Connect your AI · WordPress MCP tools

WordPress MCP Tools

Q: What is the difference between a tool, an ability and an action?

A tool is what your AI calls: one of the operations on the WordPress MCP Tools page, published by the MCP server. An ability is what a plugin registers about itself through the WordPress Abilities API, run by the plugin with its own permission checks; Automator registers its own operations as abilities too (WordPress 6.9+). An action is Uncanny Automator’s own, built for each plugin and app whether or not that plugin registers anything, callable on request and usable inside recipes. The tools find and run the abilities and the actions (discover_ability finds an ability, run_ability runs it); the full list of both, by plugin, is on the List of WordPress Abilities by Plugin page.

Q: Do I need Pro for any of this?

The free plugin includes every tool, every skill and actions; what a skill teaches can need Pro or the plugin it is about. Pro adds the actions marked Pro (WooCommerce actions, editing users, premium plugins and apps), the manual trigger behind run-recipe, and unlimited recipes between plugins and apps.

The tools your AI gets when you connect it to your WordPress site through Uncanny Automator, an MCP server for WordPress with a built-in automation engine.

Connect ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity or any AI app that supports remote MCP servers and it sees the same small, fixed set: 16 tools that open thousands of operations on your site.

Start free

Connect your AI

★★★★★ 4.9/5 on WordPress.org40,000+ active sitesAutomating WordPress since 2018

Works with

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini

Copilot

Perplexity

and any AI app that supports remote MCP servers

16 tools

2,680+ plugin abilities

850+ actions · 440+ free

240+ plugins and apps

200+ skills

1. What is an MCP tool?

2. Why 16 tools

3. The tools

4. Skills

5. How the switches work

6. Abilities and actions by plugin

What is a WordPress MCP tool?

MCP, in one line

The Model Context Protocol is how AI apps such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini connect to other software. An MCP server publishes tools: named operations, each with a plain-language description and a schema, that an AI can call. WordPress MCP tools decide what your AI can see and do on your site.

Uncanny Automator is the server

An MCP server for WordPress with a built-in automation engine, built into the free plugin. Connect ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity or any AI app that supports remote MCP servers at mcp.automatorplugin.com, in 60 seconds, and it sees the 16 tools on this page.

A tool use is one job

One thing your AI does on your site through Uncanny Automator: publish a draft, add a customer to a course, post a message about the spring sale to Instagram. A bigger request can take several, because your AI may look a few things up first. Lite includes 150 tool uses a day (300 a day in your first week), refreshed daily. Paid plans have unlimited tool usage.

2 · Why we built it this way

16 tools. Not 500.

Most WordPress MCP servers turn every feature into its own tool, so after a few plugins your AI is staring at hundreds of them. We went the other way: 16 tools that open your entire site, and your AI finds the exact action it needs only when it needs it.

Your AI gets smarter.

Every tool in the list takes up your AI’s working memory, in every message, all conversation long. Give it hundreds and it spends that memory reading a menu, and picks the wrong item more often. With 16, its attention stays on your site and your task.

Your wallet stays fat.

AI apps charge by tokens, and the tool list is re-sent with every message you type. A bloated MCP server bills you for reading its menu again and again, all day. Ours stays small, so more of every dollar and every plan limit goes to real work on your site.

Nothing left out.

16 tools reach what you do in wp-admin: posts, pages, menus, media, WooCommerce, your plugins’ own settings and abilities, your Automator recipes, plus 440+ actions across the plugins and apps you run (850+ with Pro). Off the table, on purpose: raw database changes, deleting users, shell commands and file changes.

Breadth lives behind discovery.

rest_discover lists what your site can do. discover_ability and Automator’s search find the right ability or action among thousands by description and load only the fields it needs. A skill, from a library of 200+, shows how to combine them for the plugins you run. Your AI reaches everything without carrying it all in its head.

But don’t take our word for it. Ask the AI you already use.

“Why is a smaller tool surface better in an MCP server? Consider context-window cost, tool-selection accuracy, failed calls, and progressive discovery through a search tool versus loading hundreds of tool schemas.”

Each link opens the AI app with the question typed in. The question is neutral on purpose.

The tools

16 tools, the same for every connected AI app and for Uncanny Agent: six from the hosted service, ten from your site. Names match what your AI sees.

read Only looks. Changes nothing.

write Changes your site. Needs read-and-write access.

destructive AI apps ask you before using it. The hint comes from the hosted service, never from the site.

