Agents can read and write posts, pages, media, users, menus, WooCommerce orders, and Elementor pages over the Model Context Protocol. Every call is capability-gated, rate-limited, and audit-logged.
Capabilities
- Content — Posts, pages, custom post types (full CRUD + revisions + featured images)
- Taxonomies — Categories, tags, custom taxonomies, term meta, post-term linking
- Media — Browse, upload (URL or base64), update metadata, delete
- Comments — Create, moderate (approve / spam / trash)
- Users — Read display names + roles (emails and usernames are not exposed)
- Menus — Read, create items, reorder, update with destructive-write guardrails
- Theme — Custom CSS, theme mods, active theme detection
- Site — Permalink structure, options (allowlisted), site info
- Search — Cross-content search by query
- SEO — Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO meta read/write where the plugin is active
- Diagnostics — Site status (WP/PHP/MySQL/plugins/themes/cron in one call), PHP error-log tail, WP cron schedule, and MCP
royal_mcp_connection_health (returns route, auth method, session ID, plugin version, and active page-builder versions for Divi + Elementor + Gutenberg)
Auto-register only when the integrated plugin is active.
| Plugin | Tools | What's covered |
|---|
| WooCommerce | 29 | Products, variations, attributes, coupons, orders (create/update/notes), customers, store stats |
| Elementor | 14 | Clone pages, replace text, swap images, get outline (with optional include-styles), read single element, list templates, import templates, add widget, rebuild post_content, widget-schema discovery, widget-list discovery, dynamic-tag discovery |
| Divi | 9 | Format detection (D4 shortcode vs D5 block), page outline, layout validation, library list + get, find/replace with builder-format awareness, clone, image swap, library apply |
| GuardPress | 7 | Security score, failed logins, blocked IPs, vulnerability scans, audit log |
| SiteVault | 6 | Trigger backups, monitor progress, list schedules |
| Royal AI Firewall | 6 | Dashboard stats, recent bot hits, per-bot policies (allow / block / challenge), daily rollups |
| Yoast SEO | 5 | Read/write Yoast meta (raw + resolved), capture JSON-LD schema graph, list indexed internal links, list Premium redirects |
| Redirection | 4 | List redirects with group + URL-substring filters, create + update redirects (301 / 302 / 307 / regex / groups), list redirect groups |
| Royal Ledger | 4 | Software costs, renewal dates, license keys (values never exposed) |
| Advanced Custom Fields | 4 | Read/write ACF fields with each field's Return Format respected (hydrated post objects, parsed repeater rows, image arrays); enumerate field groups |
| UpdraftPlus | 4 | List backup history, read per-backup status, trigger async backups with entity filtering, read schedule |
| WPForms | 4 | List forms, read a single form's parsed field schema, (Pro) list submissions, (Pro) read single submission |
| Solid Security | 4 | Read security status, list currently locked-out IPs, read the security event log, add an IP to the ban list |
| MonsterInsights | 4 | Read the analytics overview, top pages, traffic sources, and top Google Search Console queries |
| BuddyPress | 4 | List community members, read a single member profile, list groups, read the activity feed (same detection covers BuddyBoss Platform) |
| Contact Form 7 | 3 | List forms, read a single form's parsed field schema, list submissions (via Flamingo add-on) |
| W3 Total Cache | 3 | Read cache configuration across every module, purge cache (all / by URL / by post), read usage statistics |
| Duplicator | 3 | List migration packages, read per-package status, get the installer URL for a completed package |
| Royal Links | 3 | Branded short links, click stats |
| ForgeCache | 4 | Cache stats, clear cache, purge URL, real-user Core Web Vitals (INP/LCP/CLS/TTFB) |
WordPress Abilities API bridge (WP 6.9+)
WordPress 6.9 shipped the Abilities API — a primitive that lets plugins register typed capabilities AI agents can call. As of 1.4.38, every Royal MCP tool also registers as a WordPress ability, giving you three ways to reach the same handlers:
- Native — Royal MCP's
/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp Streamable HTTP endpoint (unchanged, always available).
- WP MCP Adapter — if the
wordpress/mcp-adapter package is installed, Royal MCP registers a named royal-mcp-server on the mcp_adapter_init hook alongside adapter's default server.
- WP core REST — direct ability invocation at
/wp-json/wp-abilities/v1/abilities/{name}/run for callers that prefer the core WP endpoint.
Same handlers, three transports, one set of per-tool capability gates. Bridge can be disabled with the royal_mcp_abilities_registration_enabled option (default: on).
What we don't do
Explicit scope boundaries — the integration model is "narrow tools that work reliably," not "expose every API surface."
- No widget-level Elementor generation from scratch. Atomic widgets (Editor V4) pass through opaque; we never decode atomic schemas because Elementor itself may shift them.
