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Set up Claude Desktop app

Claude Desktop keeps its MCP servers in one configuration file that applies to every conversation. This guide adds your site to it.

Before you start, make sure Node.js 20 or newer is installed (node -v in a terminal) and that you have finished the steps in Introduction: Sense AI switched on, and an application password created.

Step 1: Copy the config​

In WordPress, go to Builderius → Settings → Sense AI, scroll to Connect your client, and choose Claude Desktop from the dropdown.

The Connect your client step with Claude Desktop selected

The screen prints the exact block for your site, with your address, your username and your port already filled in. Press Copy.

What you get depends on which modes you switched on, because each mode is its own MCP server. Live editing runs a connector on your machine that talks to the open builder tab over a port. Abilities go to the site itself over HTTP, through the WordPress MCP remote. They share nothing but your credentials, so turning both on means two entries.

Live editing only​

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "builderius-example": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@builderius/sense-ai@latest", "mcp", "--port=7681"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://example.com",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "your-wp-username",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "YOUR-APP-PASSWORD"
      }
    }
  }
}

--port=7681 must match the Port setting in the Sense AI screen. That is how the connector finds the builder tab.

Abilities only​

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wordpress-example": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://example.com",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "your-wp-username",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "YOUR-APP-PASSWORD"
      }
    }
  }
}

No port here. Nothing has to be open in a browser, and no connector runs on your machine.

Both​

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "builderius-example": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@builderius/sense-ai@latest", "mcp", "--port=7681"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://example.com",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "your-wp-username",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "YOUR-APP-PASSWORD"
      }
    },
    "wordpress-example": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automattic/mcp-wordpress-remote@latest"],
      "env": {
        "WP_API_URL": "https://example.com",
        "WP_API_USERNAME": "your-wp-username",
        "WP_API_PASSWORD": "YOUR-APP-PASSWORD"
      }
    }
  }
}

Two servers, one mcpServers object, the same three environment variables in both. Paste it whole. With both on, Sense AI should pick the right one for the task on its own. If you need a particular mode, name its server in your request: builderius-example for live editing, wordpress-example for abilities. Those are the keys in the block above, and on your own site they carry your site's name instead of example. That naming matters most once you connect more than one site, since every site adds its own pair to the same file. See Notes for Claude Desktop below.

Local sites over HTTPS

For a site on a reserved name such as .test or .local, the settings screen adds "NODE_OPTIONS": "--use-system-ca" to each env block, so Node accepts your development certificate. Keep it if it is printed, and leave it out otherwise.

Step 2: Open Claude Desktop's config file​

The easiest route is through the app itself:

Settings → Developer → Edit Config

That reveals the file and opens it in your editor. You can also go straight to it:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

If the file does not exist yet, create it with the block you copied as its entire contents.

Step 3: Merge, do not replace​

If the file already has an mcpServers section, add your site's entries inside it rather than pasting a second mcpServers key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "some-server-you-already-had": { "...": "..." },
    "builderius-example": { "...": "..." },
    "wordpress-example": { "...": "..." }
  }
}
Two mcpServers keys silently break the file

JSON allows a duplicate key without complaining and the last one wins, so pasting a whole second block on top of an existing one quietly deletes every server you had before. If Claude stops seeing a server you set up earlier, this is why.

Step 4: Fill in the password​

Replace YOUR-APP-PASSWORD with the application password you created in the settings screen. It looks like six groups of four characters. Keep the spaces or remove them, WordPress accepts either. With both servers configured, the same password goes in both.

Step 5: Restart Claude Desktop​

Quit the app completely and open it again. Claude Desktop reads this file once, at startup, so reloading a conversation is not enough.

Verify it worked​

Open a new conversation and ask:

List my Builderius templates.

  • With Abilities on, it answers straight away.
  • With only Live editing on, open a Builderius template in your browser first, then ask again. Live editing needs that tab open.

If it says no Builderius page is connected while a builder tab is plainly open, check that the Port in the settings screen matches --port= in the config, and that all three of WP_API_URL, WP_API_USERNAME and WP_API_PASSWORD are present.

Notes for Claude Desktop​

One file, every conversation. Claude Desktop has no per-project configuration, so anything you add here applies everywhere. This is where it differs from the CLI clients, which read a config from the folder you start them in.

Site names keep entries apart. The settings screen names each server after your site, builderius-example rather than builderius, so a second site cannot collide with the first.

Two sites, four entries. Connecting another WordPress site with both modes on means another pair of servers in the same file, each with its own address, username and password.

Troubleshooting​

  • The server does not appear at all. The file is not valid JSON, or the app was not fully restarted. A stray comma is the usual cause.
  • spawn npx ENOENT. Node.js is not installed, or not visible to apps launched from the Dock. Install the LTS from nodejs.org rather than a shell-only version manager.
  • "No builderius page is connected". Either no builder tab is open, or the port does not match, or the config is missing the username or site URL. All three environment variables are required; the password alone is not enough.
  • Abilities work but live editing does not. Only the live editing server uses the port, so check --port= against the settings screen, and make sure a builder tab is open.
  • Live editing works but abilities do not. The port is not involved, so check that the MCP Adapter plugin is active on the site and publishing the abilities.
  • Nothing happens on a site served over local HTTPS. See the note on development certificates in Introduction. Reserved names such as .test and .local are handled automatically, other local domains need Node pointed at your CA.