Connect Claude Desktop to your WordPress sites

This guide connects Claude Desktop to your WordPress sites through the AI MCP service, from adding the connector to running your first ability.

To configure Claude Code, see Connect Claude Code.

Prerequisites

• Claude Desktop installed (download)
• A WP Engine account with at least one WordPress site
• WP Engine AI access for the user who authenticates with OAuth

1. Add the connector

1. In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
2. Select Add custom connector.
3. Enter the name wpengine and the URL https://api.ai.wpengine.com/v1/mcp.
4. Select Add.

Do not add an Authorization header. You authenticate with OAuth in the next step.

2. Sign in

1. Select Connect on the new connector.
2. Sign in with your WP Engine account in the browser window that opens.

Claude Desktop stores the sign-in and renews it for you.

3. Confirm Claude Desktop can see your sites

Start a new chat, then ask:

Use the wpengine MCP server to list my WordPress sites

Claude calls list_account_sites and returns your active registered sites, something like:

You have 3 WordPress sites connected:
1. example.com (example-prod) - Active
2. staging.example.com (example-staging) - Active
3. dev.example.com (example-dev) - Active

If no tools appear:

• Confirm the connector shows as connected under Settings → Connectors. If not, select Connect and sign in again
• Confirm the URL is exactly https://api.ai.wpengine.com/v1/mcp
• Review Claude Desktop logs under Settings → Developer
• See Troubleshooting for anything else

4. Connect your WordPress account

Listing sites and searching a knowledge base work with what you have now. Running an ability does not — that needs a second, separate connection between you and each site.

This catches almost everyone out: registering a site with WP Engine grants nobody the ability to act on it, including the administrator who registered it. The two connections explains why.

Complete this once per site:

1. Ask Claude: “What’s the WordPress connection status for my sites?”

2. For any site that is not connected, Claude hands you a link. Open it while logged in to that site’s WordPress admin. If no link comes back, build it yourself:

   {site_url}/wp-admin/admin.php?page=power-overview&action=trigger_wp_connection

   Opening this link is the only way to start the connection — there is no option to start it manually anywhere in WordPress.

3. Review the permissions, then confirm with Connect WordPress User. You land back in wp-admin, now connected. (The consent screen.)

5. Run your first ability

Create a draft post on example.com titled 'Today in the news with WP Engine' using the wpengine MCP server

Claude finds the site’s Create Post ability (wp-engine-ai/create-posts) with search_abilities, executes it with run_site_ability, and returns the new post ID and a link to the draft.

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TroubleshootingFixes by symptom, including a server your client can't see, the 'not personally connected' error, and what each error code means.

AuthenticationHow MCP clients authenticate with OAuth.

Site and WordPress account connectionsWhy a registered site still can't be written to.