How To: Connect OpenClaw to WordPress with MCP

OpenClaw is everywhere right now. 150,000+ GitHub stars, trending on X, TikTok, Reddit, and developers are calling it the closest thing to AGI anyone can actually use. And now you can connect it directly to your WordPress site. The setup? Under 2 minutes. No joke. 🦞

New to MCP? The Model Context Protocol is how AI agents like OpenClaw connect to external tools. AI Engine turns your WordPress into an MCP server with 30+ tools ready to use.

What Is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent that runs locally on your device and actually does things, not just chat. It manages your emails, browses the web, automates workflows, and remembers everything across sessions. Created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, it exploded from zero to 60,000 GitHub stars in just 72 hours after launch.

The magic? OpenClaw connects to external services through MCP. And with AI Engine, your WordPress site becomes one of those services, instantly accessible to your personal AI assistant.

Getting Started

Quick Setup (2 Minutes)

This is almost embarrassingly simple:

  1. Go to AI Engine → Settings → MCP
  2. Enable the MCP Server and set a Bearer Token (any random string)
  3. Note your MCP URL: https://yoursite.com/wp-json/mcp/v1/http
  4. Just tell OpenClaw: “Add this as an MCP server with Bearer Token authentication: [URL] and use this token: [token]”

That’s it. You literally just ask OpenClaw in plain English and it configures itself. No config files, no CLI commands. OpenClaw now has full access to your WordPress site through 30+ AI-optimized tools. 🎉

There is also a ready-made WordPress MCP skill on ClawHub you can install directly in OpenClaw. It pre-configures everything for you!

What Can You Do?

Once connected, just talk to OpenClaw naturally:

  • “Create a draft post about our new product launch”
  • “Find all posts without featured images and list them”
  • “Check my latest comments and flag anything that looks like spam”
  • “Generate SEO descriptions for my 10 most popular posts”
  • “Upload this image and set it as the featured image for my latest draft”

OpenClaw’s persistent memory means it remembers your site structure, your preferences, and your previous conversations. Ask it to “do that same thing for the other category” and it knows exactly what you mean.

Pro Features

With AI Engine Pro, OpenClaw gets even more powerful:

  • Plugin Management: Install, activate, update, or even fork plugins
  • Theme Customization: Modify theme files, create child themes, adjust styles
  • Database Queries: Run custom queries for advanced site management
  • Analytics Access: Pull Google Analytics data when paired with SEO Engine

Imagine telling your AI: “Fork Twenty Twenty-Four into a dark theme called Midnight, update the colors, and activate it on my staging site.” That’s not science fiction anymore. It’s Tuesday.

Practical Considerations

Why OpenClaw + WordPress?

OpenClaw’s killer feature is that it runs locally and remembers everything. Unlike cloud-based assistants, your data stays on your machine. Combined with WordPress (which you also control) you get a fully autonomous content management workflow without sending your site data through third-party servers.

Plus, OpenClaw works across your entire digital life. The same agent managing your WordPress can also handle your emails, calendar, and other tools. Your website becomes part of your personal AI ecosystem.

Security Notes

A few things to keep in mind:

  • Use a strong, unique bearer token
  • Test workflows on staging before production
  • AI Engine respects WordPress user roles, so the token inherits your capabilities
  • OpenClaw runs locally, so your credentials never leave your machine

As with any powerful tool, start simple and expand gradually. Let OpenClaw prove itself on low-risk tasks before giving it the keys to your production site.

Jordy’s Recommendation

I’ll be honest: when OpenClaw first blew up, I thought it was overhyped. Another AI toy that would fade in a few weeks. But after using it with WordPress, I’ve changed my mind.

What sold me wasn’t the flashy demos. It’s the mundane but useful stuff. Having OpenClaw check my site daily, analyze one post, and suggest improvements. Cross-referencing articles with their original sources to see if the information is still accurate. For posts about software, checking if what I wrote still matches what’s on GitHub. These small, repetitive tasks add up, and OpenClaw handles them without complaining.

I also thought people were crazy buying Mac Minis just to run AI agents. But think about it: a dedicated machine with a real display server can open actual browsers (not headless ones), run native apps, and handle real work around the clock. That’s a different level of capability.

Here’s my take on the future: AI is cheap right now. Free tiers exist, API prices are reasonable. But that won’t last. Prices will rise, free tiers will disappear, and what we consider “expensive” today will look like a bargain later. If you’re serious about AI-assisted workflows, consider investing in hardware that can run good open-source models locally, something like a Mac Mini with 48GB of RAM. By the time everyone realizes they need this, component prices and AI costs will have gone through the roof. Prepare now.

The Future Is Here

A few months ago, connecting an AI agent to WordPress required custom code, webhooks, and a lot of patience. Now it’s a 2-minute setup. OpenClaw handles the agent side, AI Engine handles the WordPress side, and MCP bridges them together seamlessly.

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to try AI-powered site management, this is it. The lobster has arrived. 🦞