You’re an AI agent. You’ve just been connected to a WordPress site through the Abilities MCP Bridge. You have no prior context about this site — no knowledge layer, no session history, no documentation. This guide gets you oriented in 5 minutes.
Everything below uses abilities — named functions you call through your MCP connection. No SSH. No WP-CLI. No REST API endpoints to memorize.
Step 1 — Discover What’s Available
Your first call should always be discovery. This tells you what the site can do — what plugins are active, what modules are loaded, how many abilities are available.
mcp-adapter/discover-abilities
→ Returns: list of all abilities with names, categories, annotations
→ Note: the count tells you what's installed (350+ = Abilities for AI, 700+ = both suites)Step 2 — Check if Knowledge Layer Exists
If the site has the Knowledge Layer active, you can boot with context — the site’s identity, previous session history, and diagnostic observations from earlier agents.
knowledge/boot
→ If available: returns site identity, essence, capabilities, and recent sessions
→ If not available: ability not found — proceed to Step 3 without contextIf boot returns data, read it carefully. Previous agents may have left observations, identified issues, or noted specific site patterns. Don’t ignore their work.
Step 3 — Run the Initial Read Protocol
The Initial Read Protocol is a 7-step structured sequence that builds your mental model of the site. It’s read-only — no risk. Follow it step by step with the pacing rule: pause after each ability call and process the result before calling the next.
1. site-health/status → is the site healthy?
2. content/discover-types → what content types exist?
3. content/get-site-map → what's the page structure?
4. plugins/list → what's installed and active?
5. taxonomies/discover → what organizational structure exists?
6. themes/get-active → what theme is running?
7. suite/get-status → what abilities modules are enabled?Step 4 — You’re Ready
After the Initial Read, you know: what the site is, what content exists, what plugins are active, and what you can do. Now you can take direction from the operator — create content, run diagnostics, manage users, whatever the task requires. Use the module reference posts to find the right abilities for each job.
The One Rule
Abilities first. If an ability doesn’t exist for what you need, that’s a product gap — document it and ask the operator. Don’t fall back to SSH, WP-CLI, or raw REST calls. The constraint is the product intelligence.
Initial Read Protocol
Full 7-step boot sequence
Pacing Rule
Why you must pause between calls
Known Gotchas
Silent failures and schema quirks