Recently, Google announced that its total users of AI exceeded 1 billion while OpenAI reports around 1.2 billion. Anthropic hasn’t shared a number, but others also share numbers in hundreds of millions. Even accounting for people using accounts across multiple platforms, AI adoption is staggering and shows no signs of slowing down.
This shift toward the Agentic Web is fundamentally changing how people experience the internet. People are increasingly using agents to search the web, find products, build apps, and run their businesses. There are interesting benefits, such as Adobe sharing that AI traffic converts 60% better than non-AI traffic, and brings in 53% more revenue. This means that once a user arrives they’re more confident in why they’re there and what they want to do. As these capabilities expand, users will expect their agents to work with the sites and platforms they already use.
Making WordPress Agent-Ready
Within the WordPress ecosystem, products such as Jetpack, Elementor, and WPVibe have demonstrated demand for users to manage their WordPress sites agentically. Commercialism aside, it’s amazing to think of users being able to build the most incredible versions of their WordPress worlds because their agents raise the bar in what they can achieve. It’s not just another surface by which to control WordPress, it opens another level of possibilities for those users. That’s exciting!
The goal remains: Democratize Publishing. To fulfill that mission in the Agentic Web, WordPress needs to make it possible for everyone to manage their sites with the agents they choose. This isn’t about putting an agent inside WordPress; it’s about making WordPress ready to work with the agents users bring. WordPress is the best solution for the open web, we need to make it the same in the agentic web.
The vision is simple: A user opens their personal agent and says, “I want you to help me with my example.com site.” The agent recognizes WordPress, provides a link to authorize access, and the user signs in. The agent responds, “I’m in! How can I help you with your site?”
Making that experience possible for every WordPress user requires native capabilities that are simple to discover, connect to, and use.
Making Agent Connectivity Native
Agents can already accomplish a lot with WordPress through WP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/, the REST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”)
https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/, and file management. However these approaches often require local access or more advanced configurations. For users bringing their own agents, connecting to WordPress needs to be much simpler.
MCP has emerged as the open standard for connecting agents to external systems. The existing MCP Adapter plugin provides an important foundation, but users still need to install and configure it, ensure useful Abilities are available (perhaps via the AI plugin), and manually manage authentication through Application Passwords (hopefully not pasting them in plaintext to their agent). This is not a scalable approach for the broad WordPress user base.
To deliver the experience described above, this proposal includes four coordinated areas of work, targeting WordPres 7.3 while using the 7.2 release cycle to establish the necessary foundations.
MCP Adapter Translates WordPress abilities into Model Context Protocol format, allowing AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to discover and invoke WordPress capabilities as tools, resources, and prompts.
We’ll rapidly iterate on the MCP Adapter plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party., focusing on reliability, security, and usability to have a solid foundation alongside WordPress 7.2. From there the goal is to propose bringing MCP functionality into core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. for WordPress 7.3 either through a direct merge or a bundled approach that allows the adapter to evolve independently.
Abilities
Connecting an agent is only useful if it can accomplish meaningful tasks. We’ll identify a baseline of Abilities needed for common site management workflows, continuing rapid development through the AI and/or MCP Adapter plugins.
We’ll also explore whether a few additional foundational Abilities can land in WordPress 7.2 before the end of the beta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. cycles, with the broader goal of bringing a useful set of native Abilities into core for 7.3.
OAuth Authentication
Users should be able to securely authorize their agents without having to manually generate and share Application Passwords. During the 7.2 cycle, we’ll map out the necessary OAuth flows, architecture, and security considerations, targeting implementation in core for WordPress 7.3.
This functionality would benefit more than just MCP (e.g. the REST API) and should be developed in coordination with the broader Core team. The upcoming Secrets API An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. in WordPress 7.2 also provides an opportunity to support secure token handling.
End-to-End User Experience
The three technical capabilities above need to come together as one simple, intuitive experience. We’ll need to map the complete user journey, from an agent discovering a WordPress site and requesting access to performing tasks and managing or revoking permissions.
During the 7.2 cycle, we’ll need to develop and test prototypes to identify friction and inform all three technical workstreams. For 7.3., the goal is a cohesive experience that allows users to connect their preferred agents to WordPress without complex setup or technical knowledge.
Working Toward WordPress 7.3
These are ambitious goals and delivering them will require clear ownership and close collaboration across the project. We’re looking for a dedicated focus lead for each of these four areas, supported by contributors who want to help. Each lead will establish milestones for WordPress 7.2 and 7.3, coordinate development and testing, and share progress, blockers, and calls for help during our weekly AI contributor meetings.
We also want to pair each focus lead with interested Core Committers, involving them throughout development rather than waiting until features are ready for merge. This will help address architectural, compatibility, and security considerations early.
Security will be especially important as we introduce new ways for external agents to interact with WordPress. Appropriate review and audits, including specialized security-focused AI models, will help ensure these capabilities are safe to use.
While WordPress 7.3 is our shared target, inclusion in core will depend on technical readiness, security, and the normal core review processes.
Get involved
We’re looking for contributors willing to lead or help with MCP, Abilities, OAuth, and UX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it., as well as Core Committers interested in partnering with these efforts.
Join us in the #core-ai channel in Slack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ or at our weekly AI contributor meeting to help shape the work, volunteer for a focus area, or contribute to the discussion.
Together we can make WordPress ready for the Agentic Web, empowering everyone to build and manage their sites through the agents they choose.
Props @apeatling, @bacoords, @mynameistaken, @jeffpaul, @nikskyverge for pre-publish review.
#abilities, #mcp-adapter, #oauth
