WordPress Abilities API integration for AI agents

Starting with Sensei LMS 4.26.0, Sensei registers with the WordPress Abilities API, which lets AI agents and MCP clients (such as Claude Desktop) read your course data through a standardized interface. Currently, this integration is read-only — agents can list and read content, but cannot create or change it. Write support is planned for a future release.

Advanced: This integration is aimed at developers and technically comfortable site administrators. Connecting an AI agent requires installing an additional plugin, generating credentials, and editing a client configuration file.

Requirements

• Sensei LMS 4.26.0 or later.
• WordPress 6.9 or later, the version that introduced the Abilities API. On earlier versions of WordPress, Sensei registers no abilities and this integration is unavailable.
• The WordPress MCP adapter plugin, which exposes the abilities to MCP clients.
• An AI agent or MCP client that can connect to your site’s WordPress MCP endpoint.

Available Sensei abilities

Sensei 4.26.0 introduced the new class, Sensei_Abilities (includes/abilities/class-sensei-abilities.php) which registers the sensei category and four abilities.

• List courses (sensei/courses-list) — paginated list. Teachers see only their own.
• List lessons (sensei/lessons-list) — paginated list. Teachers see only their own.
• List questions (sensei/questions-list) — paginated list keyed by lesson id.
• List students (sensei/students-list) — paginated list scoped to a required course. Teachers only read students on courses they author.

Note: All abilities return paginated results, up to 100 items per page.

Setting up access

The Abilities API defines what Sensei data is available, but an AI agent connects to it over the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The setup below gets an MCP client talking to your site.

Step 1: Install the WordPress MCP adapter

Install and activate the WordPress MCP adapter on your site. Clone it into wp-content/plugins/mcp-adapter, run composer install --no-dev, then activate it. Once active, it registers a default MCP server at /wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server.

Step 2: Create an Application Password

The agent authenticates as a WordPress user, so it can only see the data that user is permitted to see. In wp-admin → Users → Profile, scroll to Application Passwords, enter a name, and generate a password. Copy it somewhere safe — you’ll need it in the next step.

Note: The Application Passwords section only appears on sites served over HTTPS. On a local development site, add define( 'WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE', 'local' ); to wp-config.php to make the section appear.

Step 3: Configure your MCP client

Point your MCP client at the default server and use the application password as HTTP Basic authentication. For a client that reads a project-level .mcp.json file, the configuration looks like this (replace the URL and credentials with your own):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sensei": {
      "type": "https",
      "url": "https://your-site.test/wp-json/mcp/mcp-adapter-default-server",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Basic <base64(username:app-password)>" }
    }
  }
}

The Authorization value is the word Basic followed by a base64 encoding of your WordPress username:application-password. Other MCP clients (such as Claude Desktop) use their own configuration format — consult your client’s documentation for where to add an HTTP MCP server and credentials.

Step 4: Ask the agent to read your course data

Once connected, the agent can discover the Sensei abilities and call them in response to natural-language questions, for example:

• “List the courses on this site.”
• “How many lessons does the [course title] course have?”
• “Who is enrolled in [course title] and what’s their progress?”
• “Show me the questions on the [lesson title] lesson.”

Who can access the data

Access follows the same permissions as the Sensei admin screens, so an agent can only reach data the connected WordPress user is allowed to see:

• Administrators can access all courses, lessons, questions, and students.
• Teachers are limited to their own courses and lessons (and the questions within them). Requesting another teacher’s content returns a permission error.
• Listing students additionally requires the grade-management permission (manage_sensei_grades).
• Subscribers and users without Sensei editing permissions cannot access any of these abilities.

Note: Because the List students ability exposes student names, email addresses, and course progress, only connect trusted AI agents, and only as a user who already has permission to view that data.