Visual Composer MCP server, with undo on every edit.

A Visual Composer MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor read and edit Visual Composer Website Builder pages on a live WordPress site. With Respira every edit lands on a copy first, and you can undo it for 90 days.

Start free Connect in one command

7 days free. No card. Runs on the AI subscription you already have.

Support
Partial
Visual Composer tools
Core set
Latest release touching it
9.2.4
Releases touching it
18

Respira is an independent MCP server. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the makers of Visual Composer Website Builder or of WPBakery Page Builder. Visual Composer is a trademark of its owner.

What works today. What still needs you.

Read from the current MCP server release, core reads and writes work; some edges need a human pass.

Works now

  • Visual Composer Website Builder is detected on its own and kept apart from WPBakery Page Builder, the plugin once sold under the Visual Composer name, so each gets its own elements. A TagDiv Composer site is not mistaken for Visual Composer.
  • Pages are read from and written to the storage Visual Composer keeps (vcv-pageContent), so the Visual Composer editor loads what Respira wrote.
  • The page's front-end markup is written with it, so a change shows without opening the editor. Text blocks, raw HTML and single images render in Visual Composer's own wrappers.
  • Text blocks and raw HTML are written as native Visual Composer elements, and existing elements are edited with respira_find_element + respira_update_element.

Where a human still steps in

  • A new element other than a text block or raw HTML is stored as a generic wrapper the Visual Composer editor shows as a plain block. Ask for copy as text blocks and keep raw HTML to a minimum.
  • Respira writes the front-end markup for the whole page itself. Elements other than text blocks, raw HTML and images show as plain containers on the live page until the page is saved once in the Visual Composer editor, which compiles it again.
  • A write cannot target a position inside the page tree; each write saves the whole page tree, with a snapshot first.

Hit one of these and the snapshot gives you a clean way back.

Visual Composer runs on the universal tools.

Find, update, move and remove elements, build whole pages, snapshot and roll back. Reads return the builder structure and writes keep it intact.

Browse every tool

Three prompts you can paste right now.

Each one assumes Respira is connected to a Visual Composer site. Paste it into your AI tool and run.

  1. Tighten the about page copy

    On the Visual Composer page "About", find the text block that starts with "Founded in" and rewrite it in two shorter sentences. Make the change on a copy.

  2. Inventory elements

    List every element type used on Visual Composer pages across the site, with a count per page. Do not change anything.

  3. Add a shipping notice

    Add a text block at the end of the Visual Composer page "Shipping" that says "Orders placed after 2pm ship the next working day." Make the change on a copy.

More recipes, per builder, in the Prompt Book.

Connect a Visual Composer site in two minutes.

Pick your client and paste. The site URL and key come from your setup page, or from Respira › Setup in wp-admin. Node.js 20 or newer for the local server.

Claude Code

claude mcp add respira-wordpress --env WORDPRESS_URL=https://yoursite.com --env WORDPRESS_API_KEY=respira_your_api_key_here -- npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server@latest

Put in your own site URL and key, run it, then check with /mcp. Every site at once: pass --env RESPIRA_CONFIG_B64=… from your setup page instead of the two values. The full Claude Code guide covers the first edit and undo.

Claude Desktop and Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "respira-wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@respira/wordpress-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WORDPRESS_URL": "https://yoursite.com",
        "WORDPRESS_API_KEY": "respira_your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}
  • Claude Desktop, macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Claude Desktop, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
  • Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json in your project

The file is claude_desktop_config.json, not config.json. Every site at once: replace the two env values with RESPIRA_CONFIG_B64 from your setup page.

Codex

codex mcp add respira-my-site --url https://yoursite.com/wp-json/respira/v1/mcp
codex mcp login respira-my-site

Run them one at a time. The second opens your browser to sign in to Respira; no key goes in the config. By hand, in ~/.codex/config.toml, then run the login command:

[mcp_servers.respira-my-site]
url = "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/respira/v1/mcp"

Browser sign-in, no key

https://yoursite.com/wp-json/respira/v1/mcp

Claude Desktop, claude.ai, ChatGPT and Cursor: add a custom connector, paste your site's MCP URL, leave Client ID and Client Secret blank, and approve the sign-in on respira.press. One connector per site.

Any other client

npx add-mcp "npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server@latest"

Detects Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf and more, and writes the config. Set WORDPRESS_URL and WORDPRESS_API_KEY afterwards.

