If you have read about AI and WordPress this year, you have probably met the WordPress MCP Adapter. It is the official, free way to let AI apps use what WordPress and your plugins can do. That raises a fair question: if WordPress has its own adapter, what is a plugin like PowerWP AI for? This article explains what the adapter is, what you need to use it, and how the two fit together. The short version: they work at different levels, and they can run on the same site.
The short answer
- The MCP Adapter is the official bridge between the WordPress Abilities API and MCP, the open standard AI apps use to reach tools. It is free and built mainly for developers. It provides the server and the connection; the tools come from the abilities that WordPress and your plugins register.
- PowerWP AI is a complete MCP server for site owners. It brings its own tools, a connection per AI app with its own permissions, and a record of changes you can roll back.
- You can use both. They don’t get in each other’s way, and PowerWP AI can run registered abilities too.
First, what abilities are
WordPress 6.9 added the Abilities API. It gives WordPress, plugins and themes one standard way to describe what they can do. Each ability has a name, a plain description, the input it accepts, the result it returns and a permission check that decides who may run it.
WordPress itself registers three abilities: site information, the signed-in user’s details and technical details about the server. Plugins add their own. WooCommerce, for example, registers abilities to find orders and products, add an order note, change an order’s status and create, update or delete products. Abilities are not only for AI: other plugins and scripts can use them too.
What the MCP Adapter does
The adapter takes those abilities and offers them to AI apps over MCP. (New to MCP? What is WordPress MCP? explains it in plain words.) In practice:
- It is the server and the connection, not the tools. The adapter gives your site an MCP address, plus a WP-CLI command for sites on your own computer. It has no AI features of its own: what an AI app can do through it depends on the abilities on your site.
- An ability reaches AI apps only if its plugin allows it. The plugin has to mark the ability as public. On the adapter’s default server, the AI app gets three general tools: find abilities, read one ability’s details and run one. Developers can also set up their own servers that offer chosen abilities as separate tools.
- The AI app acts as a WordPress user. It usually signs in with an application password, a password WordPress creates for one app. Each ability still checks that user’s permissions.
- Setup happens in the AI app. You add your site to the app’s MCP settings, often as a block of configuration. For apps that only start MCP servers on your own computer, a small Node.js helper passes the requests on to your site.
The adapter is listed in the WordPress.org plugin directory as MCP Adapter and needs WordPress 6.9 or newer. It is still below version 1.0 (0.7.1 in October 2026), so details can change between releases. Elementor and WooCommerce 11.2 include a copy in their own code. In WooCommerce 11.2 it serves the experimental WooCommerce MCP feature, which is off by default; WooCommerce’s documentation says that from 11.3 you install the MCP Adapter plugin instead (more in WooCommerce MCP explained). Automattic’s earlier wordpress-mcp plugin is archived and points to the adapter.
What you need to use it
- WordPress 6.9 or newer and the MCP Adapter plugin.
- Abilities that do what you need, marked as public, from WordPress, your plugins or your own code.
- A WordPress user for the AI app, ideally one of its own with only the rights it needs, and an application password for that user.
- The MCP settings in your AI app, and the Node.js helper for some apps.
- Time to read what each ability does before you let an app run it.
The official introduction to the adapter adds sensible advice: treat connected AI apps like any other way into your site, give the app’s user only the rights it needs, prefer read-only abilities on a site that is reachable from the internet, and add your own logging if you want a record of what ran. For a developer, this control is the point. You decide exactly which features of your plugin AI apps may use, and how each one is checked.
What PowerWP AI does differently
PowerWP AI works one level up. It is a WordPress plugin that turns your site into a finished MCP server, with the tools and the safety around them already in place, so you can start without writing code.
- Ready tools. There are 85, for diagnostics, error logs, content, WooCommerce, Elementor pages, files, the database, plugins, users and backups. A connection sees only the tools its permissions allow.
- One connection per AI app. Each app gets its own permissions (one of four presets, or nine separate permissions), an optional expiry and an optional IP allow-list. One switch turns all AI access off.
- Signing in instead of passwords. Claude and ChatGPT connect by signing in to your site: you choose what the app may do and click Allow, with no key to copy. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and other apps connect with one message or one click, using a connection key.
- A record of changes. Changes are recorded, so you can roll them back: one change, everything after a checkpoint, a whole work session or one WooCommerce bulk edit. The activity log shows every request and the app that made it.
- Care for the risky parts. After a plugin update or a code edit, PowerWP loads your site again and reverts the change if the site broke. If a fatal error takes the site down anyway, rescue mode lets your AI app work without your other plugins and theme. Full backups are downloaded to your computer.
Using both on one site
The adapter and PowerWP AI have separate addresses on your site and separate connections, so they don’t conflict. A developer can keep the adapter for their own abilities while the site owner uses PowerWP AI for everyday work.
PowerWP AI can also list and run the abilities registered on your site, with two tools: abilities_list and ability_run. Abilities that only read need nothing more than read access. Abilities that change something need a connection that is allowed to make changes. Each ability’s own permission check still applies, and every run goes into the activity log.
One limit, said plainly: PowerWP AI can’t know what another plugin’s ability changed, so those runs are logged but can’t be rolled back automatically. Elementor’s page abilities are the exception, because PowerWP AI takes a snapshot of the page first. Before a big job through other plugins’ abilities, take a backup.
Example, on a demo kitchenware store. You ask your AI app which orders from this week are still on hold. It finds WooCommerce’s order search with abilities_list and runs it with ability_run. Nothing changes, because that ability only reads, and the request shows in the activity log.
Which one should you use?
- The adapter on its own if you are a developer who wants AI apps to use your own plugin’s features, with your own permission checks, and you are comfortable with application passwords and configuration files.
- PowerWP AI if you run a site or a store and want your AI app to work on it now, with permissions per app and a record you can roll back.
- Both if you build abilities and also want the safety layer for everyday work on the site.
You can try PowerWP AI on the Free plan: one site, one read-only connection, no end date. The comparison page lists ten questions to ask any WordPress MCP plugin, ours included.
Questions
Is the MCP Adapter part of WordPress?
Not of WordPress itself, as of version 7.1. The Abilities API has been part of WordPress since 6.9; the adapter is a separate plugin. Some plugins, such as Elementor and WooCommerce 11.2, include a copy.
Do I need the adapter to use PowerWP AI?
No. PowerWP AI is its own MCP server. It uses the Abilities API built into WordPress, not the adapter.
Is the adapter free?
Yes. It is free and open source, like WordPress.
Is the adapter safe on a live site?
It is as careful as the abilities and the user you give it. Each ability checks permissions, and the default server offers only abilities marked as public. Follow the official advice: a separate user with limited rights, read-only abilities where you can, and a backup before changes.