If you’ve ever wished you could ask Claude to “draft a blog post about X, set the category to Tech, and save it as a draft” and have it actually happen on your WordPress site, you’re in the right place. With the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and the free Vibe AI plugin, that exact workflow is possible — no copy-paste, no manual editing, no API keys to manage by hand.
This guide walks you through connecting a self-hosted WordPress site to Claude using the Vibe AI plugin, from installing the plugin to running your first natural-language command against your site.
What is MCP and why does it matter?
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard developed by Anthropic that defines how AI clients like Claude communicate with external services. Think of it as a universal adapter that lets an AI assistant safely read from — and write to — your tools.
Without MCP, AI assistants can only work with whatever text you paste into the chat window. With MCP, Claude can directly query your WordPress REST API, read posts, create drafts, update categories, and manage media — all through structured, authenticated calls. The protocol handles authorization, parameter validation, and error handling for you.
The result: you describe what you want in natural language, and Claude executes it against your site.
What is the Vibe AI plugin?
Vibe AI is a free WordPress plugin that turns any self-hosted WordPress site into an MCP server. Once installed and activated, your site exposes its functionality (posts, pages, media, taxonomies, settings, and more) as tools that any MCP-compatible AI client can call.
Key features:
- Works with Claude (web, desktop, and Claude Code), ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP clients
- Uses WordPress Application Passwords for secure authentication
- Encrypts stored credentials with AES-256-GCM
- One-click authorization flow — no manual token copy-paste
- Sensible safety defaults: deletes go to trash, new posts default to draft status
This guide covers connecting to Claude on the web, but the same setup works for every other MCP client.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have:
- A self-hosted WordPress site running version 5.6 or higher (Application Passwords were added in WP 5.6)
- HTTPS enabled on your site (Application Passwords cannot be created on non-HTTPS sites)
- Administrator access to install plugins
- A Claude account (any tier — free works)
Step 1: Install the Vibe AI plugin on WordPress
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard
- Navigate to Plugins → Add New
- In the search box, type Vibe AI
- Look for “Vibe AI – MCP Server for WordPress” and click Install Now
- Wait for the installation to complete
Alternative install method: if your host blocks plugin installs from the dashboard, download the plugin ZIP from WordPress.org, then upload it via Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
Step 2: Activate the plugin
- After installation, click the Activate button
- “Vibe AI” will appear in your WordPress sidebar menu
- No additional configuration is required on the WordPress side yet — the plugin waits for a connection request from your AI client
You do not need to generate any tokens manually. The plugin handles credential creation automatically when you authorize the connection from Claude in the next step.
Step 3: Add Vibe AI as a custom connector in Claude
Now switch to the Claude app (web or mobile):
- Click your profile avatar (bottom-left on desktop, in the menu on mobile)
- Go to Settings → Connectors
- Click Add custom connector
- Fill in:
- Name: anything descriptive, like “My WordPress Site”
- Remote MCP server URL:
https://mcp.wpvibe.ai/mcp
- Click Add
Important: the URL is the same for everyone. Vibe AI hosts a central MCP endpoint that recognizes your site through the authorization step below, so don’t put your own site URL here.
Step 4: Sign in to Vibe AI with an email magic link
The first time you use the connector, Vibe AI needs to know who you are. This is a one-time setup separate from your WordPress login — it creates a Vibe AI account that stores which sites you’ve connected.
- Start a fresh chat in Claude (existing chats won’t see the newly added connector until you start a new one)
- Ask Claude something that uses the connector, for example “Connect my WordPress site”
- Vibe AI will prompt you for your email address — provide it
- Vibe AI sends a one-time magic link to that inbox
- Open your email and click the link
- You’re now authenticated — no password required
The magic link expires quickly, so check your inbox right away. Once you’re signed in, you’ll only need to do this step again if you sign out or use a different Claude account.
Step 5: Authorize the connection
Now that you’re signed in to Vibe AI, ask Claude:
“Connect my WordPress site at https://yoursite.com”
Replace yoursite.com with your actual domain.
