Picture opening Claude or ChatGPT and typing: "Which orders came in today, and which are still waiting for payment?" And getting an answer built from your shop's real data, not a generic reply. That is already possible with official WordPress building blocks. But the part that matters is not what it can do. It is what permissions it does it with. That is where sensible setups part ways with the frightening ones.
This article explains those building blocks in plain English, what you can realistically ask for, and how to avoid the classic mistake: handing the AI the keys to everything.
What this is, without the acronyms
There are two pieces, and it helps not to mix them up.
The Abilities API has been built into WordPress since version 6.9. It is a registry: a list where each plugin or theme notes down what it knows how to do ("look up orders", "create a product"), with what input and output data, and who is allowed to run it. According to the official documentation, each ability has a name, a description, a data schema and an optional permission check. On its own it connects nothing to any AI. It is the catalogue.
The MCP Adapter is the bridge. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets an AI assistant use outside tools. The adapter translates the abilities in that catalogue into a language that Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients understand. It is described on the official WordPress developer blog and has no AI features of its own, as its WordPress.org listing makes clear: it only connects.
One way to picture it: the Abilities API is the restaurant menu. The MCP Adapter is the waiter who carries it to the table. And the AI is the diner, who can order, but only what is on the menu.
Which version to install (and why the information conflicts)
If you search for guides, you will see different versions and different ways to install. That is normal: the adapter has changed a lot this year. This is what the official sources say today:
- The plugin's WordPress.org listing shows version 0.7.1, released in mid-October 2026. It requires WordPress 6.9 or later and PHP 7.4 or later. You install it like any plugin, from Plugins > Add New.
- The releases page on GitHub says 0.7.0 (2 October) was the first release published to the WordPress.org directory, and that using it as a bundled Composer library is now discouraged in favour of installing the plugin. 0.7.0 also introduced breaking changes, so a guide from three months ago may no longer apply.
- The official February article talks about downloading the ZIP from GitHub. That was the route then; the directory now exists.
A note of honesty: the sources differ by a day on the exact date of 0.7.1 (15 or 16 October), so I am not pinning it down. Check the plugin listing for what is current when you read this. And the adapter is still on 0.x versions: this is maturing fast and should be treated as young technology.
What you can realistically ask for
Here you have to be demanding, because promises are everywhere. The rule is simple: the AI can only do what someone has registered as an ability. WordPress provides the mechanism; what exists depends on the plugins installed and on what is built to order.
One case with concrete official documentation is WooCommerce. Its developer documentation and its announcement for version 10.9 describe seven abilities:
Type | Abilities |
|---|---|
Read | Query products, query orders |
Write | Create product, update product, delete product (goes to the bin by default), change an order's status, add a note to an order |
With those, what fits:
- Asking about your orders. "What came in this week?" or "Are any orders waiting for payment?" It is a filtered query over your real orders.
- Adjusting a product's stock or price, which is a product update. Best done with a human confirming it.
- Leaving a note on an order or changing its status after reviewing it.
And what depends on other pieces:
- Drafting blog posts. I have not found an official WooCommerce or core ability documented for this; you need a plugin that registers one, or one built for you. It can be done, but it does not come out of the box.
- Anything else (forms, SEO, reports): the same. If nobody has registered it, it does not exist for the AI.
Also worth knowing: WooCommerce labels its MCP integration a developer preview (APIs may change) and does not bundle the adapter, so you install it separately. In addition, the old /wp-json/woocommerce/mcp endpoint and its API-key authentication are removed in WooCommerce 11.3, due the week of 9 November 2026. If a guide mentions it, it will not work from that version on.
Security: the part you cannot improvise
The official WordPress article is blunt: MCP clients act as logged-in WordPress users, so they must be treated as part of your site's attack surface. In practical terms:
1. Application Passwords inherit the user's permissions. An application password is access in the name of a specific user. If you create it under your administrator account, the AI acts as an administrator. Create a dedicated user with the lowest role it needs, and generate the password for that user. WordPress's guide points out that they can be revoked one by one without touching the main password, and should always be used over HTTPS.
2. Abilities are private by default. The official repository explains that an ability is only exposed to MCP if it is marked as public. There is a version nuance: since 0.6.0, abilities carrying the general public flag (meta.public) are exposed by default unless they opt out with meta.mcp.public. So before connecting, check which abilities end up exposed on your site, not just your own: plugins' too.
3. Each ability has its own lock. The default server requires an authenticated user, and then each ability applies its own permission check. The developer blog asks for the minimum necessary and for avoiding open permissions on destructive operations. If an ability deletes or modifies things, only the right person should be able to run it.
4. If the site is public, start with read-only. The official advice for internet-facing connections is to prefer read-only abilities. For a shop, it is the most useful tip I can give: open reading, watch how it is used for a week, and open writing afterwards.
5. Personal data. WooCommerce's documentation warns that order and customer queries can include names, emails and addresses. If an external assistant processes them, that is processing of personal data, with GDPR implications that need reviewing before, not after.
How to connect Claude or ChatGPT (and where it gets tricky)
In theory it is straightforward: the adapter publishes a server at /wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server and the client connects. In practice there are two sources of friction.
First: your site has to be reachable from outside. According to Claude's help pages, custom connectors connect from Anthropic's cloud, not from your computer, so the server must be reachable from the internet. For testing locally, WordPress documents another route, through the command line (WP-CLI).
Second: authentication. The official recipe for remote connections uses a proxy (@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote) with a username and application password. Claude supports OAuth, no authentication, or fixed headers. The official blog itself acknowledges that, for self-hosted sites, there is currently no ready-made OAuth option, and that people fall back on application passwords or JWT tokens. How to match each client to each method is exactly what has to be designed carefully. With ChatGPT, check first which MCP connections your plan allows: it varies, and I could not verify it against a primary source while writing this.
How to start without complicating things
A sensible order:
- Try it on a copy first. A test environment with the adapter installed and dummy data. Nobody should debut this on the live shop.
- Create a new user with the lowest role and an application password just for that connection.
- Open read-only. Orders and products. Nothing else.
- Try real questions, the kind you would ask on a Tuesday morning, and check the answers match your dashboard.
- Add writing one ability at a time, with human confirmation, and note which ability you opened and why.
- Write down how to revoke it. If one day you want to cut access, it should mean deleting an application password, not launching an investigation.
If you would rather not set all this up yourself, at AGENCIA RSE we prepare it as an MCP server for WordPress: permissions designed before installing, testing on a copy, and documentation of what each tool can do. But with the steps above and the linked sources, you can make a start on your own.
If you spot any outdated information, let us know and we will correct it. The adapter changes every few weeks.