Sites, skills, media and help, from the hosted service

`list_sites`	read	List the sites connected to your account that this AI app may use. Never contacts a site.
`search_skills`	read	Find a skill by describing the task or naming the plugin. A skill is step-by-step guidance; it grants no permission, installs nothing and adds no tool. Needs no site.
`get_skill`	read	Load one skill in full: its steps and the tools it combines. Needs no site and makes no WordPress request.
`prepare_media_upload`	write	Open an upload card inside ChatGPT or Claude. Pick a file and it lands in the site’s Media Library as a real attachment, checked against the site’s upload limits; your AI gets the attachment ID, filename and URL. AI apps without the card get an alternative workflow.
`recall`	read	Search Uncanny Automator’s own documentation, with the matching triggers, actions, conditions and loop filters, so your AI answers Automator questions from the source instead of guessing. Needs no site and uses no Uncanny Agent credits.
`report_issue`	write	Report a problem with Uncanny Automator itself to our team: a tool that failed, a wrong or missing skill, a misleading error. Your AI files it after trying the documented routes, with passwords, keys and personal data replaced by placeholders, and gives you the report ID. Nobody replies, and nothing changes on any site. Needs no site.

Discover and run what your site offers

`discover_ability`	read	Search or browse the WordPress abilities your plugins register, filtered by keyword or plugin, or pass an exact ability name to get its input and output schema before running it. A shortcut to the same ability catalog Automator’s search uses; it respects your ability switches and never runs anything.
`rest_discover`	read	Discover the reviewed native WordPress REST operations on this site, with their live arguments and schema, including the abilities your plugins register and Automator’s own abilities (WordPress 6.9+). An entry point into the live site, not a fixed list.
`rest_request`	write	Run one reviewed native WordPress REST operation inside WordPress, with its normal permission checks and validation, including any ability at /wp-abilities/v1/abilities/<plugin>/<name>/run. Changes need read-and-write access. No arbitrary routes, no proxy, no stored credentials.
`run_ability`	write	Run an ability another plugin registered through the WordPress Abilities API, when its switch is on, by the name discover_ability returned. The plugin runs it with its own permission checks.

Maintain and inspect the site

`site_manage`	write	WP-CLI-style maintenance built into Automator: update, install, activate and deactivate plugins and themes from WordPress.org and switch their auto-updates; moderate comments; switch maintenance mode on (1 to 10 minutes) or off; run cron events, flush caches, transients and rewrite rules; set search-engine visibility and the site language. “Update every plugin and tell me what changed.” Nothing is ever deleted or uninstalled, WordPress core and Automator itself are never touched, and updates run one at a time. Published as destructive, so AI apps ask you first; behind the site-management switch.
`site_command`	read	Read the site’s code and files with GNU-style commands implemented in PHP inside Automator (ls, find, cat, head, tail, grep, sed -n, wc, checksums, joined with \| and xargs), WP-CLI-style read commands such as plugin list –status=active, and core verify-checksums against what wordpress.org publishes. It never writes a file, runs no shell, never opens wp-config.php, keys, backups or archives, never leaves the folders WordPress resolves, and says when results are partial. Behind the code-and-file-reading switch, with your own list of files it may never open.

Database, read-only, behind your switch

`mysql_get_tables`	read	List database tables and approximate row counts. Has a switch of its own, like the three tools below.
`mysql_get_table_columns`	read	Describe the columns of one or more tables.
`mysql_select_from_table`	read	Run a read-only SELECT with joins, capped at 100 rows, with password hashes and keys removed.
`mysql_get_cell_chunk`	read	Read a large cell value in chunks.

What the tools reach: Automator’s own abilities (automator/*, WordPress 6.9+)

Automator’s own 25 operations are registered as native WordPress abilities under the automator/ namespace on WordPress 6.9+. Your AI discovers them with rest_discover and runs them through rest_request; their original tool switches still apply. On older WordPress the same operations remain available as the previous catalog’s tools. The abilities other plugins register, and the actions your AI can run for each plugin, are on the List of WordPress Abilities by Plugin page.

Show the 25 Automator abilities

Discover

`automator/search`	read	Find triggers, actions, conditions, loop filters, loopable tokens and WordPress abilities by describing what you want (“send an email when someone registers”) or by listing a full catalog.
`automator/get-component-schema`	read	Get the fields a trigger, action, condition or ability needs, with types, defaults and which fields need dropdown values.
`automator/get-field-options`	read	Resolve the dropdown choices for a field, including cascading choices such as a workspace and then its projects.
`automator/get-site-context`	read	Read the site’s name, WordPress and Automator versions, the acting user, the active integrations, the native theme presets and content templates, and the MCP tools version, so the hosted service picks up new tools after an Automator update with no reconnect.

