WP Manifestindependent plugin directory
manifest / ai / wp-pinch

WP Pinch WP Registry grade D+. High-severity findings · 3 findingsWP RegistryHigh-severity findings · 3 findingsOpen the reportD+ #9 in AI

The AI agent plugin that grabs your WordPress site with both claws.

★ 47stars
371release downloads
≈20active sites
v3.1.1latest · 7mo ago

Install

Download wp-pinch-3.1.1.zip From the v3.1.1 release on GitHub, Mar 11, 2026

Upload it under Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, then activate.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/regionallyfamous/wp-pinch/releases/download/v3.1.1/wp-pinch-3.1.1.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.

WordPress in your pocket. Your AI assistant runs it from the chat you never leave.

One plugin. Connect OpenClaw (or any MCP client), and your site is in the same chat: publish, repurpose, moderate, audit, and maintain from WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, or Discord.

OpenClaw is the personal AI on those channels; it does things. WP Pinch is the WordPress tool: 88 core abilities (plus 30 WooCommerce when active; plus Ghost Writer and Molt when feature flags enabled = 122 total).

wp-pinch.com · Wiki · Releases · ClawHub · Install in 60 seconds →

Try WP Pinch in 30 seconds — No install. No signup. Click around the admin, toggle abilities, and watch your WordPress site grow claws.


What ships in the box

  • 88 core abilities across content, media, users/comments, settings, extension lifecycle, revisions/history, governance audits, and system admin operations.
  • 30 WooCommerce abilities covering product/order CRUD, inventory controls, fulfillment/refunds, coupon lifecycle, customer lookups, and commerce analytics.
  • Feature tools: PinchDrop, Ghost Writer, Molt, What do I know, Project Assembly, Spaced Resurfacing, Find Similar, Knowledge Graph.
  • Automation stack: webhook dispatcher with retries + HMAC, governance scheduler + Tide Report, audit log, and circuit breaker.
  • Distribution channels: OpenClaw (WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord), any MCP client, and on-site Pinch Chat block.

If you enable every optional module (WooCommerce + feature-flagged tools), you land at 122 total abilities/tools. That is one extremely well-trained crustacean.

Why the WooCommerce expansion matters

  • Fewer handoffs - agents can move from "draft catalog update" to "order follow-up" without bouncing between tools.
  • Safer store ops - high-risk flows (refunds, cancellations, sensitive customer data) include explicit guardrails and conservative defaults.
  • Faster response time - support and operations teams can answer order, stock, and promotion questions directly from chat.
  • Better decision visibility - built-in sales summaries and "orders needing attention" reduce blind spots during busy windows.

Why teams switch to WP Pinch

OpenClaw = your assistant (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and more). Memory, sessions, webhooks, and a tools layer — you connect MCP servers like WP Pinch.

WP Pinch = WordPress as tools for that assistant. Key features:

  • Molt — Turn one post into 10 formats: social (Twitter, LinkedIn), thread, FAQ block, email snippet, meta description, pull quote, key takeaways, CTA variants. One call, many outputs.
  • PinchDrop — Turn rough text into a draft pack (post, product_update, changelog, social). Quick Drop mode for minimal notes. Send an idea from Slack; get a draft back.
  • What do I know — Natural-language query → search + synthesis → answer with source post IDs. "What have I written about pricing?" → answer + sources.
  • Ghost Writer — Complete abandoned drafts in your writing voice. List drafts ranked by resurrection potential, then ghostwrite to finish in your style.
  • Tide Report — Governance runs on a schedule (stale posts, SEO health, comments, broken links, abandoned drafts); Tide Report bundles findings into one daily webhook to your channel.
  • Web Clipper — Token-protected bookmarklet. Hit any webpage; save snippet to WordPress as draft. No chat needed.

So: "Publish the Q3 recap." -> Done. "Turn post 123 into a thread and meta description." -> Molt. Paste an idea in Slack -> PinchDrop.

No extra logins. No "I'll do it at my desk." You talk; your assistant has the keys. Your site isn't another tab - it's in the same chat. Self-hosted. Your data. (We gave the AI the keys, then hired a bouncer lobster. More in Security.)

Why this is safe to run in production

  • Hard guards on risky actions - update/delete extension lifecycle actions require explicit confirmation and action-specific capabilities.
  • Scalpel, not chainsaw - database search/replace is scope-limited, dry-run first, and skips serialized postmeta values to avoid data corruption.
  • Operational safety rails - maintenance mode enable requires explicit confirmation; language pack activation validates locale format and availability.
  • Audit trail for everything - ability runs are logged so you can trace who did what, when, and why your lobster looked suspicious at 2am.

