WordPress MCP: let the AI you already pay for run your site
Updated October 31, 2026
A WordPress MCP server is what lets Claude or ChatGPT change your site, instead of telling you which buttons to click.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard way AI assistants call outside tools. A WordPress MCP server turns your site's jobs (posts, media, plugins, menus, settings) into tools your assistant can call mid-conversation. You type the request, and the assistant does the clicking.
There are four kinds of WordPress MCP right now, and the five options compared below run from free to $899 a year. Some are free and still the wrong pick for most people. The difference that matters is what happens when the AI gets something wrong, because your live site is never the experiment.
Three requests, and what happens after each
Take a wedding photographer's portfolio site with 40 gallery pages and a contact form that books most of the year's work.
Write a meta description for each of my 40 gallery pages, under 155 characters, naming the venue in each one.
The edits go into whichever SEO plugin the site runs (Yoast, Rank Math, SEOPress or AIOSEO), into its own fields. All 40 land as one change set. If the tone's wrong, one request puts every one of them back.
Switch the site's accent color to the sage green from my logo and give me a preview link.
Design changes are staged by default. You get a preview link to look at on your phone, and nothing goes live until you publish it.
Update all the plugins, then load the contact page as a visitor and tell me if anything looks off.
Under the default approval policy, plugin updates wait for you to approve them, and Kitepod takes a checkpoint before each one so any single plugin can be rolled back. Once they're out, it loads the page as a logged-out visitor and screenshots it before and after.
The four kinds of WordPress MCP
Every option below speaks MCP. They differ in where they run, how you connect, and what undo looks like.
| Option | Cost (as of October 2026) | How you connect | Undo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official MCP Adapter | Free, open source | Local proxy on your computer with an application password, or WP-CLI | Not built in |
| Novamira | Free core; Pro €69/yr to €299 lifetime | Plugin, with an application password or OAuth | "Not every action can be rolled back" (WP Mayor) |
| WPVibe | Free to 100 tool calls a day; Pro 500; $99–$899/yr | Remote URL, then approve an authorization link | Drafts and trash |
| Respira | 7-day trial, then €19/mo | An MCP URL on your own site with browser sign-in, or a local npx server with an API key | 90 days |
| Kitepod | Free, unlimited sites and calls | Remote URL, OAuth | 90 days, per edit, task or session |
The official MCP Adapter
WordPress's own MCP Adapter is a free plugin from the AI Building Blocks project. It exposes abilities registered through the Abilities API (new in WordPress 6.9) as MCP tools. Its default server gives the assistant three: discover abilities, get ability info, and run an ability.
An ability only shows up if a plugin registered it and flagged it public, so what your assistant can do depends on which plugins you run. For a remote site you run a Node proxy (@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote) on your own computer with a username and application password. Developers will like it. Someone who just wants the footer fixed won't get far.
Self-hosted plugins
Novamira is an open-source plugin that gives the assistant PHP execution, database access, files and WP-CLI. The core is free with no site limit, and Pro adds builder support and memory from €69 a year (per WP Mayor's review). That same review says the abilities belong on staging. There's a fuller comparison at Novamira vs Kitepod.
Hosted connectors
Kitepod is one of these, and so is WPVibe, which gives you one remote URL and a plugin. Its free plan stops at 100 tool calls a day, which a long editing session can burn through. The full breakdown is at WPVibe vs Kitepod. Respira runs the MCP endpoint on your own site, with a 7-day trial and then €19 a month.
Your platform's own
WordPress.com got MCP write tools on its paid plans in March 2026, with every change needing your approval. If your site lives on WordPress.com, that's the obvious start.
What's actually different about Kitepod
Free isn't the difference. The MCP Adapter is free. Novamira's core is free. AI Engine, a popular AI plugin, now ships a free MCP server that its plugin page says needs no account, no cap and no API key.
But two things in that table only show up in Kitepod's row:
- It's hosted, signs in with OAuth and has no call cap. You paste one URL into Claude or ChatGPT, with no proxy on your laptop, no application password, and only a short per-site rate limit so a runaway agent can't hammer your server.
- Every write is snapshotted first, and you can undo one edit, a whole task or a whole session for 90 days.
Kitepod can be free because it doesn't run an AI model; your own Claude or ChatGPT plan does the thinking. Everything in it today stays free, and sites connected now keep it.
If you'd rather nothing left your own server, the Adapter or Novamira are fair picks. You'll be building the safety net yourself.
Set it up in three steps
It takes about two minutes.
- Install the Kitepod plugin (Plugins → Add New → Upload, then pick the zip). It needs WordPress 6.4+ and PHP 7.4+, on any host that can make outgoing HTTPS requests.
- In wp-admin click Connect, sign in to Kitepod, and pick which WordPress user the AI acts as. It never gets more power than that user has.
- Add
https://kitepod.com/mcpto your assistant, sign in to Kitepod and click Allow.
Step three looks a little different in each app: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex each have their own page. If you've never added a remote server, what a remote MCP server is explains the sign-in part.
Who it's for, and who it isn't
It's for freelancers and agencies with a handful of client sites, and owners who'd rather type a sentence than learn where their theme hides the header settings. Every connected site sits in the same conversation, so one request can cover all of them.
It isn't for WordPress.com plans that can't run plugins, since Kitepod needs a self-hosted site. It isn't a backup service, so keep your own backups. And if a site is completely down and the plugin can't answer, Kitepod can't reach it; that's a job for your host or SFTP.
Finer points
Is there an official WordPress MCP server?
Yes. The MCP Adapter is an official WordPress package, introduced on the WordPress developer blog in February 2026. It exposes abilities from the Abilities API (WordPress 6.9+) as MCP tools. It doesn't include a hosted connection or an undo system.
Do I need an API key or application password?
Not with Kitepod. You sign in with OAuth when your assistant first connects and click Allow. The Adapter's remote setup uses an application password stored in your MCP client's config.
Which page builders work?
Kitepod reads and writes Elementor, Bricks, Breakdance and Beaver Builder layouts through each builder's own save code, and edits Divi 4 and Divi 5 content too. Unknown widget names get refused instead of guessed. See Elementor for how that looks.
Will it work on my host?
On any host that can make outgoing HTTPS requests, which is nearly all of them. Some hosts have their own AI tools too, like Hostinger.
What needs my approval?
Under the default policy, ordinary content, media, menu, SEO and design edits run directly (design is staged until you publish it), and every one is snapshotted. Plugin installs and updates, theme switches, permanent deletes, users, roles, database writes and code wait for a person.
If you only compare one column in that table, make it the undo column.