Build recipes

`automator/save-recipe`	write	Create a new recipe as a draft, or update its title, status, notes, throttling and run limits. Returns the link to open it in the builder.
`automator/save-trigger`	write	Add or update the trigger that starts a recipe.
`automator/save-action`	write	Add or update an action inside a recipe, in order, with its field values.
`automator/save-block`	write	Add or update a block that wraps actions: a filter block runs the actions inside it only when its conditions pass; a queue-or-schedule block holds them until the wait elapses or the date arrives.
`automator/save-filter-condition`	write	Add or update one condition on a filter block, such as “the order total is over $100”.
`automator/save-loop`	write	Add or update a loop over users, posts or a set of data, so actions run once per item.
`automator/save-loop-filter`	write	Add or update a filter that narrows which items a loop runs on.
`automator/delete`	destructive	Remove a trigger, action, loop, loop filter, block or filter condition from a recipe. By default the actions inside a deleted loop or block move up to its position; a flag deletes them instead.

Run

`automator/run-action`	write	Run any available Automator action right now, outside a recipe: enroll a learner, tag a contact, post to Slack, create an invoice. Pro actions require a Pro plan.
`automator/run-recipe`	write	Run a published recipe on demand. The recipe needs the manual trigger (Pro); the run is queued and get-logs reports the outcome.

Read your site

`automator/get-posts`	read	Query posts, pages and any custom post type, with filters for status, parent, custom fields, dates and search.
`automator/get-terms`	read	Query categories, tags, product categories, course categories and any custom taxonomy.
`automator/list-plugins`	read	List the plugins installed on the site, active or inactive.
`automator/list-roles`	read	List the site’s user roles and a summary of their capabilities.
`automator/list-users`	read	Search users by name, email, role or user meta, with paging.
`automator/list-recipes`	read	List recipes with filters for status, type or title.
`automator/get-recipe`	read	Get one recipe in full: triggers, actions in order, loops, filters, conditions and user selector.
`automator/get-tokens`	read	List the tokens (dynamic values) available inside a recipe, including trigger, action and loop fields.
`automator/get-logs`	read	Read recipe run logs: which runs happened, for whom, with what result, and the detail of any single run.

Edit content

`automator/post-apply-content-edit`	write	Apply precise, literal edits to the content of a post, page or supported custom post type (product and course descriptions included) against a content hash, so nothing else on the page changes.
`automator/post-apply-meta-edit`	write	Change the custom fields (post meta) of a post, page or custom post type without breaking their stored form: read a key first, then set, patch, add or delete against its hash; the changes save together or not at all.

The tools above find and run two libraries: the abilities your plugins register through the WordPress Abilities API (2,680 abilities from 153 plugins in the directory today, each with its own switch) and Uncanny Automator’s own 850+ actions (440+ free in Lite) across 240+ plugins and apps, including apps outside WordPress.

See the list of WordPress abilities and actions by plugin

Skills

Skills are step-by-step guidance your AI loads for a specific plugin or task: which tools to use, in what order, what to check and what to avoid. Uncanny Automator ships 200+ of them, so your AI already knows how to work with the plugins you run. Two hosted tools deliver them, search_skills and get_skill. A skill adds instructions, not a tool or a permission. No other WordPress MCP server ships plugin-specific skills.

Automator

Recipe building (triggers, actions, conditions, loops, tokens, queues and schedules), running actions and recipes, diagnosing recipes, webhooks in and out, CSV, JSON, XML and RSS feeds, data transformation, recipe transfer, Magic Buttons, failed-run recovery and three getting-started guides.

WordPress and your plugins

Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO, Wordfence, LiteSpeed Cache, WP-Optimize, UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, Redirection, Fluent Forms, WPForms, Contact Form 7, WP Mail SMTP, ACF, TablePress, Polylang, Jetpack, Site Kit, MonsterInsights, WPCode, Tutor LMS, Paid Memberships Pro, BuddyBoss, FluentCRM, Spectra and about 90 more, plus guides for WordPress itself: content and publishing, media, menus, taxonomies, users and privacy, settings, plugins and themes, caches and cron, diagnostics, speed, accessibility, security recovery, SEO and analytics.

WooCommerce

Capabilities, products, orders, coupons, refunds, shipping, tax, checkout diagnostics, downloads, product imports, store reports, webhooks.

LearnDash

Course authoring, enrollment, learner progress, groups.

Elementor

Readiness, authoring, design system, knowledge, publishing.

Divi

Design, building pages, editing modules, Theme Builder headers and footers, reading the Theme Builder and Library.

WPBakery

Building pages and editing content through Automator’s content-edit operation in its WPBakery mode.

