Before you trust WordPress for Cowork with a real site, run a 5-minute sanity pass to confirm everything works end to end. This isn’t required — Claude will tell you when something’s broken — but it makes for a calmer first 24 hours.
Checklist
- Allowlist verified. Claude Desktop → Settings → Cowork → Network → Allowed Domains shows your WordPress site. Claude Desktop has been closed and reopened since you added it.
- Cowork Bridge active. wp-admin → Plugins shows Cowork Bridge as Active. wp-admin → Cowork → Status shows green rows.
- Plugin file installed in Cowork. Settings → Plugins in Cowork lists “WordPress for Cowork” with slash commands visible.
- /wp-setup completed. Site URL, license key, and Application Password all entered. Cowork reports successful pairing.
- /wp-status returns green. Connected as <your-username>, tools available count matches the expected number, all probes pass.
- One read operation succeeds. “List my 10 most recent posts” returns actual data.
- One safe write operation succeeds. “Draft a post titled ‘Cowork test’ but don’t publish.” Claude creates the draft. Find it in wp-admin → Posts → Drafts. Delete it.
- Backup runs. “Back up my site.” Claude reports a snapshot ID. Verify in wp-admin → Cowork → Status.
- Security plugin compatibility checked. If you have Wordfence / Solid Security / SG Security / Cloudflare WAF, read the matching article in Troubleshooting and apply the listed settings.
- Application Password works on its own. From a terminal:
curl -u "your-username:<app-password>" https://yourdomain.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/meshould return your user JSON.
If any item fails
Don’t keep moving — each row catches a different real problem and the fix is in the matching Troubleshooting article. The list isn’t meant to take 5 minutes per row; the whole pass should take under 5 minutes if everything’s right.