Connect Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop starts local (stdio) MCP servers from its config file. To reach your site it runs @automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote, the bridge Automattic publishes for connecting desktop MCP clients to WordPress. Both configurations below were tested end to end with version 0.4.0 of the bridge.

First prepare your site: choose WooCommerce MCP or the MCP Adapter, create the credential and the Raqvio Agent Guardrails agent.

Add the server

In Claude Desktop open Settings → Developer → Edit Config (this opens claude_desktop_config.json) and add a server under mcpServers, keeping any existing settings.

WooCommerce MCP (API key):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-store": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://your-store.example/wp-json/woocommerce/mcp",
        "CUSTOM_HEADERS": "{\"X-MCP-API-Key\": \"ck_your_key:cs_your_secret\"}",
        "OAUTH_ENABLED": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Adapter (application password):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-site": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://your-store.example/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "agent-user",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "abcd efgh ijkl mnop qrst uvwx",
        "OAUTH_ENABLED": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}

• Replace the URL with your site and the credentials with your own.
• OAUTH_ENABLED: "false" tells the bridge to use your key or password instead of starting an OAuth sign-in.

Quit Claude Desktop completely and reopen it. The server’s tools appear in Claude’s tools menu. Then check that it works.

Troubleshooting

• Self-signed HTTPS on a local development site (for example Local or mkcert): add "NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS": "/path/to/your-site.crt" to env so Node trusts the certificate.
• npx not found: Claude Desktop doesn’t load your shell’s PATH. Use the full path to npx as command (run which npx to find it) and add a PATH entry to env that includes Node’s folder.
• Logs: on macOS Claude Desktop writes each server’s log to ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-<name>.log. A 401 means a wrong key or password.