Claude Code

Add the MCP server

claude mcp add my-site \
  --transport http \
  --url "https://YOUR-SITE.com/wp-json/mcpwp/v1/mcp" \
  --header "X-API-Key: mcpwp_YOUR_KEY"

This saves the config to your project’s .claude/mcp.json. The server is available in all Claude Code sessions in that directory.

Header auth (--header) is the working connect method today and the more secure one — the key lives in a request header, never in the URL, so it won’t show up in shell history from the URL alone, in connector-settings screens, or in URL-based logs. Prefer this over URL-embedded keys whenever the client supports it.

Verify

claude mcp list

Per-project config

For a project-scoped setup, add .claude/mcp.json to your repo:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-site": {
      "url": "https://YOUR-SITE.com/wp-json/mcpwp/v1/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-API-Key": "mcpwp_YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add the key to .env and reference it via an environment variable if you need to avoid committing secrets.

First call

Start each session with wp_introspect (machine-readable capabilities), then wp_onboard (full site briefing) before making any changes.