How to connect Claude to WordPress, step by step 🔌
The captures below come from a test store running WordPress 7.1.3 and Easy MCP AI 2.2.2, taken on 2026-10-22. If a label has moved by the time you read this, the logic still holds.
Step 1: Install Easy MCP AI
Easy MCP AI is a free plugin that turns your site into an MCP server: Claude connects straight to your site over OAuth 2.1, with no hosted relay and no vendor account. Easy MCP AI is built by Themeisle, the team behind WPShout.
All 280+ tools are included, and there is no paid tier or vendor quota. The same plugin also connects ChatGPT, and WordPress.org listed 20,000+ active installs on 2026-10-22.
In wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin, search for Easy MCP AI, click Install Now, then Activate.
👉 Get Easy MCP AI free from WordPress.org
Step 2: Open the connect card on the Dashboard
Open Easy MCP AI > Dashboard: the connect card walks you through three steps, choose a client, add this site, confirm it works. If the site has no API key and no OAuth grant yet, the card is already open; otherwise click the Connect an AI client button.
The card’s first screen asks which app you want to connect. On the test copy, Claude.ai was one of eight featured tiles, with a Show all 18 clients link for the rest.
Pick the Claude.ai tile: Step 2 offers a Connect to Claude (1-click) button that opens claude.ai with your server pre-filled, and further down the card lists your MCP server URL, your site’s https address followed by /wp-json/easy-mcp-ai/v1/mcp, with a Copy URL button for adding it by hand.
Step 3: Add the connector in Claude
To add it by hand on an individual account, open Customize > Connectors > + Add > Add custom connector on claude.ai (on Team and Enterprise, an Owner adds it under Organization settings > Connectors instead); the connect card’s manual steps still say Settings > Connectors, a screen that now only points to Customize.
In a live test on 2026-10-22 (an individual claude.ai account on the web, the test store reached through a temporary tunnel), the 1-click link opened the Add custom connector dialog pre-filled with the site’s name and MCP URL, under a red notice that the connector was suggested by an external link. Check both fields, then click Continue.
Claude then checks the server. In that test it detected Sign in now for authentication and Register automatically as the OAuth client (the plugin advertises automatic registration; Claude’s published identity was not detected), so keep the detected settings and click Add.
Once you complete the sign-in in Step 4, the remote connector is available in Claude Desktop and Cowork without adding it again. Claude Code has its own tile on the connect card, and if your tool of choice is Cursor, a separate walkthrough covers connecting Cursor to WordPress in detail.
Step 4: Approve access on your site
After you click Add, the connector is saved but not connected yet; click Connect on its page to start the sign-in, which takes you to your own WordPress site. Sign in as the WordPress user Claude should act as, because every tool call then runs with that user’s capability checks.
The consent page offers three access levels, Read-only, Full access, and Custom, plus a permissions grid with Select all and Clear buttons. For most jobs, pick the Custom access level, click Clear first, and tick only the rows the task needs, for example Posts & Pages read and write for editorial work.
Before you tick anything, two things are worth knowing. First, a write row covers its whole category, so Posts & Pages write can also delete posts and pages. Second, Full access includes REST write, while a Custom grant leaves it out unless you tick that row, so keep it unticked for content work. Select all never ticks a privileged row, and any bulk change sets the grant to Custom.
Bind the connection to a user whose role fits the job, an editor for content work rather than an administrator. When the grid looks right, click the Approve & Continue button.
Step 5: Check the connection
Back in Claude, start a new chat and enable only this connector from the + menu, in the Connectors section. The connect card’s third step offers a copyable check prompt that asks the AI to read the site without changing anything; it reads like this:
Example prompt: Use Easy MCP AI to read my WordPress site at https://your-site.example with the wp_get_site_settings tool, and tell me its name and address. If that tool isn’t available, use wp_list_posts and tell me how many posts it returns. If it fails, show me the error. Don’t change anything.
Before you run it, go back to the Dashboard: now that a grant exists, the card has closed, so click Connect an AI client and pick the Claude.ai tile again, then use the card’s connection-check button to reach the third step, where the copy prompt lives and the card waits for the first call. Then judge the result on the Dashboard, not only in the chat: the card switches from waiting to showing that Claude.ai is connected only when a tool call from Claude actually arrives, so that switch, together with a reply that names your site and its address, is the proof the connection works.
