Install Respira for WordPress in Claude
Pick your Claude. Each path takes under two minutes. Every write runs through the duplicate-before-edit workflow on the connected WordPress site, so nothing live gets broken.
- Download the bundle from your dashboard.
Go to the MCP setup page and click Install in Claude Desktop. The dashboard mints a per-account setup code and serves the latest
.mcpbbundle. - Double-click the downloaded file.
Claude Desktop opens and walks through a one-click install prompt. You can review what the server does before approving.
- Paste the setup code when Claude asks.
The setup code maps Claude Desktop to every WordPress site connected to your Respira account. It is stored in your operating system keychain, never in plain text. If you rotate a site token later, re-run the install step to refresh the code.
- Ask Claude to do something.
Try: list my sites. Then: duplicate the homepage on site A and change the hero headline to X. The first write lands as a duplicate draft, so nothing on the live site changes until you approve it.
Claude Desktop did not open the bundle.
- Make sure Claude Desktop is installed and up to date. The .mcpb handler ships with recent builds.
- On macOS, right-click the file and choose Open the first time if Gatekeeper blocks it.
- If nothing happens, open Claude Desktop, go to Settings, and drag the .mcpb file in manually.
- Corporate firewall? The bundle runs
npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-serverlocally. Node 18+ must be installed.
- Install the Cowork plugin.
In Claude Cowork, open Customize → Plugins → Add Custom Plugin and paste the GitHub URL. Marketplace approval is pending with Anthropic; until it lands, custom-plugin install is the path.
- Click Install in Cowork on your dashboard.
The MCP setup page has a dedicated Cowork card. Clicking Install in Cowork opens a multi-step dialog that mints a one-time setup token (5-minute TTL) and gives you two ways to deliver it:
- Claude redeems the token automatically.
When you hit send, Claude reads the token from the prompt and calls the
respira_redeem_tokentool. The MCP server hits the redeem endpoint, exchanges the token for your full sites + keys, and writes the canonical config to~/.respira/config.json. You'll see a "connected to N sites" message. From there, every Respira tool is reachable. - Use the bundled slash commands.
Cowork plugin ships with 8 commands:
/respira:connect-site,/respira:edit-page,/respira:duplicate-page,/respira:preview-changes,/respira:undo-last-change,/respira:audit-site,/respira:add-section,/respira:help. Plus 30 auto-activating skills (mobile audit, technical-debt scan, SEO + AEO, builder migrations, image optimization, and more).
Claude says it can't find respira_redeem_token.
- Your npx cache may be holding an older MCP server build. Run
rm -rf ~/.npm/_npxin Terminal and reopen Cowork. - The tool ships in
@respira/wordpress-mcp-server@6.11.8and later. The plugin's.mcp.jsonpins@latest, so a fresh npx fetch should pull it. - If the MCP server still won't start, check
~/.respira/last-startup-error.txt— the server writes the actual failure there.
The deeplink doesn't open Cowork.
- Your browser may block the
claude://scheme on first run. Look for a one-time prompt asking to allow Claude to handle the URL. - Already use Respira through Claude Desktop on this machine? Skip the deeplink entirely. The Cowork plugin shares the same
~/.respira/config.json, so just open a new Cowork chat and every site is already there. - Last-resort fallback: download config.json directly and save it to
~/.respira/config.json.
- Add the MCP server.
Run this in any shell:
claude mcp add respira-wordpress -- npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server - Point it at a site.
For a single site, set these two env vars on the command (or export them in your shell):
WORDPRESS_URL=https://yoursite.com WORDPRESS_API_KEY=respira_...For multiple sites, grab the base64 setup code from the dashboard and set
RESPIRA_CONFIG_B64=…instead. One variable, every site. - Check it loaded.
In Claude Code, run
/mcpand confirmrespira-wordpressshows up. - Ask Claude Code to edit a page.
Try: using respira-wordpress, list the most recently edited pages on my site.
Claude Code says the server failed to start.
- Run
npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server --doctorin the same shell. It flags missing env vars, bad URLs, and auth failures. - If you see
EACCESorENOENT, your Node install is the problem.node -vmust print 18+. - Behind a firewall? Try
npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server --setupfor a guided config instead. - Still stuck? Open the Claude Code MCP log panel and paste the first error line into support.
Things to ask Claude, once it is connected
- list my connected sites and which page builder each one runs
- on site A, duplicate the homepage and change the hero headline to "book a visit"
- find every page that still says "2024" and update to "2025" across the site
- scan the pricing page for accessibility issues and tell me what needs fixing
- show me the last 10 changes on site B. if any broke the live site, roll them back
- draft SEO titles for the five most recent blog posts and let me approve each before saving
- create a duplicate of the about page in a new language and translate the headings
Every write lands as a duplicate or draft first. You approve before anything touches the live site.
Why this is worth the install
- Twelve page builders supported. Elementor, Divi, Bricks, Gutenberg, WPBakery, Beaver Builder, Oxygen, Breakdance, Brizy, Thrive Architect, Visual Composer, Flatsome.
- 187+ tools. Full read/write across posts, pages, ACF, menus, media, plugins, menus, taxonomies, Woo catalog.
- Duplicate-before-edit by default. Every write is snapshotted. Rollback is one sentence.
- Multi-site from day one. One setup code, every site on your account. Switch sites in the same chat.