Common errors

The server does not show up in /mcp, or the client says it failed to start.
Cause Node.js is older than 20, or the site URL and key are missing.
Fix Run npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server --doctor in the same shell. It names the missing setting, a bad URL or a refused key. node -v must print 20 or newer.
ENOENT errors that mention /_npx/ or node_modules.
Cause The npx cache is damaged, often by an interrupted install.
Fix Run rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx and restart the client. Or install once with npm install -g @respira/wordpress-mcp-server and use respira-wordpress-mcp as the command.
The browser sign-in opens a "Page not found" on yoursite.com/authorize.
Cause A Client ID was filled in on the connector, usually the respira_site_ key.
Fix Remove the connector and add it again with the MCP URL only. Leave Client ID and Client Secret blank. Sign-in happens on respira.press, never on your site.
The MCP address returns 404.
Cause WordPress is on plain permalinks, so /wp-json/ addresses do not resolve.
Fix In wp-admin open Settings › Permalinks, choose Post name and save once.
Calls fail with 401, 403, or HTML where JSON belongs.
Cause A firewall, a bot filter or a challenge page answers before WordPress does, or the host strips the Authorization header.
Fix Open Respira › Troubleshoot in wp-admin. It runs the checks from the site's own server, names what is in the way and writes a report for your host.
The agent says it saved, and the live Visual Composer page looks the same.
Cause The edit is on a draft duplicate, waiting for your approval. That is the default on a published page.
Fix Approve the duplicate in wp-admin under Respira, or from its preview page. Until then the live page stays as it was.

Still stuck? Troubleshooting in the docs, or write to word@respira.press with the first error line.

What changed for Visual Composer lately.

The last 5 releases that mention Visual Composer, filtered from the same changelog the releases page reads.

  1. 9.2.4 Oct 14, 2026
    • WPBakery pages with many addon elements can be read and edited again. On a WPBakery site running The7 with Ultimate VC Addons, Revolution Slider, Go Pricing and WooCommerce, every builder tool failed: finding an element, reading the page's structure, duplicating it, and every edit, even a one word change on a small draft.
  2. 9.2.0 Oct 13, 2026
    • Every builder says what it can write. get_builder_info now carries write_capabilities for every builder: whether it builds pages, adds elements or only edits text, and whether a new element is native, written as core blocks, or partial.
    • Exhale keeps WPBakery and Visual Composer apart. A Visual Composer Website Builder site got a WPBakery shortcode tree, and an explicit builder visual-composer failed as if WPBakery were missing. Each product now gets its own elements.
  3. 9.1.11 Oct 2, 2026
    • find_element by content, text or class works on every builder. A search for text that was not on the page answered HTTP 404, which agents read as a broken tool, and a class search on Elementor never read the custom class setting.
  4. mcp-8.4.10 Oct 2, 2026
    • wordpress_find_element searches content, text and class on every builder (plugin 9.1.11). The description says each match names its field with a snippet and that no match is a normal answer with found: 0. wordpress_apply_builder_patch points at it for pages other than Divi 4.
  5. 9.0.19 Sep 25, 2026
    • Fidelity mode on every builder. Elementor, the block editor family, Breakdance, Oxygen, Beaver Builder and WPBakery join Divi 5 and Bricks: an HTML file becomes the builder's own elements with every class and id on the element it renders, and the file's stylesheet travels with the page, scoped and printed by Respira.

All 18 releases that touched Visual Composer

Questions people ask about Visual Composer and MCP.

Is there an MCP server for Visual Composer?

Yes. Respira is an independent MCP server that reads and writes Visual Composer in its own format, with core reads and writes work; some edges need a human pass. It is not made by the Visual Composer team.

Which tools does it use for Visual Composer?

Visual Composer runs through the universal tools: find, update, move and remove elements, build pages, snapshot and roll back. Reads return the builder structure, and writes keep it.

What happens when the agent gets an edit wrong?

Nothing on the live page. The agent edits a copy first, you approve it inside WordPress, and every write is snapshotted with 90 days of undo.

Do I need a developer or a terminal?

No. Sign in with your browser from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor and approve the connection once. Coding tools get a one-line command.

Does it work with a Visual Composer site that also runs WooCommerce?

Yes. The WooCommerce add-on adds 104 store tools on the same connection, with the same duplicate-first approval flow.

The other builders, same server.

Everything the WordPress MCP doesWooCommerce MCP

Start with one site. Free for 7 days.

Maker is €9 a month after the trial. No card for the trial, and it runs on the AI plan you already have, so there is no extra AI bill.

Start free Email Mihai
Summarize with Google AI Mode