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Native AI in WordPress: No MCP, No Middleware · Wpfavs - Your favourite WordPress news

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  So Benjamin Intal, he, he posted this demo of a new experiment called Ahentic AI
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  workspace.
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  And, and someone literally gave it the most vague prompt, like,
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  hey, swap these two book covers on the live store.
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  And without any external MCP servers, no external middleware,
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  just native WordPress APIs, it, it figured out the WooCommerce product IDs,
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  went into the page, and performed the visual swap right there in the browser.
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  Wait, no external MCP servers at all?
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  Just, just straight browser to WordPress core APIs?
• 0:44
  Yeah, exactly.
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  Benjamin Intal built it using pure WordPress APIs.
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  And, and what makes that so fascinating is the architecture split we are seeing
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  right now.
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  On one side, you have CLI tools like Novamira CLI connecting things like Claude Code
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  or Codex CLI through raw terminal shell commands on the server.
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  On the other side, you have Ahentic operating natively in the browser through the
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  new WordPress Abilities APIs.
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  That, that distinction between raw server terminal execution and browser state
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  manipulation is massive!
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  Because if an AI agent tries to do raw database insertions on the server side,
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  what happens?
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  You open the block editor the next morning and boom, every single block gives you
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  that terrifying invalid block, attempt block recovery warning.
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  Oh yeah, block validation errors!
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  Because raw SQL edits completely bypass Gutenberg's client side JavaScript rendering
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  pipeline and parsing rules.
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  Exactly.
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  I mean, I, I tested some terminal workflows last week, and I have to tell you,
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  running raw CLI SQL commands through an AI agent gave me complete,
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  pure anxiety.
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  You are essentially handing a super intelligent bot a direct line to your database
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  tables.
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  But when an agent operates through native WordPress Connector permissions and
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  Abilities APIs inside the admin UI, it respects the hook hierarchy,
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  it respects user capability checks, and it updates block states without corrupting
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  the content structure.
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  It is the difference between letting a mechanic dismantle your engine while you are
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  driving down the highway versus having them use the dashboard controls!
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  And, and when you look at how fragile the traditional plugin ecosystem currently is,
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  this native API approach changes everything.
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  Look at the data from the WP Goldmine analysis that came out recently.
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  Twenty four percent of plugins in the ten thousand to one hundred thousand active
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  install band have not been updated in over two years!
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  Twenty four percent?
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  That is over twelve hundred popular plugins sitting completely abandoned with real
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  users on live sites.
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  Twelve hundred and nine plugins, to be precise.
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  And even in the one hundred thousand to one million active install band,
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  ten point two percent are abandoned.
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  We are talking about everyday utility plugins, like basic layout blocks,
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  downgrade managers, simple bulk editors.
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  And this is why native core APIs like the WordPress Connector API and the Abilities
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  API are going to trigger a massive collapse in utility plugins.
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  Why would a site builder install fifteen unmaintained single purpose utility plugins
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  for bulk edits, meta tag adjustments, or custom field tweaks,
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  when a single native AI workspace can hook into core APIs and execute all those
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  tasks safely?
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  Right, instead of hunting down a random bulk editing plugin that was abandoned in
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  twenty twenty four, you just ask the native site agent to run a bulk update through
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  authenticated core schema endpoints.
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  Think about what that does to agency retainers!
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  For the last decade, agencies charged clients five hundred dollars a month mostly to
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  click update on twenty five plugins and manually tweak settings pages.
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  That model is dead.
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  The new agency retainer is all about architecture: configuring structured AI agent
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  permissions, defining security boundaries, and setting up clean endpoint schemas so
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  autonomous systems can manage the site safely.
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  It completely shifts what site builders need to learn right now.
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  For fifteen years, developer value meant building elaborate,
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  custom admin settings pages with endless toggles and dropdowns for human eyes.
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  Now, developer value is publishing clean, self-describing, agent-readable API
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  definitions that an AI can read and invoke.
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  It really turns the whole design pattern on its head.
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  You build for machine execution first, with human permission guardrails,
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  rather than building fancy visual controls for repetitive human clicking.
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  Exactly.
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  The user interface becomes conversational and programmatic,
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  while the backend becomes a tightly regulated set of capabilities.
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  That is the actual future of WordPress development.