GDS MCP

WordPress MCP abilities plugin for content management, translations, and forms. Exposes WordPress functionality as MCP tools that AI assistants (Claude Desktop, etc.) can use to manage content on behalf of editors.

Built on the WordPress MCP Adapter and Abilities API.

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.0
• WordPress >= 6.8
• wordpress/mcp-adapter (required)
• wordpress/abilities-api (required, ships with WP 6.9+)

Installation

composer require generoi/gds-mcp
wp plugin activate gds-mcp

Abilities

Core (always available)

Ability	Description
gds/post-types-list	Discover all registered post types with labels and counts
gds/posts-create	Create a new post, page, or custom post type
gds/posts-read	Read a post with content, meta, taxonomy terms, language, and translations
gds/posts-list	Search and filter posts by type, language, status
gds/posts-update	Update title, content, excerpt, status, or slug
gds/media-search	Search the media library by filename, title, or MIME type
gds/media-upload	Download a file from URL and add to the media library
gds/menus-manage	Create, update, or delete navigation menus (name, locations)
gds/menus-list	List navigation menus with language and location assignments
gds/menus-get	Get all items in a navigation menu
gds/menus-add-item	Add an item to a navigation menu
gds/menus-update-item	Update a menu item's title, URL, parent, or position
gds/terms-manage	List, create, or update taxonomy terms
gds/posts-duplicate	Clone a post with content, meta, terms, and featured image as a draft
gds/posts-bulk-update	Update status or meta across multiple posts by query or IDs (supports dry run)
gds/posts-revisions	List, view, or restore post revisions
gds/posts-delete	Move a post to trash or permanently delete (force=true)
gds/terms-delete	Permanently delete a taxonomy term
gds/media-delete	Permanently delete a media attachment and files
gds/menus-remove-item	Remove an item from a navigation menu
gds/blocks-get	Get full details for a block: attributes, supports, styles, example markup from the demo page or published posts

Resources (always available)

Resource	URI	Description
gds/blocks-catalog	blocks://catalog	Lightweight index of all registered blocks with styles, allowed inner blocks, parent constraints
gds/site-map	site://pages	Site structure from the primary navigation menu tree + disconnected pages
gds/design-theme-json	theme://json	Design tokens from theme.json (colors, spacing, font sizes, layout) + resolved CSS custom properties
gds/design-css-vars	design://css-vars	All resolved CSS custom properties from the theme stylesheet

ACF (when active)

Resource	URI	Description
gds/acf-fields	acf://fields	ACF field groups with fields, types, and post type assignments

Posts read via gds/posts-read automatically include structured ACF field data (label, type, value) when ACF is active.

Polylang (when active)

Ability	Description
gds/translations-create	Create a translated post linked via Polylang (copies content, meta, terms)
gds/translations-create-term	Create a translated taxonomy term linked via Polylang
gds/translations-audit	Audit all content for missing translations across post types
gds/strings-list	List registered Polylang string translations with status per language
gds/strings-update	Update a string translation for a specific language
gds/translations-machine	Machine-translate a post or string group via DeepL (Polylang Pro)

Gravity Forms (when active)

Ability	Description
gds/forms-list	List all forms with entry counts
gds/forms-get	Get a form with all fields, confirmations, and notifications
gds/forms-entries	Query form submissions with filtering and pagination
gds/forms-create	Create a form from a structured field definition

Yoast SEO (when active)

Ability	Description
gds/seo-get	Read SEO title, meta description, focus keyphrase
gds/seo-update	Update SEO metadata for a post

Cache (sage-cachetags)

Ability	Description
gds/cache-clear	Flush site cache or purge specific content by cache tag

Redirects (Safe Redirect Manager / Redirection / Yoast)

Ability	Description
gds/redirects-manage	List or create URL redirects (auto-detects plugin)

Stream (when active)

Ability	Description
gds/activity-query	Query the activity log for recent changes

Connecting

STDIO (developers with shell access)

Configure in Claude Code or Claude Desktop MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wordpress": {
      "command": "ddev",
      "args": ["wp", "mcp-adapter", "serve", "--server=mcp-adapter-default-server", "--user=admin"]
    }
  }
}

HTTP (production, remote access)

For production or remote sites, use the HTTP transport with a WordPress application password.

1. Create an application password:

# Via WP-CLI
wp user application-password create USERNAME yourname-claude-mcp --porcelain

# Or via WP Admin: Users > Profile > Application Passwords

2. Claude Code:

AUTH=$(echo -n 'USERNAME:YOUR_APP_PASSWORD' | base64)
claude mcp add-json -s local my-site-production \
  "{\"type\":\"http\",\"url\":\"https://example.com/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server\",\"headers\":{\"Authorization\":\"Basic $AUTH\"}}"

3. Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://example.com/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "USERNAME",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Host project setup

The host project needs the MCP adapter bootstrap mu-plugin to expose abilities. Example gds-mcp-adapter.php:

<?php
use WP\MCP\Core\McpAdapter;

if (! defined('ABSPATH') || ! class_exists(McpAdapter::class)) {
    return;
}

McpAdapter::instance();

// Expose all gds/ and core/ abilities as public MCP tools.
add_filter('wp_register_ability_args', function (array $args, string $name): array {
    if (str_starts_with($name, 'gds/') || str_starts_with($name, 'core/')) {
        $args['meta']['mcp']['public'] = true;
    }
    return $args;
}, 10, 2);

Disabling destructive operations

To expose everything except delete operations, use a deny-list:

add_filter('wp_register_ability_args', function (array $args, string $name): array {
    if (!str_starts_with($name, 'gds/') && !str_starts_with($name, 'core/')) {
        return $args;
    }

    // Deny destructive operations.
    $denied = [
        'gds/posts-delete',
        'gds/terms-delete',
        'gds/media-delete',
        'gds/menus-remove-item',
    ];

    if (!in_array($name, $denied, true)) {
        $args['meta']['mcp']['public'] = true;
    }

    return $args;
}, 10, 2);

Development

composer install
composer lint        # Check code style
composer lint:fix    # Fix code style

Testing

Uses wp-env for integration testing with WordPress + all integration plugins:

npx @wordpress/env start
npx @wordpress/env run tests-cli wp plugin activate gds-mcp polylang-pro gravityforms wordpress-seo safe-redirect-manager redirection stream
npx @wordpress/env run tests-cli --env-cwd=wp-content/plugins/gds-mcp vendor/bin/phpunit
npx @wordpress/env stop

License

MIT