Get Started With WordPress MCP on Pressable

Pressable provides early access to the WordPress MCP Adapter, an open-source plugin created and maintained by the WordPress community. This article explains what the plugin does, what its current limitations are, and how developers can begin exploring or extending it on their Pressable sites.

What Is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

MCP is an open standard that allows AI assistants to communicate with external systems in a structured, predictable way. Rather than relying on general-purpose instructions, an MCP-compatible system exposes a defined list of things it can do; an AI assistant can then discover and invoke those actions directly.

In a WordPress context, the WordPress MCP Adapter plugin connects to WordPress’s Abilities API, a registry where plugins and themes can register discrete, schema-described capabilities. The adapter translates those registered capabilities into MCP tools, resources, and prompts that an AI client (such as Claude Desktop or Cursor) can discover and use.

Current Limitations

The WordPress MCP Adapter is in early development and is currently read-only with limited available data.

There are two important things to understand before you begin:

1. No abilities are exposed by default

By design, nothing in the WordPress Abilities API is exposed via MCP unless it is explicitly marked as MCP-public. On a standard Pressable site with no additional configuration, an MCP client will connect successfully but will see no available tools or data. This is expected behavior, not a bug.

To expose abilities, you or a plugin developer must either:

• Use custom code to mark specific abilities as MCP-accessible (see the section below), or
• Install a plugin that registers its own MCP-public abilities natively (very few plugins currently do this)

2. Available abilities are limited and read-only

Even with a properly configured mu-plugin, the core WordPress abilities currently available via MCP are read-only. No write operations (creating posts, modifying settings, managing users, etc.) are available through this adapter at this time.

The core abilities that can be exposed include:

• core/get-site-info → Basic site details (name, URL, description, WordPress version)
• core/get-environment-info → Hosting environment details (PHP version, active theme, active plugins)
• core/get-user-info → Information about the currently authenticated WordPress user

Additional abilities may be available depending on which plugins are active and whether those plugins have implemented MCP support. At present, adoption across the plugin ecosystem is limited.

Enabling MCP on Your Pressable Account

Although the plugin’s read-only limitations mean practical use is restricted today, you can enable the adapter and connect an MCP client for testing and development purposes.

Step 1: Enable the plugin in your Pressable dashboard

1. Log in to my.pressable.com.
2. In the left menu, click Tools.
3. Select WordPress MCP.
4. Use the toggle options to enable the adapter on existing sites, future sites, or both.
5. Click Update Settings.

When enabled, Pressable will automatically install and activate the MCP Adapter plugin on your selected sites.

Step 2: Verify the plugin is active

1. Open your Pressable dashboard and select the site.
2. Click Plugins & Themes in the site menu.
3. Confirm that mcp-adapter appears in your plugin list as active.

Exposing Abilities via a Custom MU-Plugin

Because no abilities are MCP-public by default, you will need custom code to expose them. The recommended approach for Pressable sites is an MU-plugin, since MU-plugins in wp-content/mu-plugins/ are per-site writable.

The following example exposes the three core read-only abilities:

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: MCP Ability Bridge
 * Description: Marks core WordPress abilities as accessible via MCP.
 */

add_filter( 'wp_register_ability_args', function( $args, $ability_id ) {
    $abilities_to_expose = [
        'core/get-site-info',
        'core/get-environment-info',
        'core/get-user-info',
    ];

    if ( in_array( $ability_id, $abilities_to_expose, true ) ) {
        $args['meta']['mcp']['public'] = true;
    }

    return $args;
}, 10, 2 );

Save this file to wp-content/mu-plugins/mcp-ability-bridge.php on your site. You can extend the $abilities_to_expose array to include any additional ability IDs registered by your plugins.

To find available ability IDs on your site: Query the WordPress Abilities API endpoint directly at https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp-abilities/v1/ while authenticated as an administrator.

Connecting an MCP Client

Once abilities are exposed via the mu-plugin, you can connect an MCP client. The following example uses Claude Desktop with the @automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote package.

Add this configuration to your Claude Desktop claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wordpress": {
      "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-wp-username",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "your-application-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

To generate an application password: Go to Users → Profile in your WordPress admin and scroll to the Application Passwords section.

Once connected, your MCP client will be able to discover and query the abilities you have marked as MCP-public.

Security Considerations

Because MCP provides structured API access to your site, you should follow standard security practices:

• Use a dedicated WordPress user account for MCP access rather than your primary admin account
• Limit that account’s capabilities to only what is needed
• Rotate application passwords periodically
• Be selective about which abilities you expose; only expose what you intend to use

Coming Soon: Pressable MCP

A separate Pressable MCP integration is currently in development. Unlike the WordPress MCP Adapter (which provides access to site-level WordPress data), the Pressable MCP will allow you to interact with your Pressable account and manage your sites directly through an AI client. No release timeline is available at this time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the WordPress MCP Adapter free? Yes. The plugin is free and open source. Pressable pre-installs it at no additional cost.

Do I need coding experience to use this? For basic connection and exploration, you will need to be comfortable editing a JSON config file and working with WordPress application passwords. To expose any usable abilities, you will need to be able to create a PHP mu-plugin or have a developer do so. This feature is primarily intended for developers and advanced technical users at this time.

Can I disable the plugin after enabling it? Yes. You can deactivate the MCP Adapter from Plugins in your WordPress admin at any time. Any data already read by an MCP client will remain unaffected; the plugin itself makes no changes to your site content.

Will write operations (creating posts, managing users, etc.) be available in the future? That depends on how the plugin ecosystem matures. Write operations are a plugin-developer decision; each plugin controls what it registers in the Abilities API and whether those abilities perform read or write actions. Follow the WordPress/mcp-adapter repository for updates.