth 2.1 authorization. Named clients include Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT, VS Code, and Cursor; connection steps vary by client. Consult the WordPress.com MCP developer documentation for the current connection details.
After authorization, users can manage connected applications and disconnect an authorization. Review the access granted to the client and revoke it when it is no longer needed. A self-hosted WordPress site connected through Jetpack does not use a separate Jetpack MCP endpoint: when eligible, it uses the same WordPress.com MCP service.
Plan eligibility is time-sensitive
As documented on October 2, 2026, MCP access is available on WordPress.com paid plans. A free WordPress.com site has access for the first 30 days after site creation. A self-hosted site connected through Jetpack requires Jetpack AI or Jetpack Complete for this hosted route. Because plans and access rules can change, check the current WordPress.com MCP capabilities page and WordPress.org MCP documentation before relying on eligibility.
Check what the hosted tools cover
The WordPress.com capability reference groups tools across areas including sites, posts, pages, design, domains, account, and users. The catalog is maintained as a live reference and may change; check it to see whether the particular operation you need is available, rather than assuming every WordPress task is exposed.
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Keep plugin AI features separate from agent access
A plugin that calls an AI provider is not automatically an interface for an external agent. The WordPress AI Client SDK is for plugin code that makes provider calls; Abilities and the MCP Adapter are the relevant building blocks when exposing site functions to outside agents. A site can use either pattern without the other.
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The WordPress AI project’s November 2025 introduction describes the SDK as a provider-agnostic PHP client with administrator-configured provider credentials and a prompt builder. A July 2026 WordPress Developer Blog overview of building an AI-powered plugin puts the AI Client alongside the Abilities API and MCP Adapter: plugins can call AI providers, register capabilities, and expose those capabilities to agents. These are complementary roles, not interchangeable names for one feature.
Do not confuse site access with the WordPress.org submission server
WordPress.org also documents an MCP server for plugin-development workflows. It can help an AI-assisted development environment read plugin guidelines, validate readmes, check submission status, and submit a plugin. It is not an interface for an agent to administer a live WordPress site. The Plugin Handbook’s MCP instructions make clear that this tool assists the workflow; it does not replace the plugin review process.
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