The WordPress MCP Adapter, explained

The short answer. The MCP Adapter is the official WordPress plugin that turns a site into an MCP server. It publishes the site’s abilities — actions that plugins register through WordPress’s Abilities API — as tools an AI assistant can call. It is free, it joined the WordPress.org plugin directory on 2 October 2026 at version 0.7.0, and it replaces Automattic’s older wordpress-mcp plugin, archived on 17 September 2026.

What it actually does

WordPress 6.9 added the Abilities API to core: a standard way for a plugin to declare what it can do — “create a product”, “read the site settings” — with a permission check on each. The MCP Adapter is the other half. It speaks the Model Context Protocol, so Claude, Cursor or any other MCP client can find those abilities and run them.

Out of the box it runs one server, at /wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server, with three tools: one to discover abilities, one to read an ability’s details, and one to run it. Each ability still runs its own permission check, as the WordPress user you connect with.

Abilities are private unless the plugin that registers them marks them public, so nothing reaches an assistant by accident.

How to set it up

1. Check the basics: WordPress 6.9 or later, PHP 7.4 or later, and permalinks set to anything except Plain.
2. Install the plugin: Plugins → Add New, search for “MCP Adapter”, or use WP-CLI: wp plugin install mcp-adapter --activate
3. Create an application password for the WordPress user the assistant will act as, under Users → Profile. Give that user the lowest role that does the job. Our application password guide covers it step by step.
4. Connect your client, one of the two ways below.

On the same machine: STDIO

If WordPress runs on the computer your assistant runs on, the adapter talks through WP-CLI and needs no password at all. In Claude Code:

claude mcp add wordpress -- wp --path=/path/to/wordpress mcp-adapter serve --server=mcp-adapter-default-server --user=admin

On a live site: HTTP

For a site on a server, the documented route is a small Node.js proxy, @automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote, with the application password. In Claude Desktop’s configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://example.com/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "your-username",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "your application password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or in Claude Code, with the server name before the --env options — written the other way round, Claude Code reads the name as another variable and rejects the command:

claude mcp add wordpress --env WP_API_URL=https://example.com/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server --env WP_API_USERNAME=your-username --env WP_API_PASSWORD='your application password' -- npx -y @automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest

Two things trip people up. Use the full adapter address: given a bare domain, the proxy goes looking for the old, deprecated plugin’s endpoint. And you cannot paste the address into Claude on the web as a custom connector: those sign in with OAuth, and the adapter has no OAuth of its own.

The adapter, or a ready-made client?

Route	On the site	On day one	Cost
MCP Adapter	The plugin, plus plugins that register abilities	Reads site information until plugins add abilities	Free
WordPress.com’s MCP server	Nothing, on WordPress.com; Jetpack AI or Complete on self-hosted sites	Posts, pages, media, comments and plugins	A paid WordPress.com or Jetpack plan
PressHand	Nothing; an optional helper adds custom CSS and SEO fields	83 jobs, from posts and SEO to the WooCommerce shop	$97 once, every site you own

If you are building a product on WordPress, the adapter is the right foundation: register your own abilities and every MCP client can use them. If you want the work done on sites you already run, a ready-made client gets you there today. PressHand connects through application passwords rather than abilities, so it does the same jobs on every site, whatever plugins that site has. There is a wider comparison in WordPress MCP plugins compared.

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