Who it's for: Solo creators, small teams, anyone who talks to an AI in chat and wants their WordPress site there. If you've ever thought "I'll publish that when I'm at my laptop," stop context-switching and start pinching. This is for you. I built this because I wanted to publish from Telegram without opening WordPress.


Things to know before you install

  • You need OpenClaw (or another MCP client). WP Pinch is the WordPress bridge; it's not a turnkey cloud service. Your assistant runs elsewhere and talks to your site via MCP.
  • Test Connection often fails when the gateway URL has a trailing slash or the token doesn't have MCP scope. No trailing slash; use an application password or token that can access the MCP endpoint.
  • Governance (Tide Report, scheduled tasks) requires Action Scheduler—install it standalone or via WooCommerce.

The stack in plain English

OpenClaw (openclaw.ai, GitHub): open-source personal AI. You run it. It connects to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and more — and does things via MCP tools, skills, and code.

WP Pinch plugs WordPress in. Your site becomes an MCP server: 88 core abilities across content, media, users, comments, settings, lifecycle, menus/meta/revisions/cron, GEO/SEO, and system admin operations, plus 30 WooCommerce when active, plus PinchDrop, Molt, Ghost Writer when feature flags enabled. Bonus: Pinch Chat block and webhooks (publish/comment → OpenClaw). One plugin.


What you can do (concrete)

You want to… How it works
Publish or update a post from chat Your assistant calls create-post / update-post. Draft-first: posts are saved as draft with a preview URL; use preview-approve to publish after review.
Turn one post into social + FAQ + meta Use Molt: one ability call or /molt 123 in chat. Nine output formats.
Capture an idea from WhatsApp/Slack without opening WP PinchDrop: send the idea to your assistant; it hits the PinchDrop capture endpoint and creates a draft pack (or Quick Drop for a minimal note).
Save a webpage snippet to WordPress from the browser Web Clipper: token-protected REST endpoint. Bookmarklet or extension calls it; post is created as draft.
Ask "what did I write about X?" and get an answer with sources What do I know: natural-language query → search + synthesis → answer plus post IDs.
Resurrect an old draft in your writing voice Ghost Writer: list abandoned drafts, then ghostwrite to get completed content in your style.
Have your site report what needs attention (stale posts, SEO, comments) Governance tasks run on a schedule; Tide Report bundles findings into one daily webhook to OpenClaw. You see it in your channel.
Let visitors chat with an AI that knows your content Pinch Chat block on any page. Streaming, slash commands, optional public mode.

Plus: 88 core abilities (content, media, users, comments, settings, plugins/themes lifecycle, menus/meta/revisions/cron, GEO/SEO, and system admin), 30 WooCommerce when active, and Ghost Writer (3) + Molt (1) when feature flags enabled — 122 total. Full abilities reference →


Feature tour (from chat to publish)

Category What you get
Content workflow duplicate-post, schedule-post, guarded find-replace-content, reorder-posts, compare-revisions
Media ops set-featured-image, list-unused-media, regenerate-media-thumbnails
Governance and health flush-cache, check-broken-links, get-php-error-log, list-posts-missing-meta, list-custom-post-types
WooCommerce operations product/order CRUD, stock adjustment (single/bulk), fulfillment notes/cancel/refunds, coupon lifecycle, customer list/get with redaction defaults, sales summary/top products/attention queue
System admin transient CRUD, rewrite list/flush, maintenance mode, scoped DB search/replace, language pack install/activate
Extension lifecycle plugin/theme install-update-delete with hard confirmations and action-specific capability checks
User and comment control guarded user create/delete/reset password and full comment CRUD

All destructive operations use explicit confirmations or dry-run defaults. We are not in the "YOLO update production at 2am" business.


Give your site claws in 60 seconds

Yes, we said claws. The lobster theme is non-negotiable — and neither is the 60-second install.

wp plugin install https://github.com/RegionallyFamous/wp-pinch/releases/latest/download/wp-pinch.zip --activate

Note: WP Pinch is distributed via GitHub (not yet on wordpress.org). The zip above is built from source for each release.

