Every other WordPress MCP plugin ships one endpoint, one transport, one auth pattern (take it or leave it). Royal MCP registers all 208 of its tools through seven distinct connection paths: native MCP endpoint, short-alias route, WordPress 6.9 Abilities API, Automattic WordPress MCP Adapter, WebMCP browser bridge, REST API, and a one-click Claude Desktop bundle. Same tools, whichever surface your AI stack already speaks.
/mcp endpoint/mcp short-alias.mcpb Claude Desktop bundleThe MCP ecosystem is fragmenting. Every AI client speaks a different transport. WordPress core is building its own layer. Automattic ships its own adapter. Browsers are getting the WebMCP standard. Some integrations just need plain REST. Royal MCP registers every tool once and exposes it through all of it.
Every other WordPress MCP plugin picks one transport and one auth pattern and asks you to fit your stack around it. That works fine when your stack matches, and it does not work at all when it does not. When your AI client changes, or your host changes, or WordPress core changes, or a new standard ships, you are stuck.
Royal MCP takes the opposite approach. All 208 tools register once through a single internal registry, then expose the same tools through every transport that WordPress AI integration is likely to touch: the canonical MCP endpoint, a short-alias route for hosts that trip on the /wp-json/ prefix, WordPress 6.9's core Abilities API, Automattic's WordPress MCP Adapter, the WebMCP browser-agent standard, a REST API subset for the most common content operations, and a .mcpb bundle for one-click Claude Desktop install.
Whichever way your AI stack evolves, the tools stay reachable. Add a new client, switch hosts, change WordPress versions, ship a new WebMCP bridge, the tools are already there. Fully backwards compatible with every existing setup.
Every MCP client speaks JSON-RPC to some endpoint. The question is which endpoint your specific client is happiest against. Royal MCP registers the same tools at all five.
/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcpDirect JSON-RPC over HTTP. Multi-version protocol negotiation covers MCP spec revisions 2024-11-05, 2025-06-18, 2025-11-25, and 2026-07-28. OAuth 2.1 Bearer authentication with Dynamic Client Registration. Used by Claude Desktop, ChatGPT connectors, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code CLI, and the Anthropic SDK. The path most WordPress hosts, WAFs, and CDN cache rules already know how to allowlist.
/mcp short-alias routeSame endpoint, cleaner URL. Some OAuth clients trip on the /wp-json/ prefix during callback redirects, and some CDN cache-rule wizards get confused by the deep path. Advertised as the resource identifier in OAuth Protected Resource metadata. If OAuth callbacks silently 403 on your host, try this alias instead of the canonical URL.
Every Royal MCP tool auto-registers with WordPress core's Abilities Registry. When WordPress 6.9 is active (or the WP Feature Notification API backport plugin), third-party MCP servers can enumerate all 208 Royal MCP tools through the standard WP core API. Positions Royal MCP alongside WordPress core's own AI-integration direction rather than as a parallel stack.
Automattic ships its own WordPress MCP Adapter plugin that publishes a shared MCP endpoint sourced from the Abilities API. When both plugins are active, Royal MCP's tools appear at the Adapter's endpoint alongside anything else registered. Site owners already running the Adapter for other integrations get Royal MCP's 208 tools for free.
Browser-based AI agents can call Royal MCP tools using the visitor's own WordPress session (cookie authentication plus WordPress nonce). Cloudflare's WebMCP bridge is the first shipping implementation; more bridges are expected. Off by default with one toggle in Royal MCP settings. Zero change to the OAuth Bearer path when enabled.
Deep-dive on the Agent Ready pageSometimes you don't want a full MCP client. A REST endpoint for a Bash script, or a one-click install file for Claude Desktop.
13 REST endpoints under /wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/: posts, pages, media, site info, search, plus WooCommerce product attributes (global + per-product) and variations. Auth uses standard WordPress REST auth (application passwords, or cookie for logged-in users). Use case: custom scripts, WP-Cron callbacks, and third-party integrations that don't want to run a full MCP client. Not a full CRUD surface for every one of the 208 MCP tools — for that, use one of the five MCP paths above. This is a convenience layer for the operations that get invoked most often outside the AI-client context.
