How to Connect Claude and WordPress via MCP

I want to work with my blog posts in Claude. I could copy blog posts into the chat. But isn’t there an easier way? Yes! What you need: A WordPress blog, Claude Desktop, 30 minutes.

No more copy and paste.

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, the link between Large Language Models like Claude and other software. Practically anything that has an API can be connected—which includes 3D render tools like Blender. You can describe a 3D model, and you can watch Claude build it.

Back to WordPress. First, we need a new WordPress user. I gave mine minimal rights for just reading, because I don’t trust Claude quite yet with messing with my site, but this may change. Edit the new user and look for “Application Passwords”. Set one and copy it for later.

We need a MCP server. There are plugins for WordPress, then the server runs on the same system as the WordPress installation. But I chose to run it locally on my Mac. Use the Terminal and npm:

npm install server-wp-mcp

Create a new file, wp-sites.json, and add your WordPress credentials like this:

{
	"myblog": {
		"URL": "https://blog.com",
		"USER": "username",
		"PASS": "password"
	}
}

Tell the server where to find the configuration (in Finder, right click to reveal absolute path):

export WP_SITES_PATH=~/node_modules/server-wp-mcp/dist/wp-sites.json

Still in Terminal, start the server, change path according to your system:

node /Users/ole/node_modules/server-wp-mcp/dist/index.js

If this is going according to plan, you should see something like “WordPress MCP server started with 1 site(s) configured.” Open Claude Desktop app, go to Settings, then Developer, and edit the configuration file, claude_desktop_config.json. Add the MCP server like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
"wordpress": {
  "command": "node",
  "args": ["/Users/ole/node_modules/server-wp-mcp/dist/index.js"],
  "env": {
    "WP_SITES_PATH": "/Users/ole/node_modules/server-wp-mcp/dist/wp-sites.json"
  }
}
}
}

Done. Now you can ask Claude to access WordPress, specifically “myblog”: “Give me a list of the five latest newsletter postings in wordpress, access myblog”. I can let it count all newsletters. I can ask for a list of every person who took part in the question section. Here’s a list with more ideas—you might need to tweak those WordPress settings you set up back when you thought “admin” meant you were the boss (spoiler: you’re not, not anymore).