What is MCP Adapter?

MCP Adapter provides a way for WordPress sites to expose site functionality to AI agents and harnesses via the Model Context Protocol.

• Provides a default MCP server – the plugin ships with a default MCP server (endpoint: /wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server) that includes three fundamental MCP tools. This serves as a common model for the ecosystem to extend and build upon, with options for developers to register your own tools, resources, and prompts.
• Bridges WP Abilities to MCP – the plugin bridges WordPress’s Abilities APIAbilities API A core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system. with the MCP specification, providing a standardized way for AI agents to interact with WordPress functionality. Any publicly exposed WordPress Abilities on your site are automatically discoverable and executable via the default server’s tools. You can read more about abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. exposure via MCP in these plugin docs.
• Enables the creation of custom MCP servers – MCP Adapter enables developers to build custom MCP Servers for WP sites or plugins. Developers can hook into mcp_adapter_init to create their own custom server for more direct or explicit integrations. See the plugin docs for guidance on when to use a custom server versus extending the default server.

The plugin is focused on providing server infrastructure for MCP connections, so it does not currently include an MCP clientMCP Client AI agents, IDEs, or assistants that connect to MCP servers to access capabilities. or UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. for a full, end-to-end, user-facing agentic workflow. Please leave feedback in the GitHub issues if you’d like to see this (or other functionality) added in a future release.

Why a canonical plugin?

Earlier versions of the MCP Adapter were managed exclusively through the GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository and required users to either manually download and install the plugin, or bundle it as a Composer dependency in their own code. This allowed early-adopters to experiment and iterate alongside the Core AI team’s work, but kept installation out of reach for most WordPress users and required plugin developers to handle dependency updates and cross-plugin conflicts themselves.

On the other end of the spectrum, building a piece of shared canonical infrastructure like this naturally raises the question: Why isn’t this part of core WordPress? At the time of writing, the MCP specification itself is still in flux, with a major breaking update having shipped less than three months ago. This volatility makes MCP a poor fit for inclusion in the core WordPress package at this time, which has massive, often automated distribution, it’s own independent release cadence, and a strong commitment to backwards-compatibility.

Keeping MCP Adapter outside of WordPress Core allows the plugin to iterate rapidly and stay in sync with the fast pace of change in the MCP specification itself and the broader AI ecosystem. As a canonical plugin on WordPress.org, end-users and plugin developers can rely on MCP Adapter without worrying about multiple conflicting, outdated copies. Core WordPress features, such as plugin dependencies and conditional autoinstall from WordPress.org allow plugins to still treat MCP Adapter as a dependency with the added benefit of keeping AI-related functionality transparent and auditable, in line with the Core AI Team’s “Building Blocks” approach.

What’s new in 0.7.0?

• Added support for the new, stateless 2026-07-28 MCP spec. Clients that request 2025-06-18 or 2024-11-05 still connect, and are served through the 2025-11-25 schema.
• Direct callable tools can request elicitation input under 2026-07-28 with McpInputRequired.
• Default abilities register even when another plugin initializes the Abilities API first.

If you were already using an older version of the plugin through GitHub or Composer, check out the 0.7.0 Migration Guide to see if you need to make any changes to your integration.

What’s next?

MCP Adapter is still experimental, and the current focus is on providing key infrastructure while gathering feedback from developers to reach a stable v1.0 release.

You can follow progress or contribute via the MCP Adapter plugin repo.

Thanks to our contributors!

Thank you to everyone who has helped shape this release: @abhi3315, @dkotter, @euthelup, @georgestephanis, @gziolo, @jeffpaul, @justlevine, @laurisaarni, @mmaattiiaass, @obenland, @otaconflex, @stormrockwell, @ugyensupport, @urbankidro, and especially to @ovidiu-galatan for the tireless work in getting MCP Adapter to where it is today.

Props to @apeatling @justlevine and @laurisaarni for pre-publish review.

#canonical-plugins, #core-ai, #mcp-release