That is half one among a three-part collection on WooCommerce MCP. This publish covers what MCP is, the way it works, and the best way to get began with the built-in Talents. Half two covers constructing your first Customized Talents. Half three goes deeper with superior demos and manufacturing concerns.
I’ve been deep diving into one thing actually thrilling in WooCommerce: the Mannequin Context Protocol integration (MCP). MCP first shipped as a beta in 10.3 and has been maturing throughout releases. Now, with WooCommerce 10.7 and WordPress 6.9+, the stack is strong sufficient to construct some significantly helpful issues on prime of it. So, I went forward and did precisely that.
Image this: we’re chatting with an AI assistant, and we are saying one thing like “Present me my low-stock merchandise” or “Create a product referred to as Winter Hoodie for $39.99.” Our WooCommerce retailer responds, does the work, and offers again the outcomes. No clicking by way of the WordPress Dashboard, no handbook REST API calls. Simply pure dialog turning into actual retailer actions.
That’s what MCP allows. All through this publish, I’ll be utilizing Claude Code because the AI assistant, however MCP works with any appropriate consumer: Cursor, VS Code, or anything that speaks the MCP protocol. Use no matter works greatest for you.
Let’s discover it collectively!
Consider MCP as a common translator between AI instruments and our WooCommerce retailer. Usually, if we wish AI to work together with our retailer, we’d must:
- Construct customized REST API integrations.
- Deal with authentication ourselves.
- Write a bunch of code to parse responses.
MCP modifications all that. It’s an open-source customary that lets AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, or VS Code speak on to programs like WooCommerce utilizing pure language.
With MCP:
- AI can uncover what our retailer can do.
- AI can carry out these actions safely.
- Every part works inside our present permissions.
So once we say, “Checklist all merchandise beneath $20 USD,” MCP interprets that into one thing WooCommerce understands, runs it securely, and brings again the outcomes.
Three items work collectively to make this occur, and so they all construct on present WooCommerce safety.
The constructing blocks
WordPress Talents API
The WordPress Talents API is a manner for WordPress plugins to register “Talents”, mainly issues they will do. Consider it like a menu: WooCommerce tells WordPress, “Right here’s every little thing I can do”, and AI assistants can learn that menu and decide what they want. Every potential has a reputation like:
woocommerce/products-list: record all merchandisewoocommerce/orders-create: create a brand new order
The Talents API shipped in WordPress 6.9 as a core characteristic. It gives a standardized registry that any plugin can hook into, so WooCommerce not must bundle it individually. For these constructing Customized Talents, they’re registered on the wp_abilities_api_init hook (extra on this within the half two of the collection).
WordPress MCP Adapter
The MCP Adapter is the translator. It takes MCP messages from AI assistants and converts them into one thing WordPress understands. Consider it because the intermediary that speaks each “AI protocol” and “WordPress.”
WooCommerce REST API
The present MCP Talents bridge to present REST API endpoints. This implies the prevailing REST API permissions nonetheless management every little thing, and the safety stays precisely the identical.
Sooner or later, Talents would possibly transcend REST and do much more highly effective issues. However for now, this offers us a strong, safe basis.
The circulation of communication
After we kind “record all merchandise” in Claude Code, right here’s what occurs step-by-step:
AI Shopper (Claude, and so on.)
↓ (MCP protocol over stdio/JSON-RPC)
Native MCP Proxy (mcp-wordpress-remote)
↓ (HTTP/HTTPS requests with authentication)
Distant WordPress MCP Server (mcp-adapter)
↓ (WordPress Talents API)
WooCommerce Talents
↓ (REST API calls or direct operations)
WooCommerce CoreIn plain phrases, Claude Code sends a message to a small proxy instrument working on our machine. The proxy converts it to a safe net request and sends it to our WordPress web site’s MCP endpoint. The MCP Adapter appears up which potential to run, the flexibility’s callback executes (querying orders, merchandise, and so on.), and the outcome flows again the identical manner.
The native proxy (@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote) is a small Node.js instrument we set up as soon as throughout setup after which overlook about. Its job is to translate between the way in which AI shoppers talk (stdio) and the way in which WordPress works (HTTP).