  1. Install and activate the MCP Adapter plugin — this is what registers the /wp-json/wp-pinch/mcp endpoint.
  2. Open WP Pinch in your admin sidebar.
  3. Enter your OpenClaw Gateway URL and API Token.
  4. Click Test Connection.
  5. In OpenClaw: connect to the MCP endpoint. Command syntax may vary by version — see OpenClaw CLI docs. Example: npx openclaw connect --mcp-url https://your-site.com/wp-json/wp-pinch/mcp

Done. Manage your site from WhatsApp, Slack, or Telegram — or add the Pinch Chat block so visitors can chat with an AI that knows your content. To give your agent WordPress-specific behavior, install the skill from ClawHub: clawhub install nickhamze/pinch-to-post — or see the OpenClaw Skill guide.

Next: Configuration (webhooks, governance) · Abilities Reference


For developers

Hooks and filters for abilities, webhooks, governance. WP-CLI: wp pinch status, wp pinch audit list, wp pinch governance run, wp pinch features, wp pinch config, wp pinch molt, wp pinch ghostwrite, wp pinch cache, wp pinch approvals.
→ Hooks & filters · WP-CLI


Quality gate (no hand-waving)

Before release, we run a full gauntlet:

  • composer lint + composer lint:tests + composer phpstan
  • npm run lint:js + npm run lint:css
  • npm test + npm run test:e2e
  • composer test (PHPUnit via wp-env)
  • npm run test:plugin-check (WordPress Plugin Check)

Current suite status in this branch: all of the above pass locally.


Security

Capability checks, sanitization, audit logging, HMAC webhooks, rate limiting, circuit breaker.
→ Security model · Report a vulnerability


Requirements

Requirement Minimum
WordPress 6.9+ (Abilities API)
PHP 8.1+
MCP Adapter plugin Required for MCP. Registers the /wp-json/wp-pinch/mcp endpoint. Without it, AI clients get a 404. Install from GitHub.
Action Scheduler Required for governance (scheduled tasks, webhook retries). Abilities and Chat block work without it. Install from WooCommerce or standalone. See FAQ.
OpenClaw For chat/channel integration; any MCP client can use the abilities

Multisite: On WordPress Multisite, network admins get Network → Settings → WP Pinch to set shared Gateway URL and API Token. Sites can inherit network defaults or override per site. See Configuration.

Quick answers: Don't have OpenClaw yet? The abilities and MCP server work with any MCP-compatible client. Your data stays on your server; we don't send content to third parties. FAQ


What we're not building

We're not a replacement for WordPress or a hosted AI SaaS. We're the bridge: your site stays in WordPress; your assistant gets a full toolkit. The lobster runs the trap; you run the conversation. PKM import (Obsidian → posts) is on the roadmap. PKM Import →


Docs (wiki)

AI agents and coding assistants: See AGENTS.md for architecture, extension points, and how to improve WP Pinch.

Start here Full docs
Configuration — Connect OpenClaw, webhooks, governance Recipes — Outcome-first workflows (publish, Molt, PinchDrop, What do I know, Tide Report, Ghost Writer)
Recipes — What you can do, step-by-step Abilities Reference · Chat Block · Security · FAQ

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. Built by Nick Hamze. Your site, your assistant, one conversation — and no lobsters were harmed. Thanks to the OpenClaw team and everyone who's reported bugs.

Spot a typo or outdated doc? A PR or issue is welcome.

wp-pinch.com

Releases

23 releases. Each count is every asset in that release; expand a row for the breakdown.

Tag
Published
Assets
Downloads
v3.1.1 latest
Mar 11, 2026 7mo ago
wp-pinch-3.1.1.zip
81
Mar 10, 2026 7mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.6.zip
3
Mar 2, 2026 7mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.5.zip
23
Feb 19, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.4.zip
69
Feb 18, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.3.zip
15
Feb 17, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.2.zip
7
Feb 17, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.1.zip
5
Feb 16, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-3.0.0.zip
5
Feb 15, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.9.0.zip
99
Feb 15, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.8.0.zip
9
Feb 14, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.7.0.zip
4
Feb 14, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.5.0.zip
6
Feb 14, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.4.2.zip
5
Feb 13, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.4.1.zip
7
Feb 13, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.4.0.zip
3
Feb 13, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.3.1.zip
3
Feb 13, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.3.0.zip
3
Feb 12, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.2.0.zip
7
Feb 12, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.1.0.zip
4
Feb 11, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-2.0.0.zip
3
Feb 11, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-1.0.2.zip
5
Feb 10, 2026 8mo ago
tag only
—
Feb 10, 2026 8mo ago
wp-pinch-1.0.0.zip
5

Active-site estimate ≈20 comes from the median of recent superseded releases. Method.