Claude will respond with a one-click authorization link. Click it and:
- Your WordPress admin opens in your browser
- If you’re not logged in yet, sign in as the user you want Claude to act as (more on this in the Security section below)
- WordPress shows an “Authorize Application” screen with the name WPVibe
- Click Yes, I approve of this connection
- You’re redirected back to Vibe AI with a success message
Return to your Claude chat and confirm the connection. Claude will run a verification call and show your site name, WordPress version, and active theme.
Step 6: Run your first test
Now the fun part. Try asking Claude:
“List my three most recent blog posts”
Claude will call the WordPress REST API through Vibe AI and return the post titles, dates, and links. If that works, you’re fully connected.
Other useful first prompts:
- “Show me the categories on my site”
- “How many published posts do I have?”
- “Draft a short post about [topic] and save it as a draft”
When Claude creates a draft, you’ll find it under Posts → All Posts in your WordPress admin, ready for review before publishing.
Security best practice: use a dedicated user
This is the most important section of this guide.
WordPress Application Passwords inherit the full permissions of the WordPress user who creates them. If you authorize Vibe AI while logged in as an administrator, Claude can install plugins, switch themes, modify users, and change site options — far more access than is needed to write articles.
The correct approach is to create a dedicated user for AI access with the minimum role required for your workflow.
Create the dedicated user
- Go to Users → Add New
- Create a user named something like
claude-bot(or whatever you prefer) - Set the role based on what you want the AI to do (see the role table below)
Choosing the right role
- Author — create, edit, publish, and delete their own posts. Cannot manage plugins, themes, users, or pages. The safest choice for content-only workflows.
- Editor — full control over all posts and pages, but no access to plugins, themes, users, or site settings. Use this if you want the AI to edit existing posts written by other authors.
- Contributor — can only write drafts; cannot publish. Maximally cautious if you want to review every article manually before it goes live.
Re-authorize as the dedicated user
- Log out of your admin account
- Log in as the new dedicated user
- Run the Vibe AI authorization flow again from Step 4 above
- Log back in as admin and revoke the original Application Password under Users → Your Profile → Application Passwords
Now Claude operates with limited, well-scoped permissions, and every post it creates is attributed to the dedicated user — so it’s traceable in your admin and on your site.
What you can do now
With your connection live, here are practical workflows that work out of the box:
- Bulk drafting: “Draft 5 short articles about [topic], one per concept, save as drafts in the [category] category”
- SEO updates: “Review my post titled [X] and suggest a better Yoast meta description”
- Content audits: “List all posts published more than a year ago with fewer than 500 words”
- Tag cleanup: “Show me tags with zero posts so I can decide what to delete”
- Media uploads: “Find a free stock photo of [subject] and add it to the media library”
- Featured images: “Set a featured image for my latest draft”
The plugin’s safety layers mean destructive actions (delete, replace) move content to trash rather than permanently removing it, and new posts default to draft status — so you always get a review step before content goes live.
Troubleshooting
Authorization link doesn’t open WordPress admin
The link expires after 15 minutes. Request a new one by asking Claude to “connect my site” again.
“Couldn’t reach the MCP server” in Claude
Confirm the connector URL is exactly https://mcp.wpvibe.ai/mcp. Also check that your WordPress site is reachable from the public internet over HTTPS.
Claude says it can’t see my site after authorizing
Start a new chat in Claude. Connectors are loaded at the beginning of each session, so existing chats won’t see a newly added connector.
Permission errors when trying to do something
This usually means the WordPress user you authorized doesn’t have the required capability. Either promote that user’s role or create a new dedicated user with higher permissions and re-authorize.
Conclusion
Connecting WordPress to Claude with the Vibe AI plugin takes about five minutes once you know the steps. The combination of an open protocol (MCP), a free plugin, and WordPress Application Passwords gives you a secure, revocable, and well-scoped way to manage your site through natural language.
The biggest takeaway: take the time to set up a dedicated user with the minimum role required for your workflow. It costs nothing, prevents a long list of accidental site-wide changes, and makes every AI-generated post traceable.
From here, the workflow is entirely conversational. Describe what you want, review the draft, hit publish. That’s it.