How to Install MCP on Your WordPress.org Self-Hosted Website in Easy Steps

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard created by Anthropic that allows AI assistants like Claude to directly interact with external services — including your self-hosted WordPress website. Instead of copying and pasting between your AI chat and WordPress admin, MCP lets you create posts, manage settings, update content, and more, all through natural language conversation.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to connect your WordPress.org self-hosted site to Claude Desktop using the official WordPress MCP Adapter — no advanced coding required.

What You’ll Need (Prerequisites)

WordPress 6.9 or higher — The Abilities API (which MCP relies on) is built into WordPress core from version 6.9 onwards.
WordPress admin access — You’ll need to install plugins and generate an Application Password.
Node.js 18 or higher — Required to run the MCP remote proxy. Download Node.js here.
Claude Desktop — The desktop app for Mac or Windows. Download Claude Desktop here.
A publicly accessible REST API — Your site’s REST API must be reachable. You can confirm by visiting https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts in your browser and seeing a JSON response.

Step 1: Confirm Your WordPress Version

The WordPress MCP Adapter requires WordPress 6.9 or above, as the Abilities API is included in core from that version. To check your version, log in to your WordPress admin and go to Dashboard → Updates. If you’re on an older version, update WordPress before proceeding.

If you are running WordPress 6.8, you can still install the Abilities API plugin separately, though upgrading to 6.9+ is strongly recommended.

Step 2: Install the WordPress MCP Adapter Plugin

The WordPress MCP Adapter is the official plugin that bridges your site’s Abilities API to the MCP protocol. Here’s how to install it:

Go to the official MCP Adapter releases page on GitHub.
Download the latest release ZIP file (look for mcp-adapter.zip).
In your WordPress admin, navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
Upload the ZIP file and click Install Now.
Once installed, click Activate Plugin.

After activation, the plugin automatically registers a default MCP server at the following endpoint on your site:

https://yoursite.com/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server

Visit that URL in your browser. If you see a JSON response, the plugin is working correctly. If you get a 404 error, go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes to flush your rewrite rules, then try again.

Step 3: Generate a WordPress Application Password

Claude Desktop authenticates with your site using a WordPress Application Password — a separate credential that’s scoped to one connection and can be revoked at any time without changing your main login password.

In your WordPress admin, go to Users → Profile (or Users → All Users and edit your admin account).
Scroll down to the Application Passwords section.
In the New Application Password Name field, type a label such as Claude MCP.
Click Add New Application Password.
WordPress will display the password once only — copy it immediately and save it somewhere safe (a password manager is ideal). Note: WordPress displays it with spaces between groups; keep those spaces, they are intentional.

⚠️ Important: If you close or refresh the page without copying the password, you’ll need to delete it and generate a new one. WordPress will not show it again.

Step 4: Install Node.js

The MCP remote proxy that connects Claude Desktop to your site runs on Node.js. You need Node.js version 18 or higher.

Visit nodejs.org and download the LTS version.
Install it using the standard installer for your operating system (Mac or Windows).
After installation, open your Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and verify it’s installed by running:

node --version

You should see a version number like v20.x.x. If you see a “command not found” error, restart your terminal or check that Node.js was added to your system PATH during installation.

Step 5: Configure Claude Desktop

Now it’s time to tell Claude Desktop about your WordPress site. Claude Desktop uses a configuration file called claude_desktop_config.json to know which MCP servers to connect to at startup.

Open Claude Desktop.
Go to Claude menu → Settings → Developer.
Under Local MCP Servers, click Edit Config. This opens the claude_desktop_config.json file in your file browser.
Open the file in a text editor and add the following block inside the mcpServers object, replacing the placeholder values with your own details:

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

		

Replace https://yoursite.com with your actual site URL.
Replace your_wordpress_username with your WordPress admin username.
Replace your_application_password with the Application Password you generated in Step 3 (including the spaces).

Save the file and restart Claude Desktop completely for the changes to take effect.

Step 6: Test the Connection

Once Claude Desktop restarts, you can verify the connection is working:

Open a new conversation in Claude Desktop.
Click the + button in the chat input area.
You should see wordpress-mcp-server listed as an available tool source — select it to attach it to your conversation.
Type a simple test question such as: “What is the name of my WordPress site?”
Claude will call the MCP tools and return information directly from your site.

If the connection doesn’t appear, type /mcp in the Claude Code terminal (if using Claude Code) and press Enter — you should see wordpress-mcp-server ✔ connected.

What Can You Do Once Connected?

Once your WordPress site is connected via MCP, you can use natural language to:

✅ Create, edit, and publish posts and pages
✅ Manage categories, tags, and taxonomies
✅ Retrieve site statistics and content lists
✅ Bulk update post metadata or tags
✅ Analyse SEO data (if Yoast or similar is installed)
✅ Manage media uploads
✅ Check and update site settings

Troubleshooting Tips

404 on the MCP endpoint? Flush permalinks at Settings → Permalinks → Save Changes.
Authentication errors? Double-check your Application Password was copied with its spaces intact, and that the username matches your WordPress admin login.
REST API blocked? If a security plugin like Wordfence is installed, whitelist the /wp-json/ path in its settings.
Node.js not found? Run npm bin -g to find your global bin path and add it to your system PATH.
Claude Desktop not showing the server? Make sure you fully quit and restarted Claude Desktop after editing the config file.

Useful Resources

Wrapping Up

Connecting your self-hosted WordPress site to Claude via MCP is one of the most powerful upgrades you can make to your content workflow in 2026. Once set up, you’ll be able to manage your entire site through conversation — no more switching between tabs, no more copy-pasting. The setup takes around 15 minutes and requires no custom code.

If you found this guide helpful, check out some of our other WordPress tutorials, or drop a question in the comments below!

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