Description
Stop clicking around wp-admin. Just tell your AI what you want.
Cowboy MCP connects Claude Code, Codex, and other AI agents straight to your WordPress site. Ask in plain language — “publish these three drafts,” “why is the checkout page 500-ing,” “bump every Summer Sale price 20%,” “clear the cache and re-check site health” — and your agent gets it done.
Most WordPress AI plugins let an assistant write blog posts. Cowboy MCP lets your agent actually run the site: content, yes, but also the terminal-level work you’d normally stop and do by hand — WP-CLI, files, the database, error logs, and diagnostics. When something breaks, your agent can find it and fix it instead of just apologizing.
What you can do with it
- Manage content by chat — draft, edit, schedule, and publish posts and pages; upload media; sort categories, tags, and menus.
- Run your store — update WooCommerce products, prices, orders, and inventory in bulk.
- Fix things that break — read error logs, test emails and HTTP requests, inspect hooks and REST routes, and repair database tables. No SSH required.
- Do the developer stuff — run WP-CLI commands, edit files in
wp-content, and take site snapshots before big changes. - Get more done, faster — your agent stays sharp and accurate even with a big toolset, so it picks the right action the first time.
Why site owners choose it
- You stay in control — and you can undo. Safe mode asks before anything destructive, every change can be previewed first, and every action your agent takes is logged. If something’s not right, undo most individual changes with one click, or roll the whole database back to a checkpoint — all from the Activity tab.
- Your data stays yours. Self-hosted, no external services, no accounts, no phone-home. Your agent connects to your site — nothing leaves your server.
- Set up in two minutes. Generate a key (or one-click sign-in for the Claude desktop and web apps), paste one command, and you’re connected.
- No subscription. Free and open source. Bring the AI agent you already use.
Works with
Claude Code, Codex, Opencode, the Claude desktop and web apps (one-click sign-in), plus Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Zed, VS Code, ChatGPT, Gemini, and n8n — anything that speaks MCP.
Screenshots
Installation
- Install and activate Cowboy MCP from the Plugins screen.
- Go to Settings > Cowboy MCP and click Generate API Key (it’s shown once — copy it).
- Connect your agent and start giving it instructions.
Claude Code:
claude mcp add --transport http your-site /wp-json/cowboy-mcp/v1/endpoint --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
Claude desktop / web (no terminal): enable the OAuth connector under Settings > Cowboy MCP > Settings > Desktop Connector, add your site as a custom connector in Claude, and approve with one click. (Requires a public HTTPS site.)
Codex and other clients: see the setup guides in the plugin settings.
FAQ
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What is MCP?
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The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that lets AI agents use external tools. Cowboy MCP turns your WordPress site into one of those tools, so your agent can act on it directly.
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Which AI agents work with it?
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Any MCP-compatible client over Streamable HTTP — including Claude Code, Codex, Opencode, the Claude desktop and web apps, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Zed, VS Code, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
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Is it safe to use on a live site?
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Yes, with care. You’re handing an AI real control, so Cowboy MCP is built to keep you in charge: keys are hashed and shown once, requests are rate-limited, destructive actions need confirmation, and changes can be previewed before they run. If a change turns out wrong, you can usually undo it — or restore the database to an earlier checkpoint — from the Activity tab, and every action is written to an audit log. Review it regularly.
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Does it send my data anywhere?
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No. Cowboy MCP makes no outbound connections and never phones home. Your agent talks to your site; your data stays on your server.
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Do I need to be a developer?
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No. Publishing content and running your store work through plain conversation. The developer tools (WP-CLI, files, database) are there when you want them, and gated behind safe mode until you say go.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Cowboy MCP – manage your site with Claude, ChatGPT and other AI agents” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.5.0
- New: Activity tab — a per-change undo journal. Every change an AI agent makes (posts, options, terms, comments, files, users, media, plugins/themes, WooCommerce, ACF, Wordfence) is recorded, and you can roll any of them back individually from wp-admin. Conflict detection warns you if something else changed in the meantime.
- New: database checkpoints — take a one-click snapshot of your database and restore the whole site to it later. A checkpoint is also taken automatically before mutating WP-CLI commands.
- New: batch undo — reverse every change made by a single batched request together.
- New: six rollback tools for agents (list changes, undo a change, and create/list/restore/delete checkpoints), plus settings to tune undo-history retention and how many checkpoints to keep.
- Your MCP API keys and the plugin’s own settings are never touched by undo or checkpoint restore.
Earlier versions
For the changelog of earlier releases, see changelog.txt.