Guide · Updated July 2026

How to connect Claude to WordPress and build pages by chat

The fastest way to connect Claude to WordPress is the free PressGo Builder plugin. Install it, open the chat, and Claude builds Elementor pages right on your site. No MCP config files, no API keys to paste, no terminal. If you'd rather wire up MCP yourself, that works too. This guide covers both paths, plus the DIY starter kits, so you can pick the one that fits.

Free on WordPress.org. 10 AI page builds a month, no card.

Method 1: the PressGo plugin, zero setup

This is the route for almost everyone. The plugin bundles the AI connection, so there's nothing to configure and nothing to run on your machine.

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins, then Add New, and search for PressGo. Or grab it straight from WordPress.org.
2. Install and activate PressGo Builder.
3. Open PressGo in the admin menu and click Create free account. One click, no card, no keys to copy around.
4. Type what you want. Something like "a landing page for my plumbing company with a quote form and three service cards."

Claude builds the page section by section. Heroes, feature grids, testimonials, pricing tables, contact forms. Each one lands as a real Elementor section, so you can open the editor afterward and drag, restyle, or rewrite anything by hand.

The free tier includes 10 page builds a month. Plus at $12 a month raises that to 100 and adds site-wide header and footer control. And you're not locked to one AI brand. The built-in chat runs on Claude, but the same plugin also connects to ChatGPT and Cursor over MCP, which is method 2.

Method 2: connect your own AI client over MCP

Every WordPress site running the plugin gets its own MCP endpoint. Paste it into any MCP client, approve the login prompt once, and that client can build and edit Elementor pages on your site. It works with Claude Desktop, claude.ai, ChatGPT, Cursor, Zed, and Claude Code.

https://your-site.com/wp-json/pressgo/v1/mcp

Here's what happens under the hood, since that's the part most guides skip:

• Discovery. Your AI client calls the well-known OAuth discovery route on your site and finds the authorization server on its own.
• Consent. The first request opens a WordPress login screen. You approve once. It's OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and dynamic client registration, so there's no client ID to create by hand.
• Tokens. Access tokens last 90 days, refresh tokens last a year, and refresh tokens rotate every time they're used.
• CLI clients. Claude Code and custom scripts can skip the browser flow. Generate a manual token in wp-admin under PressGo, then MCP Server.

Once connected, your client sees 15 tools. Read tools like list_pages, inspect_page, and screenshot_page. Write tools like create_page, add_sections, and undo_last_change. The full reference, with limits and the pause-and-resume behavior, lives in the MCP docs.

Which setup should you pick?

The plugin, unless you're a developer who wants raw control. There's a third path worth knowing about too. Open source WordPress MCP starter kits on GitHub run on your own machine with Node or Python and talk to your site through the REST API with an application password. They're genuinely fine for developers. You get every post type and full control over the config. The trade-offs are real, though. You maintain the setup yourself, and generic kits don't speak Elementor's data format, so building a page means writing raw blocks or HTML.

Built for Elementor specifically

Most WordPress AI tools treat Elementor as an afterthought. PressGo does the opposite. The tools speak Elementor's native format, so when Claude builds a hero it lands as a real Elementor hero. Open the editor and everything is there to drag, restyle, or rewrite. No shortcode soup, no locked builder, no export step.

The AI can also check its own work. The screenshot tool captures your page at desktop, tablet, and mobile widths, so Claude spots a cramped hero or overflowing text and fixes it before you ever look at the page.

On Plus at $12 a month, the AI also controls your site-wide header and footer. Set the chrome once and every page it builds matches. And if you want an AI that goes further than pages, one that hosts, maintains, and edits the whole site, that's a different product. Read about agentic hosting.

Frequently asked questions