- No Beaver Builder / Bricks page-builder JSON writes. Standard post content is readable and writable; page-builder-specific JSON storage is opaque unless covered by a dedicated tool. (Elementor and Divi have dedicated tools — see the integration table above.)
- No theme builder template creation (Elementor or otherwise).
- No core file modifications — Royal MCP never writes to
wp-content/themes, wp-includes, or wp-admin.
- No plugin installation or upgrades via MCP. Discovery yes; install/activate/deactivate no.
- No raw SQL. Queries go through
WP_Query and $wpdb->prepare() only.
Connect
Install
- Install from WordPress.org (recommended — auto-updates via WP admin) or upload the GitHub release zip.
- Royal MCP → Settings → click Generate API Key.
- Pick a client below.
Claude.ai web (OAuth — recommended)
Easiest path — no config file edits, no API key in your client.
- In Claude.ai → Settings → Connectors → Add Custom Connector.
- URL:
https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp
- Approve the OAuth consent screen when prompted. Claude.ai handles dynamic client registration + PKCE flow against your site.
Claude Desktop (.mcpb one-click bundle — new in 1.4.38)
Easiest Claude Desktop path — no mcp-remote, no npx, no config-file editing.
- Download
royal-mcp-1.4.38.mcpb from the latest GitHub release.
- Double-click the
.mcpb file — Claude Desktop opens the install prompt.
- Enter your site URL + API key when prompted. Connection is live.
The bundle ships a zero-dependency stdio-to-HTTPS bridge in Node ≥18, which Claude Desktop already includes. See Claude Desktop MCP Bundles for the .mcpb spec.
Claude Desktop (OAuth via mcp-remote)
{
"mcpServers": {
"my-wordpress": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp"]
}
}
}
Config path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).
Claude Desktop (API key)
Skip OAuth and authenticate via header:
{
"mcpServers": {
"my-wordpress": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y", "mcp-remote",
"https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp",
"--header", "X-Royal-MCP-API-Key:YOUR_API_KEY"
]
}
}
}
ChatGPT
ChatGPT's custom MCP connector takes the same URL as Claude.ai web. Follow ChatGPT's connector flow and paste https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp.
Raw HTTP (custom clients)
curl -i -X POST https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp \
-H "X-Royal-MCP-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
-d '{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "initialize",
"id": 1,
"params": {
"protocolVersion": "2025-11-25",
"capabilities": {},
"clientInfo": {"name": "my-app", "version": "1.0"}
}
}'
curl -X POST https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp \
-H "X-Royal-MCP-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Mcp-Session-Id: <session_id>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/list", "id": 2}'
Security model
| Layer | What it does |
|---|
| API key | 32-char hex, timing-safe comparison. Sent via X-Royal-MCP-API-Key header. Regenerate from admin without server restart. |
| OAuth 2.1 | RFC 7591 Dynamic Client Registration, RFC 8414 metadata, PKCE S256 required, refresh tokens supported. No implicit grant. No client_credentials grant. |
| Capability gating | Every tool checks WordPress capabilities. edit_posts for create/update, manage_options for site settings, edit_post per-post for individual operations. |
| Rate limiting | 60 requests/minute per IP, sliding window. |
| Session model | Sliding 24h TTL with refresh-on-access. Cryptographically secure 32-byte session IDs. |
| Activity log | Every tool call writes a row to a database log. Records: tool name, argument keys, IP, User-Agent, errors. Never records argument values (they may contain customer data). |
| OAuth state recovery | One-click Reset OAuth State admin button wipes all clients + tokens + auth codes, without affecting your API key or settings. |
| Discovery | .well-known/oauth-authorization-server and .well-known/oauth-protected-resource served at site root per RFC 8414 + RFC 9728. |
Full security architecture: royalplugins.com/support/royal-mcp/
Royal MCP Pro (paid)
The Free plugin is fully featured for individual site owners. Royal MCP Pro extends it for agencies and multi-site operators:
- Divi Pro suite — page clone, image swap, template import, full library CRUD, D4→D5 Migrator, global preset bulk-apply (8 tools)
- Elementor Pro depth — additional Elementor tools beyond the Free integration
- Universal audit log — every AI operation logged with attribution + export
- 72-hour undo on every write — every destructive Pro tool returns an undo token; reverse any operation within the window
- License-gated updates through the standard WordPress updater — no runtime dependencies on external license servers
Learn more at royalplugins.com/royal-mcp-pro
Further reading
License
GPLv2 or later — see LICENSE or the GNU site.
Royal MCP is provided as-is. API keys protect your endpoints; guard them like any other credential. You are responsible for the content, commands, and actions any AI platform is allowed to perform on your WordPress site.
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