MCP Adapter
Expose WordPress abilities as Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, resources, and prompts for AI agents.
Solid choice
MCP Adapter is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 50K+ sites and was last updated 4 days ago, and scores 74/100 on our health check.
- Proven at scale on 50K+ active sites
- Actively developed — last update 4 days ago
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Momentum — downloads up 21763.7% vs the previous 30 days
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & supportDaily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where MCP Adapter stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| abilities-api | #42 |
| AI | >100 |
| mcp | #19 |
| model context protocol | #12 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About MCP Adapter
From the official readme · v0.7.1Description
Part of the AI Building Blocks for WordPress initiative.
The MCP Adapter bridges WordPress’s Abilities API with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) specification, providing a standardized way for AI agents to interact with WordPress functionality. It includes HTTP and STDIO transport support, comprehensive error handling, and an extensible architecture for custom integrations.
Features:
- Ability-to-MCP Conversion – Automatically converts WordPress abilities into MCP tools, resources, and prompts.
- Multi-Server Management – Create and manage multiple MCP servers with unique configurations.
- Extensible Transport Layer – Built-in HTTP and STDIO transports, plus support for custom transport protocols.
- Flexible Error Handling – Default WordPress-compatible error logging with support for custom, server-specific handlers.
- Observability – Zero-overhead metrics tracking with configurable handlers.
- Permission Control – Granular, configurable permission checking for all exposed functionality.
Installation
- Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress admin, search for “MCP Adapter”, and click Install Now.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress.
- Register the abilities you want to expose, or install a plugin that registers them for you.
You can also upload the plugin ZIP via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, or install it with WP-CLI:
wp plugin install mcp-adapter --activate
Frequently asked questions
What is MCP?
Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI agents to external systems. Instead of every AI client needing its own custom integration, a system exposes what it can do as MCP tools, resources and prompts, and any MCP-compatible client can use them. See modelcontextprotocol.io for the specification.
What is MCP Adapter?
MCP Adapter is the server and transport layer. It does not provide any AI features itself. What it exposes comes from the WordPress Abilities API. An ability is a single capability registered by WordPress core or by another plugin, such as reading posts or updating a setting. MCP Adapter takes the abilities registered on your site, makes them available to MCP clients, and handles protocol negotiation, permissions and error handling. That means you also need abilities on the site for this to be useful, from core or from a plugin that registers its own.
How do AI agents connect to my site?
The adapter registers MCP endpoints over the built-in HTTP transport. Point an MCP-compatible client at the endpoint and authenticate as a WordPress user. The adapter supports exact MCP revisions 2025-11-25 and 2026-07-28. See the getting started guide for endpoint details.
Does every registered ability get exposed automatically?
No, exposure is opt-in. An ability is only reachable over MCP if it has been marked public, and permission checks still run against the current user before anything executes. See the documentation for how to opt abilities in and out.
Where do I report bugs or request features?
On the GitHub repository. Security issues should follow the process in SECURITY.md rather than being reported publicly. Plugin developers should depend on MCP Adapter by adding Requires Plugins: mcp-adapter to their plugin header. See the README for WP-CLI and wp-env options.
Changelog
Fixes a session storage security issue, improves plugin loading alongside bundled copies, and adds clearer ability errors and a site-owner guide. Clients whose oversized session data is cleared need to reconnect once.
0.7.1 – 2026-10-15
Fixed
- Bound stored session initialization parameters to 4 KiB and automatically recover oversized session data, preventing repeated database failures and excessive logging. Affected clients need to reconnect once. Client icons are excluded from storage so large inline icons do not prevent connections.
- Register the installed plugin’s autoloader before checking for bundled copies, allowing version selection before an older bundled class is loaded.
- Unknown ability names from MCP clients no longer generate WordPress developer notices.
Changed
- Unavailable abilities return clearer errors with relevant available ability names or a pointer to discovery. Abilities not exposed through MCP return the same
ability_not_founderror as unknown names.
Added
- A site-owner guide covers connecting an AI client, Application Passwords, and troubleshooting.
0.7.0 – 2026-10-02
Breaking Changes
- The adapter serves exactly two MCP schema revisions,
2025-11-25and2026-07-28. Clients that propose2025-06-18or2024-11-05still connect and are served through the2025-11-25schema. - The generated DTO classes, the
McpToolValidator,McpResourceValidator, andMcpPromptValidatorclasses, and themcp_adapter_validation_enabledfilter have been removed. Wire validation always runs through the selected schema. - Invalid protocol fields are no longer silently dropped or repaired. Components that no supported revision can represent are rejected.
