Studio Agent

A WordPress plugin that registers a Studio agent on top of Automattic/agents-api and routes prompts through the WordPress.com AI proxy via the canonical wp-ai-client API in WordPress 7.0+.

It's a PoC of the "WordPress is the host" approach to agentic UX: the chat lives in wp-admin, the provider is a registered wp-ai-client provider, the tools are real wp_register_ability() registrations.

What's inside

• A custom wp-ai-client provider (studio-wpcom) that proxies through https://public-api.wordpress.com/wpcom/v2/ai-api-proxy, authenticated with the Studio user's wpcom token. No per-site API key required.
• An agents-api agent registration.
• Three Abilities the agent can call: studio/site-info, studio/list-posts, studio/list-plugins.
• A wp-admin chat page with a vanilla-JS UI that POSTs to a REST endpoint running a tool-calling loop (5 iterations max).
• A bootstrap script that creates the Studio site, installs the plugins, and injects the wpcom token in one command.

Requirements

• macOS with the Studio app and its studio CLI on PATH.
• Logged in to WordPress.com via Studio (studio auth status shows Authenticated with WordPress.com).
• A local checkout of Automattic/agents-api as a sibling directory (or set AGENTS_API_PATH).

Setup

./bin/bootstrap.sh

That's it. The script:

1. Creates a Studio site (studio-agent-poc) with WordPress 7.0 if it doesn't exist; reuses + restarts it if it does.
2. Copies agents-api and symlinks studio-agent into wp-content/plugins/.
3. Reads your wpcom access token from ~/.studio/shared.json and stores it as studio_wpcom_token option (no token in any file under git).
4. Activates both plugins.
5. Prints the chat URL and admin credentials.

Re-run the script anytime — it's idempotent.

Use

Open http://localhost:<port>/wp-admin/admin.php?page=studio-agent (the script prints the exact URL), log in as admin / password, and chat. Try:

• "What WP version is this?" → invokes studio/site-info.
• "List the latest posts." → invokes studio/list-posts.
• "Which plugins are installed?" → invokes studio/list-plugins.

The agent will use the tools, not make things up.

How it talks to the model

wp-admin chat UI (JS fetch)
  └→ /wp-json/studio-agent/v1/chat (REST)
       └→ wp_ai_client_prompt($messages)
              ->using_system_instruction(...)
              ->using_abilities('studio/site-info', ...)
              ->generate_text_result()
            └→ provider studio-wpcom (registered with AiClient::defaultRegistry())
                 └→ POST https://public-api.wordpress.com/wpcom/v2/ai-api-proxy/v1/chat/completions
                       Authorization: Bearer <wpcom_token>
                       X-WPCOM-AI-Feature: studio-assistant-anthropic
                  → Anthropic Claude Haiku 4.5

If the model returns function calls, the REST handler resolves them with WP_AI_Client_Ability_Function_Resolver, splits each FunctionResponse into its own user message (OpenAI wire format requires that), and re-prompts. Up to 5 iterations.

File map

studio-agent/
├── studio-agent.php                              # plugin loader
├── includes/
│   ├── class-studio-wpcom-provider.php           # Provider, Auth, Model, Directory, Availability
│   ├── class-studio-agent-rest.php               # REST handler + tool-calling loop
│   ├── class-studio-agent-conversation.php       # session storage in wp_options
│   ├── class-studio-agent-admin.php              # wp-admin menu page
│   ├── register-agent.php                        # wp_register_agent('studio')
│   └── register-abilities.php                    # 3 abilities + ability category
├── assets/
│   ├── admin-chat.js                             # vanilla JS chat client
│   └── admin-chat.css
├── bin/
│   └── bootstrap.sh                              # one-shot site setup
└── docs/screenshots/

Known limitations

• WP 7.0+ only — the canonical wp_ai_client_prompt() path requires it. The substrate (agents-api) itself works on 6.5+ but the provider story is 7.0+.
• One model exposed (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001). Easy to widen by extending Model_Directory.
• Conversation history persists user/assistant text but not tool-call traces between turns. The model loses memory of which tools it called previously. Fine for a chat PoC, would need shoring up for multi-turn workflows.
• No streaming (single-shot per turn). The wpcom proxy supports SSE but the wp-ai-client integration here doesn't use it yet.
• Token in wp_option is plaintext. Acceptable for a local Studio site; needs encryption or transient handling for anything shared.