WordPress MCP glossary
Short, plain-English definitions of the terms used around WordPress MCP servers and AI agents. Each entry links to related terms; deeper guides live in Resources.
What is the Model Context Protocol?
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard, introduced by Anthropic in 2024, that lets AI assistants connect to external tools and data sources through a common interface. Instead of custom integrations per app, any MCP client — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor — can use any MCP server. Cowboy MCP implements this protocol inside WordPress.
What is an MCP server?
An MCP server is a program that exposes tools — actions an AI assistant is allowed to perform — over the Model Context Protocol. When an assistant connects, it discovers the server's tools and can call them with your approval. Cowboy MCP turns a WordPress site into an MCP server with 137 tools for content, WooCommerce, security, and maintenance.
What is an MCP client?
An MCP client is the AI-side application that connects to MCP servers, discovers their tools, and calls them on the user's behalf. Assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and Codex act as MCP clients. Cowboy MCP works with any compliant client: the client sends your plain-English request to the server, which runs the matching tool on your WordPress site.
What is an MCP tool?
An MCP tool is a single action an MCP server exposes for an AI assistant to call, such as "create a post" or "update a product price." Each tool has a name, a plain-language description, and a defined set of inputs the assistant fills in. Cowboy MCP organizes its tools by area — content, WooCommerce, users, files, the database, and diagnostics — so an agent picks the right one.
What is Streamable HTTP?
Streamable HTTP is the current transport the Model Context Protocol uses to carry messages between a client and a server over ordinary HTTPS, with support for streaming responses. It replaced the earlier HTTP-plus-SSE transport and needs no persistent socket, so it works through standard web hosting. Cowboy MCP serves its endpoint over Streamable HTTP, which is why any modern MCP client can reach a WordPress site directly.
What is an OAuth connector?
An OAuth connector lets an AI assistant connect to a service through a browser sign-in instead of a copied key, using the OAuth standard to grant access. You approve the connection once on a consent screen, and the app receives a scoped token. Cowboy MCP includes an optional OAuth connector so Claude and ChatGPT desktop or web apps can link to a public WordPress site with one click — no terminal, no pasted key.
What is an API key?
An API key is a secret token that identifies and authorizes a program calling an API, functioning like a password for machine-to-machine access. In Cowboy MCP, you generate a key in the WordPress settings, and your AI client sends it as a bearer token on every request. The key is shown once, stored only as a bcrypt hash, rate-limited per key, and can be revoked individually if it leaks.
What is safe mode?
Safe mode is a protective setting that requires explicit confirmation before an AI agent runs any destructive action, so nothing irreversible happens by accident. In Cowboy MCP it is on by default: read-only tools run freely, but a tool that deletes, overwrites, or bulk-edits will not proceed until you confirm it. Combined with dry runs and the undo journal, it keeps a human in control of a live site.
What is a dry run?
A dry run is a preview mode where a tool reports exactly what it would change without changing anything. In Cowboy MCP, every write tool accepts a dry-run flag, so you can see the effect of a bulk edit, deletion, or settings change before letting it run for real — a core safety habit when an AI agent manages a live site.
What is an audit log?
An audit log is a chronological, time-stamped record of the actions taken in a system, kept so you can review who did what and when. In Cowboy MCP, every tool call, error, and authentication event is written to a structured, filterable audit log in the WordPress dashboard and auto-pruned after 30 days. Reviewing it regularly is how you verify what your AI agents actually did to the site.
What is an undo journal?
An undo journal is a running record of individual changes that stores enough information to reverse each one on demand. In Cowboy MCP, every write an agent makes — an edited post, a changed setting, an updated plugin — is captured as a separate journal entry, so you can roll back a single change from the Activity tab without touching anything else. It is the fine-grained counterpart to a full database checkpoint.
What is a database checkpoint?
A database checkpoint is a saved snapshot of a site's database at a point in time that you can restore to later, undoing every change made since. In Cowboy MCP, you take a checkpoint with one click — or let auto-checkpoint create one before a risky operation like a plugin update — and restore the whole site from the Activity tab if something goes wrong. It complements the per-change undo journal for site-wide rollbacks.
What is power mode?
Power mode is an opt-in setting that unlocks the most powerful, highest-risk operations, which stay disabled by default. In Cowboy MCP, the most sensitive capabilities stay switched off until an administrator turns Power Mode on in wp-admin, so an AI agent cannot reach them on a fresh install. It is the counterpart to safe mode: safe mode gates destructive actions with confirmation, while power mode governs whether the riskiest tools exist at all.
What is an AI agent?
An AI agent is a software system that uses a large language model to pursue a goal by taking actions — calling tools, reading results, and deciding the next step — rather than only generating text. Given a plain-English instruction, it plans and executes the work itself. Cowboy MCP gives an AI agent like Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor a safe set of tools to act on a WordPress site.
What is agentic AI?
Agentic AI is a term for AI systems that act with autonomy — setting sub-goals, using tools, and adapting across multiple steps to complete a task, instead of answering a single prompt. It describes the capability and approach; an AI agent is a concrete instance of it. Cowboy MCP is built for agentic use: it exposes real WordPress actions so an autonomous agent can run and repair a site, not just describe how.
What is vibe coding?
Vibe coding is building or changing software by describing what you want in natural language and letting an AI agent write and run the code, rather than typing it yourself. You steer with intent. Cowboy MCP brings this to a live WordPress site: an agent edits theme and plugin files, checks the error log, and fixes what it broke — with per-change undo and database checkpoints so it is not a reckless leap.
What is the WordPress REST API?
The WordPress REST API is a built-in interface that lets external programs read and write a WordPress site's data — posts, pages, users, settings, and more — over HTTP, returning JSON. It has been part of WordPress core for years and underpins the block editor and many integrations. Cowboy MCP registers its MCP endpoint as a REST route, so an AI client reaches your site through the same standard interface.
What is WP-CLI?
WP-CLI is the standard command-line interface for WordPress, used to manage a site from a terminal — installing plugins, running database queries, clearing caches, and scripting bulk tasks — without opening the browser dashboard. In Cowboy MCP, an AI agent can run allowed WP-CLI commands as tools, so it can perform terminal-level maintenance on your behalf, with a blocklist that keeps the most dangerous commands off-limits.
What is the Abilities API?
The Abilities API is a WordPress core feature, introduced in WordPress 6.9, that gives plugins a standard way to register discrete capabilities — abilities — that other code and AI tools can discover and invoke. The official WordPress/mcp-adapter project bridges these registered abilities to MCP, exposing them to AI clients. It reflects a wider move toward making WordPress natively AI-ready; Cowboy MCP ships its own self-contained MCP server rather than relying on the adapter.
What is self-hosted WordPress?
Self-hosted WordPress refers to the free, open-source WordPress software installed on hosting you control, as opposed to the managed WordPress.com service. You own the server, database, files, and full administrator access, and can install any plugin. Cowboy MCP requires self-hosted WordPress because it runs as a plugin inside your own install and connects your AI agent directly to your server — nothing is proxied through an outside service.