Uncanny Page Builder

Authoring, headers and footers, menus, sliders, carousels, accordions, forms and galleries, media, bindings, reusable parts, SEO, accessibility, design QA, animations, custom JavaScript.

Workflows and research

Workflow entry maps that chain the guides above for a whole job, and a research skill.

Plugin guides are qualified through source reviews and, where we have the plugin, live validation on real sites. Some describe work your AI can only finish with a browser, a host or a terminal. Skills ship with the service: no marketplace, no authoring screen, nothing to upload.

Try asking

“Set up Yoast for a new site”

Loads the Yoast skill, then runs Yoast’s abilities and the reviewed REST operations.

“Update every plugin and tell me what changed”

site_manage, one update at a time; a batch stops at the first failure.

“Something broke after the last update. Find out what.”

site_command reads the code and files and verifies WordPress core against the official checksums.

“Refund order 1042 and restock it”

Loads the WooCommerce refunds skill, then works through WooCommerce’s own abilities and REST operations.

“Outline a LearnDash course as a draft”

Loads the LearnDash course-authoring skill and uses Automator’s LearnDash curriculum operations.

“Give the site a new footer in Divi’s Theme Builder”

Loads the Divi Theme Builder skill; the footer is tried on one page before it goes site-wide, with your yes.

“How do I connect a second site?”

recall searches Automator’s own documentation.

“Not sure where to start?”

Loads the getting-started guide.

FAQ

How the switches work

Something else? Read the full FAQ or browse the knowledge base.

Who decides what my AI can call?

You do. Each connected app is read-only or read-and-write and sees only the sites you allow. Every tool, every integration, every single action and every ability has its own switch, with one switch each for database access, site management and code and file reading. The switches apply to every connected AI app at once, and no AI app can change them; the site-management switch applies to Uncanny Agent too.

What is the difference between a tool, an ability and an action?

A tool is what your AI calls: one of the 16 operations on the WordPress MCP Tools page, published by the MCP server. An ability is what a plugin registers about itself through the WordPress Abilities API, run by the plugin with its own permission checks; Automator registers its own operations as abilities too (WordPress 6.9+). An action is Uncanny Automator’s own, built for each plugin and app whether or not that plugin registers anything, callable on request and usable inside recipes. The tools find and run the abilities and the actions (discover_ability finds an ability, run_ability runs it); the full list of both, by plugin, is on the List of WordPress Abilities by Plugin page.

What is a skill?

Step-by-step guidance your AI loads for a specific plugin or task. Uncanny Automator ships 200+ of them, including guides for Yoast, Rank Math, WooCommerce, LearnDash, Wordfence, LiteSpeed Cache, UpdraftPlus, Fluent Forms, WPForms, ACF, Polylang and TablePress. Two hosted tools deliver them, search_skills and get_skill. A skill grants no permission, installs nothing and adds no tool.

Can my AI query the database?

Yes, read-only, with a switch of its own. The four database tools run SELECT queries capped at 100 rows, with password hashes and keys removed; nothing can be changed. On a network only a network administrator can grant it.

Can my AI read my site’s code?

Yes, read-only, behind the code-and-file-reading switch. Your AI can inspect your site’s code and files to diagnose a problem, and verify WordPress core against the official checksums. It can never change a file, it never opens wp-config.php, keys or backups, and you choose what else it may never open.

Can my AI update my plugins?

Yes, behind its own switch. Nothing is ever deleted or uninstalled, and WordPress core is never touched.

Can my AI upload an image?

Yes. prepare_media_upload opens an upload card inside ChatGPT or Claude; pick the file and it lands in the site’s Media Library as a real attachment, with the ID, filename and URL returned to your AI.

Can my AI search users?

Uncanny Agent can today. Deleting users is never available to any AI.

I run several sites. Do I connect each one?

Connect every site once. Each AI app sees the sites you allow, and new sites join automatically; remove a site from an app under Connected AI apps whenever you like. On Lite, 150 tool uses a day are shared across all your connected sites.

Do I need Pro for any of this?

The free plugin includes every tool, every skill and 440+ actions; what a skill teaches can need Pro or the plugin it is about. Pro adds the actions marked Pro (WooCommerce actions, editing users, premium plugins and apps), the manual trigger behind run-recipe, and unlimited recipes between plugins and apps.

Is Uncanny Automator a WordPress MCP server?

Yes. An MCP server is how AI apps such as ChatGPT or Claude connect to other software. Uncanny Automator is an MCP server for WordPress with a built-in automation engine: it connects your AI to your WordPress site, so you can manage and automate the site with your AI.

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