Royal MCP

Royal MCP is an open-source, security-first WordPress plugin that connects Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and any other MCP agent to your site.

Download on WordPress.org · Documentation · Royal Plugins

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Agents can read and write posts, pages, media, users, menus, WooCommerce orders, and Elementor pages over the Model Context Protocol. Every call is capability-gated, rate-limited, and audit-logged.

Capabilities

WordPress core (85 tools, always available)

• Content — Posts, pages, custom post types (full CRUD + revisions + featured images)
• Taxonomies — Categories, tags, custom taxonomies, term meta, post-term linking
• Media — Browse, upload (URL or base64), update metadata, delete
• Comments — Create, moderate (approve / spam / trash)
• Users — Read display names + roles (emails and usernames are not exposed)
• Menus — Read, create items, reorder, update with destructive-write guardrails
• Theme — Custom CSS, theme mods, active theme detection
• Site — Permalink structure, options (allowlisted), site info
• Search — Cross-content search by query
• SEO — Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO meta read/write where the plugin is active
• Diagnostics — Site status (WP/PHP/MySQL/plugins/themes/cron in one call), PHP error-log tail, WP cron schedule, and MCP royal_mcp_connection_health (returns route, auth method, session ID, plugin version, and active page-builder versions for Divi + Elementor + Gutenberg)

Plugin integrations (124 tools, conditional)

Auto-register only when the integrated plugin is active.

Plugin	Tools	What's covered
WooCommerce	29	Products, variations, attributes, coupons, orders (create/update/notes), customers, store stats
Elementor	14	Clone pages, replace text, swap images, get outline (with optional include-styles), read single element, list templates, import templates, add widget, rebuild post_content, widget-schema discovery, widget-list discovery, dynamic-tag discovery
Divi	9	Format detection (D4 shortcode vs D5 block), page outline, layout validation, library list + get, find/replace with builder-format awareness, clone, image swap, library apply
GuardPress	7	Security score, failed logins, blocked IPs, vulnerability scans, audit log
SiteVault	6	Trigger backups, monitor progress, list schedules
Royal AI Firewall	6	Dashboard stats, recent bot hits, per-bot policies (allow / block / challenge), daily rollups
Yoast SEO	5	Read/write Yoast meta (raw + resolved), capture JSON-LD schema graph, list indexed internal links, list Premium redirects
Redirection	4	List redirects with group + URL-substring filters, create + update redirects (301 / 302 / 307 / regex / groups), list redirect groups
Royal Ledger	4	Software costs, renewal dates, license keys (values never exposed)
Advanced Custom Fields	4	Read/write ACF fields with each field's Return Format respected (hydrated post objects, parsed repeater rows, image arrays); enumerate field groups
UpdraftPlus	4	List backup history, read per-backup status, trigger async backups with entity filtering, read schedule
WPForms	4	List forms, read a single form's parsed field schema, (Pro) list submissions, (Pro) read single submission
Solid Security	4	Read security status, list currently locked-out IPs, read the security event log, add an IP to the ban list
MonsterInsights	4	Read the analytics overview, top pages, traffic sources, and top Google Search Console queries
BuddyPress	4	List community members, read a single member profile, list groups, read the activity feed (same detection covers BuddyBoss Platform)
Contact Form 7	3	List forms, read a single form's parsed field schema, list submissions (via Flamingo add-on)
W3 Total Cache	3	Read cache configuration across every module, purge cache (all / by URL / by post), read usage statistics
Duplicator	3	List migration packages, read per-package status, get the installer URL for a completed package
Royal Links	3	Branded short links, click stats
ForgeCache	4	Cache stats, clear cache, purge URL, real-user Core Web Vitals (INP/LCP/CLS/TTFB)

WordPress Abilities API bridge (WP 6.9+)

WordPress 6.9 shipped the Abilities API — a primitive that lets plugins register typed capabilities AI agents can call. As of 1.4.38, every Royal MCP tool also registers as a WordPress ability, giving you three ways to reach the same handlers:

1. Native — Royal MCP's /wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp Streamable HTTP endpoint (unchanged, always available).
2. WP MCP Adapter — if the wordpress/mcp-adapter package is installed, Royal MCP registers a named royal-mcp-server on the mcp_adapter_init hook alongside adapter's default server.
3. WP core REST — direct ability invocation at /wp-json/wp-abilities/v1/abilities/{name}/run for callers that prefer the core WP endpoint.

Same handlers, three transports, one set of per-tool capability gates. Bridge can be disabled with the royal_mcp_abilities_registration_enabled option (default: on).

What we don't do

Explicit scope boundaries — the integration model is "narrow tools that work reliably," not "expose every API surface."

• No widget-level Elementor generation from scratch. Atomic widgets (Editor V4) pass through opaque; we never decode atomic schemas because Elementor itself may shift them.
• No Beaver Builder / Bricks page-builder JSON writes. Standard post content is readable and writable; page-builder-specific JSON storage is opaque unless covered by a dedicated tool. (Elementor and Divi have dedicated tools — see the integration table above.)
• No theme builder template creation (Elementor or otherwise).
• No core file modifications — Royal MCP never writes to wp-content/themes, wp-includes, or wp-admin.
• No plugin installation or upgrades via MCP. Discovery yes; install/activate/deactivate no.
• No raw SQL. Queries go through WP_Query and $wpdb->prepare() only.