- Custom transports must delegate to
HttpRequestHandlerorMcpWireOrchestrator. JSON-RPC batch requests are rejected. WP\MCP\Cliclasses arefinal.
Added
- MCP
2026-07-28support, including the sessionlessserver/discoverlifecycle and the new HTTP headers. - Direct callable tools can request elicitation input under
2026-07-28by returningMcpInputRequired. McpRequestContext, an immutable per-request context with the selected schema, transport, and session data.
Changed
- Using MCP Adapter as a bundled library is deprecated. Install the MCP Adapter plugin instead.
Fixed
mcp-adapter/get-ability-infoserializes an emptyinput_schemaas{}instead of[].- Default abilities register when another plugin initializes the Abilities API before the MCP server initializes.
See the 0.7.0 migration guide and CHANGELOG.md for the full list of changes.
0.6.1 – 2026-08-13
Fixed
- The release ZIP no longer ships a Jetpack Autoloader class map pointing at files the ZIP omits. In 0.6.0 the class map listed test-only global classes, including
WP_CLIandWP_CLI_Command, and mapped them to files undertests/phpunit/, which the release artifact excludes. Any plugin callingclass_exists( 'WP_CLI' )on a normal web request could therefore trigger an uncaught fatal error.class_exists( 'WP_CLI' )now returnsfalsewhen WP-CLI is unavailable (#283).
No API, hook, or protocol behavior changed. Upgrading from 0.6.0 requires no migration. Installations built from source or required through Composer were unaffected.
0.6.0 – 2026-08-12
Breaking Changes
- WordPress 6.9 or newer is now required. The standalone Abilities API plugin is no longer a supported installation path.
- Abilities with
meta.public: trueare now exposed through the default MCP server unlessmeta.mcp.publicexplicitly opts out. Existing permission callbacks and capability checks still apply. - On multisite only, active Streamable HTTP sessions must reconnect once after upgrading, because session storage moves from a network-wide key to separate per-site keys. Single-site installations are unaffected.
- The MIME validation helpers previously exposed by
McpValidatorhave been removed. Integrations calling them directly should apply their own application-specific MIME validation.
Added
- Support for
resources/templates/list, returning an empty template list when no templates are available. - Blocked direct execution of plugin PHP files.
- Expanded automated compatibility, dependency, and Plugin Check coverage.
Changed
- Jetpack Autoloader is now used so the newest available
WP\MCPclasses win when the standalone adapter and another plugin bundle different versions. - Session storage is scoped by blog on WordPress multisite.
- Concurrent session mutations are protected with bounded retries, reducing the risk of one request overwriting another session.
- Documentation clarifies that the Abilities API is included in WordPress 6.9 and newer, documents the required ability
categoryfield, and improves examples throughout.
Fixed
_metais preserved on resource contents, embedded resources, content blocks, and prompt messages.- Malformed
_metais omitted without discarding the payload it accompanies. mimeTypeis emitted exactly as declared, including values with parameters such astext/html;profile=mcp-app.- Blob-only resource contents are handled correctly.
- Resource URI schemes are matched case-insensitively, so clients can read resources even when they normalize the scheme to lowercase.
- Empty arguments are normalized for schema-defining abilities, allowing valid zero-argument tool calls to execute.
wp mcp-adapter servekeeps JSON-RPC stdout clean when selecting the default server.- WP-CLI’s global
--userargument is used instead of registering a conflicting local option.
For older releases, see CHANGELOG.md.
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MCP Adapter: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 20, 2026
Is MCP Adapter free?
Yes. MCP Adapter is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is MCP Adapter safe to use in 2026?
MCP Adapter is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 50K+ sites and was last updated 4 days ago, and scores 74/100 on our health check.
How many websites use MCP Adapter?
MCP Adapter is active on 50K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 52,110 times since it launched in October 2026. It was downloaded 51,817 times in the last 30 days.
Does MCP Adapter work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested MCP Adapter up to WordPress 7.1.3, the latest release. It requires WordPress 6.9 or newer.
What PHP version does MCP Adapter need?
MCP Adapter requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was MCP Adapter last updated?
The latest version, 0.7.1, was released on October 16, 2026 (4 days ago).
Who makes MCP Adapter?
MCP Adapter is developed and maintained by WordPress.org.
What are the best alternatives to MCP Adapter?
The most popular alternatives to MCP Adapter are SlyTranslate (10+ installs), SudoWP Radar (<10 installs) and ModelGain Agent Readiness A… (<10 installs).
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