D+ grade

Security

WP Pinch 3.1.1 · audited by WP Registry

High-severity findings.

1 high 2 medium
Audited release
3.1.1
Findings
3
Worst severity
high
Content hash
15b4773255e6cfa0a1d5207d…

Findings

  • high Broken-link checker SSRF via HTTP redirects

    ssrf

    wp-pinch/check-broken-links (capability edit_posts) and the weekly governance broken_links task fetch attacker-controlled URLs from post content. They pre-check the first hop (is_url_public / gethostbyname + NO_PRIV_RANGE) then call wp_remote_head() with redirection=3. wp_remote_head is not wp_safe_remote_head: reject_unsafe_urls is false, so redirect targets are not passed through wp_http_validate_url(). WordPress HEAD defaults to redirection=0; this code explicitly re-enables hops. A Contributor (MCP/Abilities client) can put a public redirector in their own post and scan it on demand; an Author can publish the same link and wait for the default-enabled weekly cron. The server will follow 302s to 169.254.169.254, 127.0.0.1, or RFC1918 hosts. is_url_public also returns true when DNS fails (gethostbyname returns the hostname unchanged), so the precheck is skippable.

    includes/Ability/Site_Ops_Abilities.php:245-252

    Recommendation

    Replace wp_remote_head with wp_safe_remote_head (validates the URL and every redirect hop via wp_http_validate_url). Keep redirection limited; re-run the private-IP check on each hop if redirects must stay enabled. Apply the same fix in includes/Governance/Tasks/Broken_Links.php (lines 66-73), which uses the same unsafe HEAD+redirect pattern without wp_http_validate_url at all.

  • medium get-post and list-posts leak other users' drafts and private content

    auth_bypass

    wp-pinch/get-post and wp-pinch/list-posts are registered with permission_callback current_user_can('edit_posts') only. execute_get_post loads any post ID and returns format_post($post, true) including full post_content, with no current_user_can('read_post'|'edit_post'). execute_list_posts passes attacker-chosen post_status (draft, private, trash, any) into WP_Query with no author restriction and no per-post cap check. A Contributor or Author using MCP (meta.mcp.public=true) or any Abilities client can read unpublished/private/password-protected posts they cannot see in wp-admin. Sibling abilities (update-post, delete-post, molt REST, QuickWin) correctly call edit_post/read_post.

    includes/Ability/Content_Abilities.php:310-316

    Recommendation

    In execute_get_post, require current_user_can('read_post', $post->ID) (and do not return content for password-protected posts unless the caller may). In execute_list_posts, restrict post_status to values the user can list, and for non-publish statuses add 'author' => get_current_user_id() unless current_user_can('edit_others_posts'). Mirror the per-post checks already used in execute_update_post and Rest\Molt::handle_molt.

  • medium reset-user-password can target administrators and skip the approval queue

    auth_bypass

    create-user, update-user-role, and delete-user all refuse administrator targets, self-modification, and roles with DANGEROUS_CAPABILITIES. execute_reset_user_password does none of that: any user with edit_users (incoming webhook defaults to the first administrator via OpenClaw_Role::get_execution_user_id) can wp_set_password() on user 1 and, with return_password=true, receive the plaintext password in the JSON result. wp-pinch/reset-user-password is also absent from Approval_Queue::DESTRUCTIVE_ABILITIES, so enabling approval_workflow still lets this ability run immediately while delete-user/update-user-role are queued. Combined with default-on comment/registration webhooks (wakeMode always) this is the missing human-approval brake on account takeover.

    includes/Ability/User_Comment_Extended_Abilities.php:302-338

    Recommendation

    Refuse administrator targets, users with DANGEROUS_CAPABILITIES, and self-resets, matching execute_delete_user/execute_update_user_role. Add wp-pinch/reset-user-password to Approval_Queue::DESTRUCTIVE_ABILITIES. Never return the plaintext password over the hook/MCP response; send a reset email instead.

WP Registry hashes the installable build and reports on that exact bytes-for-bytes copy. Embargoed findings are withheld until they are disclosed, so a clean verdict means nothing public is outstanding. WP Manifest does not audit code itself.