Connect

Install

1. Install from WordPress.org (recommended — auto-updates via WP admin) or upload the GitHub release zip.
2. Royal MCP → Settings → click Generate API Key.
3. Pick a client below.

Claude.ai web (OAuth — recommended)

Easiest path — no config file edits, no API key in your client.

1. In Claude.ai → Settings → Connectors → Add Custom Connector.
2. URL: https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp
3. Approve the OAuth consent screen when prompted. Claude.ai handles dynamic client registration + PKCE flow against your site.

Claude Desktop (.mcpb one-click bundle — new in 1.4.38)

Easiest Claude Desktop path — no mcp-remote, no npx, no config-file editing.

1. Download royal-mcp-1.4.38.mcpb from the latest GitHub release.
2. Double-click the .mcpb file — Claude Desktop opens the install prompt.
3. Enter your site URL + API key when prompted. Connection is live.

The bundle ships a zero-dependency stdio-to-HTTPS bridge in Node ≥18, which Claude Desktop already includes. See Claude Desktop MCP Bundles for the .mcpb spec.

Claude Desktop (OAuth via mcp-remote)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Config path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).

Claude Desktop (API key)

Skip OAuth and authenticate via header:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote",
        "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp",
        "--header", "X-Royal-MCP-API-Key:YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT

ChatGPT's custom MCP connector takes the same URL as Claude.ai web. Follow ChatGPT's connector flow and paste https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp.

Raw HTTP (custom clients)

# 1. Initialize a session. -i prints headers so you can grab Mcp-Session-Id.
curl -i -X POST https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp \
  -H "X-Royal-MCP-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "initialize",
    "id": 1,
    "params": {
      "protocolVersion": "2025-11-25",
      "capabilities": {},
      "clientInfo": {"name": "my-app", "version": "1.0"}
    }
  }'

# 2. List available tools using the session id from the response header.
curl -X POST https://yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp \
  -H "X-Royal-MCP-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Mcp-Session-Id: <session_id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/list", "id": 2}'

Security model

Layer	What it does
API key	32-char hex, timing-safe comparison. Sent via X-Royal-MCP-API-Key header. Regenerate from admin without server restart.
OAuth 2.1	RFC 7591 Dynamic Client Registration, RFC 8414 metadata, PKCE S256 required, refresh tokens supported. No implicit grant. No client_credentials grant.
Capability gating	Every tool checks WordPress capabilities. edit_posts for create/update, manage_options for site settings, edit_post per-post for individual operations.
Rate limiting	60 requests/minute per IP, sliding window.
Session model	Sliding 24h TTL with refresh-on-access. Cryptographically secure 32-byte session IDs.
Activity log	Every tool call writes a row to a database log. Records: tool name, argument keys, IP, User-Agent, errors. Never records argument values (they may contain customer data).
OAuth state recovery	One-click Reset OAuth State admin button wipes all clients + tokens + auth codes, without affecting your API key or settings.
Discovery	.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and .well-known/oauth-protected-resource served at site root per RFC 8414 + RFC 9728.

Full security architecture: royalplugins.com/support/royal-mcp/

Royal MCP Pro (paid)

The Free plugin is fully featured for individual site owners. Royal MCP Pro extends it for agencies and multi-site operators:

• Divi Pro suite — page clone, image swap, template import, full library CRUD, D4→D5 Migrator, global preset bulk-apply (8 tools)
• Elementor Pro depth — additional Elementor tools beyond the Free integration
• Universal audit log — every AI operation logged with attribution + export
• 72-hour undo on every write — every destructive Pro tool returns an undo token; reverse any operation within the window
• License-gated updates through the standard WordPress updater — no runtime dependencies on external license servers

Learn more at royalplugins.com/royal-mcp-pro

Further reading

• Editing Elementor with Claude: The Four Workflows That Work Today — the four real architectures for AI-editing Elementor pages and when to reach for which. User-facing version with prompts, examples, and a video demo of the clone-and-customize flow.
• Editing Elementor with Claude: 4 MCP Architectures — engineer's cut on Hashnode. The PHP under the hood of elementor_clone_page, the six tool signatures, and the HTTP-Basic-vs-OAuth-2.1 auth-model tradeoff.

Related projects

• GuardPress — WordPress security hardening
• SiteVault — WordPress backups and migration
• ForgeCache — Caching and performance
• FormForge — Form builder with PDF generation
• SEObolt — SEO toolkit for WordPress

License

GPLv2 or later — see LICENSE or the GNU site.

Royal MCP is provided as-is. API keys protect your endpoints; guard them like any other credential. You are responsible for the content, commands, and actions any AI platform is allowed to perform on your WordPress site.

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