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
- The plugin is active and provisioned. wp-admin → Plugins shows WordPress for Cowork as Active, and wp-admin → Cowork says Active and provisioned.
- Run the check passes. wp-admin → Cowork → Run the check. Every step should pass. If one fails, that row names the problem.
- Claude has the connector. In Claude, Customize → Connectors lists your site by name, and it shows as connected.
- Claude knows your site. Ask “what can you do on my website?” It should answer about your site by name.
- 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 backup. Verify in wp-admin → Cowork.
- 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.
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.