LayrShift

Forge WordPress with your AI agent. LayrShift is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server plugin for WordPress that lets tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and VS Code Copilot read and write your site, run sandboxed PHP, manage Gutenberg batches, and integrate with popular plugins — all through a authenticated HTTP API.

Distribution: LayrShift is not listed on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Download: layrshift-1.0.8.zip · Source on GitHub (AGPL-3.0-or-later). Dev/staging only — filesystem access and administrator-level automation.

Environment: Development and staging sites only. Do not install on production.

Table of contents

• Why GitHub, not WordPress.org?
• LayrShift vs Novamira
• What LayrShift does
• Requirements
• Installation
• Quick start
• Connect your MCP client
• Admin interface
• Abilities reference
• Plugin integrations
• Agent skills
• Security model
• Troubleshooting
• Safe mode & crash recovery
• Changelog
• Support & contributing

Why GitHub, not WordPress.org?

WordPress.org’s plugin review is designed for code that runs safely on millions of shared hosting sites. LayrShift is intentionally powerful:

• Filesystem read, write, edit, and delete under the site root
• Optional execute PHP and WP-CLI abilities (GitHub / full dev builds)
• Signed upload URLs for plugins, themes, and media
• Persistent sandbox PHP with autoload

That power is appropriate for local dev, staging, and agency workflows where an administrator explicitly opts in. It is not appropriate as a one-click install for every production site. We publish versioned release zips on S3 so you can review the package, pin a version, and install when you understand the risk.

AI Abilities are disabled by default until an administrator acknowledges the warning and enables them in Settings.

LayrShift vs Novamira

LayrShift shares architectural DNA with Novamira — both are MCP server plugins built on the WordPress Abilities API and MCP Adapter, aimed at dev/staging sites with filesystem and code-execution powers. Neither is distributed on WordPress.org for security reasons.

LayrShift is an open-source (GPL) GitHub distribution with more built-in MCP tools and agent skills out of the box. Novamira is AGPL with a commercial Novamira Pro tier that adds native abilities per page builder and plugin.

At a glance

MCP abilities checklist

Counts are registered MCP tools when the relevant plugins are active and abilities are enabled. Novamira Pro abilities depend on your license; the free Novamira core matches the “shared core” rows.

LayrShift totals (typical dev site): ~60+ MCP tools from core + Gutenberg + integrations, plus ~37 skill prompts.
Novamira OSS core: ~27 MCP tools (core + Gutenberg + skills API). Pro adds dedicated tools per builder/plugin on top.

Built-in specializations (agent skills)

Skills are Markdown playbooks loaded via layrshift/skill-get (or novamira/skill-get). They teach the agent how to work with each stack. LayrShift ships all of these in the plugin; Novamira OSS ships 2; Novamira Pro covers the builder/plugin column via native abilities + Pro skills.

How execution differs

LayrShift optimizes for breadth: many integrations and playbooks in one free package. Novamira Pro optimizes for depth: first-class APIs per licensed specialization and product memory.

Distribution & licensing

When to choose which

Choose LayrShift if you want:

• A free, GPL MCP agent stack on GitHub with no license server
• More abilities included immediately (integrations + 25 skills)
• Wontonee / LayrShift ecosystem plugins (VaultShift, BlogiBot) with first-class MCP tools
• The same Gutenberg queue and filesystem model you may already know from Novamira

Choose Novamira if you want:

• Novamira Pro native abilities and commercial support from Ovation
• Project memory across agent sessions
• Novamira Visual browser workspace
• AGPL-aligned workflow with their licensed specialization packs

Both require HTTPS, Application Passwords, administrator opt-in, and must not run on production.

What LayrShift does

LayrShift exposes a WordPress REST MCP endpoint at:

https://your-site.example/wp-json/layrshift/v1/mcp

Authenticated AI clients can call abilities (tools) registered through WordPress’s Abilities API. Typical workflows:

• Inspect and patch theme/plugin files
• Deploy experimental PHP in a sandbox directory (wp-content/layrshift-sandbox/)
• Queue Gutenberg block changes and finalize them in the browser
• Read/write Elementor documents when Elementor is active
• Upload zip assets via time-limited signed URLs
• Load Markdown skill playbooks for WooCommerce, ACF, Elementor, Divi, and more

The admin UI includes an MCP connection wizard, Abilities Hub (per-tool toggles), Activity Log, and Agent Sandbox manager.

Requirements

Optional:

• Elementor, Yoast SEO, Smush, VaultShift, BlogiBot — extra abilities when those plugins are active
• wp CLI on the server — only in specialized builds; not in the standard release zip
• Node.js — for @automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote in your MCP client (recommended transport)

Installation

1. Download layrshift-1.0.8.zip
   Also on GitHub Releases. Other S3 versions: https://wontonee-micro-services.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/layrshift/layrshift-x.y.z.zip
2. In WordPress admin: Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip, and activate.
3. Dependencies are already bundled — you do not need Composer or the command line.

Verify installation

After activation you should see LayrShift in the admin menu. If you see “Run composer install in the plugin directory”, the vendor/ folder is missing — delete the plugin and install again from the official release zip.

Quick start

1. LayrShift → Configuration → Settings

   • Read the dev/staging warning and check I understand this is for dev/staging only
   • Enable AI Abilities
   • Optionally restrict Allowed administrators and tune Execution time limit (for execute-php)
   • Save

2. LayrShift → Configuration → MCP

   • Click Create application password (save the password — it is shown once)
   • Copy the ready-made MCP config for your client (Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code, Windsurf, etc.)

3. In your MCP client

   • Paste the config or set WP_API_URL to your MCP endpoint
   • Restart the client if required
   • Ask the agent to call a simple tool, e.g. layrshift/read-file with path: wp-config.php (on a dev site only)

4. Abilities Hub (LayrShift → Abilities Hub)

   • Enable or disable individual tools per workflow