All the links for my WCUS Workshop: Turn your local WordPress install into your AI coding assistant

wcus2025.md

Turn your local WordPress install into your AI coding assistant

Slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1H7rntjtk-fqY1KqY6Djm-o9AWSTccfNIgGZpFhjUjIo/edit?usp=sharing

Requirements

• Local WordPress installation
• MCP Enabled Code Editor with an AI coding agent
• Node.js to be able to use npx
• Composer
• Git (optional)

Code repositories

• MCP Adapter
  • https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro
  • Connect VS Code to MCP Servers
• mcp-wordpress-remote
• Abilities API
• AI Experiments MCP Server

Resources

• WordPress Core AI Team
• AI Building Blocks for WordPress
• Historical repos
  • https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-mcp
  • https://github.com/Automattic/wp-feature-api

Find me on social media

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Twitch
• Bluesky

VS code shortcuts

• Cmd+Shift+X to view MCP servers
• Cmd+Shift+P to open the command pallete

WCUS Workshop notes

• Make sure debugging is on (bonus points for using WP Debug)
• Make sure Studio site has permalinks set anything but plain
• Make sure composer and node.js/npx is installed (v 22 or above)

1. Install Abilties API plugin (required for MCP adapter, shipping in WordPress 6.9)
   • clone WordPress/abilities-api
   • download/install zip
2. Create MCP server plugin
   • composer init
   • composer config
   • include the autoloader
   • get the instance of the adapter
   • create the MCP server
   • (optional) test the MCP server REST API endpoint
3. Connect to VSCode
   • cmd+shift+p MCP Add server (global config)
   • .vscode/mcp.json (local project config)
   • add the server to the MCP server list
   • connect to the server
4. Install Abilities API
   • create simple ability (eg get site info)
   • register the ability as a tool
   • test the ability via MCP server
5. Create custom abilities
   • create-post ability
   • plugin-list ability
   • plugin-security-check ability
   • what else?

.vscode/mcp.json

"ai-experiments.test": {
	"command": "/home/jonathan/.nvm/versions/node/v24.0.1/bin/npx",
	"args": [
		"-y",
		"@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"      
	],
	"env": {
		"NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED": "0",
		"WP_API_URL": "https://ai-experiments.test/wp-json/ai-experiments/mcp",
		"WP_API_USERNAME": "admin",
		"WP_API_PASSWORD": "eTUq B2Sd LXTA ELmk VrSg ylZs",
		"LOG_FILE": "/home/jonathan/development/websites/ai-experiments/wp-content/plugins/mcp-server/mcp.log"
	}
}