.mcpb bundle for Claude Desktop.mcpb (MCP Bundle) is an open-source Anthropic bundle format for portable local MCP servers — a ZIP archive with a manifest.json that Claude Desktop knows how to install with a double-click. Royal MCP is a standard MCP server, so it can be packaged into a .mcpb the same way any MCP server can, using the public mcpb toolchain. The format supersedes the older .dxt Desktop Extensions and works across every MCP-compatible desktop app, not just Claude.
Same tools, whichever path. Pick based on which client you're integrating with and whether your host has OAuth quirks.
Whichever path you pick, the verify pattern is the same shape. Test with curl before adding the URL to an AI client that will retry silently and eat the useful error message.
Install from WP Admin → Plugins → Add New. Free from wp.org. All 7 paths activate at install.
Use the decision table above to match your AI client or integration to one of the 7 paths.
Hit the endpoint directly with curl -X POST and an initialize JSON-RPC payload. Any error surfaces immediately.
With curl passing, paste the URL into your AI client. Full curl playbook lives in the Diagnose with curl support doc.
The MCP ecosystem is fragmenting. Different AI clients speak different transports, WordPress core is building its own Abilities API, Automattic ships its own MCP Adapter, browsers are getting the WebMCP standard, and some integrations just need a plain REST endpoint. Every other WordPress MCP plugin ships one path and asks you to fit your stack around it. Royal MCP registers every one of its 208 tools through seven distinct paths so whichever way your AI stack evolves, the tools stay reachable. Same tools, whichever surface your client already speaks.
Claude Desktop: use the connector wizard from the Royal MCP admin help panel, or package Royal MCP as a .mcpb bundle using the public mcpb toolchain for double-click install. ChatGPT: add Royal MCP as a Custom App in ChatGPT Developer Mode using the /mcp short-alias URL. Cursor 0.45+: paste the /wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp URL — streamable HTTP transport works natively. Windsurf, Claude Code CLI, and the Anthropic SDK all speak the same native endpoint. Every path uses OAuth 2.1 Bearer tokens with scoped permissions.
Royal MCP 1.5.1 added yoursite.com/mcp as an alias for the canonical yoursite.com/wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp endpoint. Both accept the same requests and behave identically. The short alias exists because some OAuth clients trip on the /wp-json/ prefix during callback redirects, and some CDN cache-rule wizards get confused by the deep path. If your MCP client is happy with the full canonical URL, use it. If OAuth callbacks silently fail on your host, try the /mcp alias instead.
Yes, because they solve different problems. The Automattic Adapter is a shared MCP endpoint that surfaces any tool registered through WordPress core's Abilities API. Royal MCP registers all 208 of its tools with the Abilities API, so when both plugins are active, Royal MCP's tools appear at the Automattic Adapter's endpoint alongside anything else that's registered. You get the tools either way. If you only run one, run Royal MCP: it provides the tools. The Adapter is a distribution channel.
Not much you can't do with MCP: the REST API is a convenience layer for custom scripts and WordPress cron jobs that don't want to run a full MCP client. It covers the most common WordPress operations: posts, pages, media, site info, search, plus WooCommerce product attributes and variations (no full product CRUD via REST — use MCP for that). Auth uses standard WordPress REST auth (application passwords or cookie for logged-in users). If your integration is an AI client, use MCP. If it's a Bash script or a WP-Cron callback, REST is easier.
No. WebMCP is a second auth path (cookie + WordPress nonce for browser agents) alongside the existing OAuth Bearer path, not a replacement. Every OAuth client: Claude Desktop, ChatGPT connectors, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code CLI, mcp-remote, Anthropic SDK: continues working exactly as it did in Royal MCP 1.4.x. WebMCP is off by default; one toggle in Royal MCP settings turns it on. Fully backwards compatible.
Royal MCP is free from the WordPress.org plugin directory. Install, activate, and all seven connection paths go live. Whichever AI client you use now, plus whichever ones you'll want next, the tools are already reachable.
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