Build with WordPress Claude Code Plugin

Describe a website in plain English, get a complete WordPress block theme deployed to your local Studio site — ready to push to WordPress.com or Pressable.

What this does

Building WordPress themes from scratch is complex — theme.json, block markup, template parts, design systems, responsive layouts. This plugin handles all of it. You describe your site (e.g., "A landing page for my pottery studio called Clay & Fire"), pick from 3 generated design directions, and get a fully deployed theme on a local WordPress Studio site.

There are two workflows:

• /quick-build — Fast, single-session flow. Describe your site, review the spec, pick a design, and get a live theme in minutes.
• /design-site — Multi-phase professional pipeline with style tile iteration, page layout reviews, full-page mockups, and a live design gallery that auto-refreshes as artifacts are generated.

Prerequisites

1. Claude Code — Install Claude Code if you haven't already.
2. WordPress Studio — A local WordPress environment from Automattic. Download Studio, then enable the CLI so the studio command is available in your terminal (CLI docs).
3. Node.js 18+ — Needed by the bundled block markup validator that runs after theme generation.

Installation

1. Clone this repo (or note the path if you already have it):

   git clone https://github.com/Automattic/claude-code-wordpress.com.git
   

2. Start Claude from your Studio sites folder with the plugin flag:

   cd ~/Studio
   claude --plugin-dir /path/to/claude-code-wordpress.com
   

Claude must be started from the folder where your Studio sites live (or a subdirectory of it). The plugin checks this on first run and will prompt you if you're in the wrong directory.

Getting started

Here's what a typical /wordpress.com:quick-build session looks like:

1. Run the command — Type your site description after the command:

   /wordpress.com:quick-build A landing page for my pottery studio called Clay & Fire
   

2. Share design assets (optional) — Claude asks if you have logos, photos, or brand guidelines. Share a folder path or skip.

3. Review the site spec — Claude extracts the site name, type, audience, tone, brand keywords, and key sections, then presents them for confirmation. Adjust anything before moving on.

4. Studio site setup — Claude creates a new Studio site (or offers to reuse an existing one).

5. Pick a design — 3 HTML design previews (header + hero) open in your browser. Each represents a distinct aesthetic direction. Pick 1, 2, or 3 — optionally with tweaks like "2, but darker" or "3 with the typography from 1."

6. Theme is built and deployed — Claude generates the full theme (theme.json, templates, template parts, styles, animations), validates block markup, activates the theme, and returns your local site URL.

7. Next steps — From here you can iterate on the design, create a shareable preview link, add pages, or regenerate design options.

Commands

Advanced: /design-site

The /wordpress.com:design-site command adds several phases before the final theme build:

• Style tiles — 3 palette/typography/component directions rendered as interactive HTML tiles. Pick one (or mix elements) to lock your design tokens.
• Page layouts — 3 full-page layout compositions built from your locked tokens. Pick the layout approach that works best.
• Full mockups — Every page (homepage, about, pricing, etc.) rendered as a complete HTML document for review before any WordPress code is generated.
• Live design gallery — A gallery page at /?design-gallery on your Studio site that auto-refreshes as artifacts are generated, so you can review everything in one place.
• Redesigns — Pass a URL and the plugin scrapes existing content to use as a foundation for the new design.

For contributors: the implementation details live in skills/ (skill definitions) and references/ (knowledge docs loaded by subagents at runtime).

Telemetry

Opt out: Set this environment variable before running Claude:

export WP_SITE_CREATOR_NO_TELEMETRY=1

This plugin collects anonymous, count-only usage statistics to help understand how commands are used. No user identity, machine fingerprints, site names, file paths, or personal data are collected — just simple counters.

What's tracked:

Troubleshooting

• studio: command not found — Enable the CLI in WordPress Studio's settings, then restart your terminal. CLI docs.
• "Wrong directory" error — Start Claude from ~/Studio (or wherever your Studio sites live). The plugin needs to be running from the Studio sites folder.
• Design previews are blank — This usually means a path issue with image sources. Re-run /wordpress.com:preview-designs to regenerate.
• Node.js not found during block fixing — Install Node.js 18+. The block markup validator requires it.
• Theme activates but looks wrong — Re-run /wordpress.com:quick-build to regenerate the theme, or iterate on specific elements by asking Claude to adjust colors, typography, or layout.