Connect Claude AI to WordPress: Manage Your Site with Chat Commands

Imagine telling Claude “create a draft post about summer recipes” and having it appear in your WordPress dashboard. That’s what WordPress MCP does—it connects Claude to your website so you can manage content through conversation instead of clicking through menus.

This guide shows you how to set it up on a self-hosted WordPress site. The whole process takes about 15 minutes.

What You Can Do With This

Once connected, you can ask Claude to:

• List your recent posts or pages
• Create draft posts with content you describe
• Check recent comments
• View site settings
• Access the WordPress REST API for more advanced tasks

Claude works within WordPress’s existing permission system—it can only do what your user account can do. No direct database access, everything goes through the normal WordPress security checks.

What You’ll Need

• A self-hosted WordPress site (not WordPress.com—see note below)
• Admin access to your WordPress site
• Claude Desktop app installed on your computer
• Node.js installed (for the connection bridge)

WordPress.com users: Good news—WordPress.com has built-in MCP support on all paid plans. You don’t need this plugin. Check your WordPress.com dashboard for MCP settings.

Step 1: Install the WordPress MCP Plugin

1. Download the latest plugin from GitHub Releases (look for wordpress-mcp.zip)
2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
3. Upload the zip file and click Install Now
4. Click Activate

Note: The original wordpress-mcp repository is being replaced by a new MCP Adapter project. The current plugin still works, but keep an eye on the new project for future updates.

Step 2: Enable the Plugin and Create a Token

1. Go to Settings → WordPress MCP
2. Make sure Enable MCP is turned on
3. Click the Authentication Tokens tab
4. Set the expiration time (1-24 hours recommended for security)
5. Click Generate New Token
6. Copy this token immediately—you’ll need it in the next step and won’t be able to see it again

Step 3: Configure Claude Desktop

Now you need to tell Claude Desktop how to connect to your site.

Find your Claude config file:

• Mac: Click Claude in the menu bar → Settings → Developer → Edit Config
• Windows: Click your profile icon → Settings → Developer → Edit Config

Add this configuration (replace with your actual website URL and token):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wordpress-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://your-website.com/",
        "JWT_TOKEN": "paste-your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you have WooCommerce and want Claude to access store data, add these lines inside the “env” section:

"WOO_CUSTOMER_KEY": "your-woocommerce-key",
"WOO_CUSTOMER_SECRET": "your-woocommerce-secret"

Step 4: Restart and Test

1. Completely quit Claude Desktop (not just close the window—quit the app)
2. Reopen Claude Desktop
3. Look for a tools icon (hammer/wrench) in the chat input area
4. Click it—you should see WordPress tools listed

Try these test commands:

• “List my 5 most recent WordPress posts”
• “Create a draft post titled ‘Test Post’ with a short paragraph”
• “Show me recent comments on my site”

Troubleshooting

Tools icon not showing?

• Make sure you fully quit and reopened Claude (not just closed the window)
• Check your config file for JSON syntax errors (missing commas, brackets)
• Verify Node.js is installed by running node --version in terminal

“Authentication failed” errors?

• Your token may have expired—generate a new one in WordPress
• Check that your website URL is correct (include https://)
• Make sure the plugin is still activated

“Connection refused” errors?

• Your site might be blocking the REST API—check with your host
• Security plugins sometimes block API access—try temporarily disabling them

Security Best Practices

• Use short-lived tokens—1-24 hours is recommended. Regenerate as needed.
• Never share your tokens—treat them like passwords
• Review tokens regularly—delete any you’re not using
• Use a dedicated user account—consider creating a WordPress user just for Claude with only the permissions it needs

Claude operates under the same permission constraints as your WordPress user. If your user can’t delete posts, Claude can’t either.

What’s Next

The WordPress MCP ecosystem is evolving. The current plugin works well, but WordPress is developing a new MCP Adapter that will become the standard going forward. This new adapter will support more AI assistants and offer improved authentication options including OAuth 2.1.

Related guide: If you use ChatGPT instead of Claude, check out our guide on connecting ChatGPT to WordPress via MCP.