The best way to get used to an AI app that can see your store is to ask it things that change nothing. Reading is safe for the site: the AI looks, reports and leaves everything as it found it. These ten questions make a good first session. Each tells you something useful about your store, and each shows a different part of what the app can reach.
Before you start
Install the plugin and activate your plan under PowerWP AI › License. The Free plan is enough for all ten questions. Then create a connection with Read-only access, using the setup steps for your app. Type the questions as they are, or in your own words. You never have to name a tool: your AI app picks them. Under each question, Details lists the tools it typically uses, so you can recognize them in its answer, and the ready-made recipe for the job where there is one. Some apps ask for your OK before each tool call, which is normal.
Reading changes nothing on your site, but what the app reads goes to your AI provider, so ask for what you need rather than for everything. Treat the answers as a well-informed first read, not a verdict. The examples below come from a demo kitchenware store.
The big picture
1. Give me an overview of my site
Give me an overview of my site.
What you’ll learn: the basics in one answer: WordPress, PHP and database versions, your theme, active plugins, whether WooCommerce is on, pending updates, recent PHP errors, caching and what your connection may do. It also proves the connection works.
Example: WordPress 7.1, PHP 8.4, WooCommerce 11.2, 21 active plugins, 3 updates waiting, 2 PHP warnings in the last 24 hours, page cache on. This connection: Read-only diagnostics.
Details
Tools it typically uses: site_overview. Ready-made recipe: Diagnose this site (diagnose_site).
2. Run the Site Health tests
Run the Site Health tests and tell me which problems matter for a shop. Explain them in plain language.
What you’ll learn: the results of the same tests as Tools › Site Health in wp-admin, including the slower checks for loopback requests, HTTPS, the REST API, background updates and page cache. The AI sorts the findings by what matters for a shop.
Example: one critical issue (loopback requests fail) and five recommendations. The AI puts the loopback problem first, because scheduled jobs such as order e-mails and stock updates depend on it.
Details
Tools it typically uses: site_health.
3. How is my store doing?
How healthy is my WooCommerce store? Check orders, payments, stock and scheduled jobs.
What you’ll learn: orders by status, recent revenue, failed or stuck-pending orders, stock problems, the payment gateways and shipping zones that are on, outdated template overrides and failed background jobs. For the technical side, it can add WooCommerce’s system status report.
Example: 184 orders in the last 30 days, 3 stuck in Pending payment for more than a day, 2 products out of stock but still visible, and one template override in the theme that is out of date.
Details
Tools it typically uses: wc_overview, wc_status. Ready-made recipe: WooCommerce store check-up (woocommerce_checkup).
What might be going wrong
4. Any errors in the logs?
Any errors in the logs from the last 24 hours? Group repeated ones and tell me which need attention.
What you’ll learn: what the PHP, WordPress and WooCommerce logs contain, with repeats grouped and counted. One warning is rarely a problem. One error repeating hundreds of times, or any fatal error, is worth following up. If logging is off on your site, the answer may be short; turning it on is a change, so ask first.
Example: 312 log lines in the last 24 hours, grouped into four problems. A slider plugin’s warning repeats 290 times, and a payment plugin caused one fatal error yesterday at 14:02. The AI flags those two; the other two can wait.
Details
Tools it typically uses: error_log_read. Ready-made recipe: Diagnose this site (diagnose_site).
5. Which pages are slow?
Check my homepage, a category page, one product, the cart and checkout. Report load time and anything that looks wrong. Don’t change anything.
What you’ll learn: for each page, the HTTP status, response time, size, cache headers and any PHP errors printed into the page. These are server-side timings, not what a visitor on a phone sees, and it checks the pages you name, so pick the ones that matter for sales. If one is slow, follow up with “Find out why, but don’t change anything yet.”
Example: homepage 0.4 s, a category page 1.9 s with no cache hit, a product 0.5 s, cart and checkout 0.6 s (not cached, as they should be). The AI suggests starting with the category page.
Details
Tools it typically uses: page_check, plugins_list, option_get. Ready-made recipe: Performance review (performance_review).
