Tell your AI what you need. It handles WordPress.
No dashboard clicking, no code. Not a chatbot or a writing tool — a real agent that talks to your site over MCP and does the work, safely, with every action logged.
Up and running in minutes.
The plugin walks you through the rest.
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1
Install the plugin
In WordPress, open Plugins → Add New, search for Cowboy MCP, and click Install then Activate.
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2
Connect your AI
Open Settings → Cowboy MCP and follow the guided setup — from an app or your terminal.
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3
Just ask
Tell your agent what you need in plain English — Cowboy MCP handles WordPress.
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor & more.
Full control, in plain English.
Content Management
Write, edit, schedule, and bulk-update posts, pages, and media.
Site Administration
Update plugins and themes, manage users, and change site settings.
Page Building
Build pages with the block editor or Elementor, and manage templates.
SEO
Manage meta tags, sitemaps, redirects, and schema with Yoast.
Custom Fields
Read and write ACF fields, field groups, repeaters, and options pages.
E-Commerce
Run your WooCommerce store — products, orders, coupons, and stock.
Forms
Manage Gravity Forms and review entries and notifications.
Performance
Clear caches, preload pages, and manage your CDN.
Security
Run Wordfence scans, manage the firewall, and review blocked IPs.
Backups
Trigger or schedule UpdraftPlus backups, and restore any point.
Your site stays locked down.
You're handing an AI the keys to your site. Every operation is guarded, reversible, and accounted for.
Destructive operations (delete, update) require explicit confirmation. No accidental nuking.
Preview what any tool will do before it does it. See the blast radius before you pull the trigger.
Every MCP action is logged with timestamp, user, tool, and parameters. Full accountability trail.
120 requests per minute by default. Configurable per-key. Prevents runaway agents.
Keys are stored as bcrypt hashes, never in plain text — so even a database breach can't expose them.
Questions, answered.
Everything you need to know about running WordPress from an AI agent with Cowboy MCP.
What is Cowboy MCP, and how is it different from other WordPress AI plugins?
Cowboy MCP is a free, open-source WordPress plugin. It turns your site into an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, so AI agents can manage it in plain English. Most rivals just bundle a chatbot or focus on content and SEO. Cowboy MCP manages the whole site — posts, WooCommerce, Wordfence security, UpdraftPlus backups, Elementor, ACF, and caching. And every risky action asks first, with a dry-run preview you can check before it runs.
Can ChatGPT or Claude actually edit my WordPress site, or just write drafts?
Actually edit it. Cowboy MCP gives your AI real tools — it creates and updates posts and pages, changes WooCommerce products and prices, updates plugins, runs Wordfence scans, takes backups, and more, directly on your live site. It's not a writing assistant that hands you text to paste; it does the work. And because safe mode is on by default, anything destructive asks for your confirmation first, with a dry-run preview.
Will this work on my self-hosted WordPress site, or only on WordPress.com?
Any self-hosted WordPress site — version 6.2 or newer, on PHP 8.0+ — where you can install plugins. That's the kind of site hosted on Bluehost, SiteGround, your own server, and so on. It isn't limited to WordPress.com and doesn't depend on any particular host. You install one plugin and connect your AI, and everything runs on your own server.
Is Cowboy MCP a chatbot for my visitors?
No. It's not a customer-facing chat widget, and it's not an AI writing plugin. Cowboy MCP connects the AI assistant you already use — Claude, ChatGPT, Codex — to your site's admin so it can manage WordPress for you behind the scenes. Your visitors never see it.
Can the AI accidentally break or delete things on my site?
It's hard to. Safe mode is on by default, so destructive tools won't run without your confirmation. Any write tool can also do a dry run first, to preview the change. Every call is recorded in an audit log. Sensitive settings and risky database or WP-CLI commands are blocklisted. And the most powerful tools stay behind an admin-only "power mode" that only a human can switch on in wp-admin.
Does my content or data get sent to a third party?
Cowboy MCP runs entirely on your own server. It adds no outside service and sends your data nowhere on its own. Your AI client connects straight to your site, so the only thing that sees your content is the AI tool you picked. There's no Cowboy cloud, proxy, or tracking in between.
Which AI tools can connect to it?
Two ways. From a desktop or web app — Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, ChatGPT, or the Codex app — add Cowboy MCP as a custom connector and sign in through your browser. No terminal needed. From a terminal tool — Claude Code, Codex, or Opencode — register your site as an MCP server with its endpoint URL and an API key. Any client that speaks the Streamable HTTP transport works.
How do I connect my WordPress site to ChatGPT or Claude?
In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New, search for Cowboy MCP, and click Install then Activate. After that, connect an app or a terminal tool — the Get started section above has the full two-path walkthrough.
Do I need Node.js, a config file, or any coding to set it up?
No. Install the plugin, open Settings → Cowboy MCP, and follow the guided setup. The no-terminal path lets you add your site as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT, or the Codex app and approve a browser sign-in — no Node.js, no JSON config, no command line. Power users can still connect a terminal tool with an API key if they prefer.
How do API keys work, and can I revoke access?
You create keys in the plugin settings. They're stored only as bcrypt hashes — the raw key is shown once and never again. You can issue several keys, name them, and revoke any one of them. Each key is rate-limited (120 requests per minute by default) to keep a runaway agent in check.
What are the requirements?
A self-hosted WordPress site (version 6.2 or newer, on PHP 8.0+) where you can install plugins. Nothing else — no Composer, npm, build step, or outside service. Integrations like WooCommerce, ACF, Elementor, Yoast or Rank Math, Wordfence, and UpdraftPlus turn on automatically when those plugins are active.
Is it really free?
Yes. Cowboy MCP is free and open source under the GPL-2.0 license — no pro tier, paywalled tools, or usage limits. Install it from the WordPress plugin directory, activate it on your site, and connect your agent.