MCP landed as a beta in WooCommerce 10.3 with product and order Talents. The replace since then was the MCP Adapter v0.3.0 migration in 10.4, which up to date the transport layer. Since then, the MCP floor has been steady by way of 10.5, 10.6, 10.6.1, and 10.7, which is what we’re constructing on.
MCP continues to be in developer preview, so the built-in Talents are restricted to product and order CRUD (create, learn, replace, delete). However the basis is strong, and that’s the place Customized Talents are available in.
Out of the field, WooCommerce ships with 9 MCP Talents:
Merchandise: woocommerce/products-list, products-get, products-create, products-update, products-delete
Orders: woocommerce/orders-list, orders-get, orders-create, orders-update
That is already highly effective sufficient to construct some actually cool workflows. However the place it will get actually fascinating is Customized Talents, and that’s what we’ll dive into partially two of this collection.
Conditions
- A staging web site (WooCommerce MCP is in developer preview)
- WooCommerce 10.7 (or 10.3+)
- WordPress 6.9+ (for the core Talents API)
- Node.js 22+ (required by the most recent
mcp-wordpress-remote) - REST API key with read_write permissions
- An MCP consumer (I’ll use Claude Code). Notice: Claude Code requires a Claude Professional or Max plan ($20/mo+) or Anthropic API credit. It’s not accessible on the free tier.
Enabling MCP
Choice 1: Head over to WordPress Dashboard → WooCommerce → Settings → Superior → Options and allow WooCommerce MCP.
Choice 2: Allow through WP-CLI
wp possibility replace woocommerce_feature_mcp_integration_enabled sure
Organising the connection
Create an API key
- Go to WordPress Dashboard → WooCommerce → Settings → Superior → REST API.
- Click on “Add Key.”
- Set permissions to “Learn/Write.”
- Save the patron key and secret.
Configure Claude Code
Open the Terminal and run:
claude mcp add woocommerce_mcp
--env WP_API_URL=https://yourstore.com/wp-json/woocommerce/mcp
--env CUSTOM_HEADERS='{"X-MCP-API-Key": "YOUR_CONSUMER_KEY:YOUR_CONSUMER_SECRET"}'
-- npx -y @automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@newestVital:
- Exchange
yourstore.comwith the precise staging web site URL. - Exchange the
YOUR_CONSUMER_KEY:YOUR_CONSUMER_SECREThalf with the precise API credentials. - Restart Claude Code to load the brand new configuration.
For native growth with HTTP: For testing domestically with out HTTPS, add this filter:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_mcp_allow_insecure_transport', '__return_true' );Let’s discover the default Talents that include WooCommerce. These work straight away with zero customized code.
Checklist all merchandise
Ask AI consumer: “Checklist all merchandise within the retailer.”
What occurs behind the scenes:
- MCP calls the flexibility:
woocommerce/products-list - Returns product information with names, costs, inventory standing, and so on.
Create a product
Do this: “Create a product named ‘Demo Hoodie’ priced at $29.99.”
MCP calls:
- Capability:
woocommerce/products-create - Consequence: A brand new product seems within the retailer!
Replace a product
Say: “Replace the Demo Hoodie worth to $39.99.”
MCP calls:
- Capability:
woocommerce/products-update - The worth modifications immediately!
Create an order
Strive: “Create an order for product ID 56 with amount 2.”
MCP calls:
- Capability:
woocommerce/orders-create - A brand new order is created!
Fairly superb, proper? These built-in Talents make AI-assisted retailer administration really feel pure. And that is just the start!
Partly two, we’ll transcend the built-ins and construct Customized Talents from scratch — together with a Right this moment’s Gross sales Analytics dashboard, a Low Inventory Alert, and a Buyer Lookup instrument. See you there!
Kamlesh is a Happiness Engineer at WooCommerce. He loves serving to prospects get essentially the most out of WordPress and WooCommerce — the extra he sees what’s doable for them, the extra excited he will get. Outdoors of Woo, you’ll discover him exploring new tech or a gadget, touring with no fastened plans, or watching cricket with unreasonable depth.