6. Which plugins need updates?
Which plugins need updates, and is any of them risky to update on a live store? Don’t update anything.
What you’ll learn: which WordPress, plugin, theme and translation updates are waiting, and which plugins sit close to checkout, payments or your theme and deserve a backup first. That risk view is a judgement, not a guarantee, so read the changelog yourself for the important ones.
Example: five updates waiting. The AI marks the payment plugin and the theme as ones to update after a backup, at a quiet time, and the SEO and form plugins as low risk.
Details
Tools it typically uses: updates_check, plugins_list. Ready-made recipe: Before updating plugins (before_plugin_updates).
7. Is anything stuck in the background?
Are any background jobs stuck or failing? Check scheduled actions and WP-Cron, and tell me if order e-mails could be affected.
What you’ll learn: WooCommerce and plugins queue e-mails, webhooks, subscriptions and imports as scheduled actions. Pending actions that are past due mean the queue is stuck, and failed ones come with a reason. A stuck queue can delay e-mails and webhooks. For one customer’s missing e-mail, add the order number and it can look at that order with wc_order_inspect.
Example: 38 scheduled actions past due, all from the newsletter plugin, and 2 failed webhooks to a shipping service. Order e-mails go out on time.
Details
Tools it typically uses: wc_scheduled_actions, cron_events, error_log_read.
Search basics
8. Which products have no meta description?
Which products have no meta description? Group them by category and don’t change anything.
What you’ll learn: how many products lack the snippet text search engines may show, and where they are. Your SEO plugin stores that field for each product, and your AI app reads it. Example, on a demo kitchenware store: 48 of 212 products have none, most of them in Kitchen and Tableware. The SEO use case shows the next step.
Details
Tools it typically uses: content_query, content_get. Ready-made recipe: SEO check for one page (page_seo_check), for a closer look at one product.
9. Are there broken links?
Look through my blog posts and key pages for links to pages or products that no longer exist. Report them and wait for my OK before changing anything.
What you’ll learn: links to deleted products, old addresses left over from a redesign and dead external links. This is a checking job, not a crawler, so give it a scope such as the blog or your twenty most important pages rather than “the whole site”.
Example: in 25 blog posts, 6 links to deleted products and 2 to an old /shop/kitchen/ address. One external recipe site no longer answers.
Details
Tools it typically uses: content_query, content_get, page_check, http_request. Ready-made recipe: Broken links check (broken_links_check).
10. Is anything blocking search engines?
Which pages, products or categories are set to noindex? Is the sitemap reachable, and does robots.txt block anything important? Change nothing.
What you’ll learn: whether WordPress’s “discourage search engines” setting is on, which is a classic leftover from development, which pages carry a noindex tag, and whether your sitemap and robots.txt can be reached. A forgotten noindex can keep key pages out of search for a long time, so this one pays off early.
Example: “Discourage search engines” is off and the sitemap and robots.txt answer, but two categories and the Gift cards page carry noindex.
Details
Tools it typically uses: option_get, page_check, http_request.
From looking to changing
Once you know what is wrong, the next step is usually to fix something. This is where habits matter more than prompts.
- Ask for a plan first: what exactly would change, on which items, and wait for your OK.
- Say what must stay the same, such as product names, URLs and prices.
- Raise the connection’s permission only as far as the job needs, for example Content manager for texts.
- Ask for a checkpoint before the first change, and a fresh backup for big jobs.
- Approve, then check PowerWP AI › Changes to see what was done.
Say question 8 found 48 products without a description. A good next request is a small one:
Draft meta descriptions for the first three of those products, 155 characters at most, and keep the product names exact. Show them to me and don’t save anything yet.
Read the drafts, adjust the wording, then let it do the rest behind a checkpoint. The recipe reference lists ready-made starting points for stores, blogs and Elementor sites, and the features page shows what your AI app can do beyond reading.
Questions
Will the AI change anything?
Not with a Read-only connection: it can look but not change. Every question in this list only reads.
Does this cost anything?
The Free plan is enough for all ten questions: one site, one read-only AI connection and no end date. You use your own AI app and its plan.