New AI Agent Skill introduced for WordPress that streamlines testing and iteration, and works with Playground

To enhance testing and iteration in WordPress, Brandon Payton (WordPress contributor) has published wp-playground, a new AI agent skill designed to run WordPress via the Playground CLI.

A new AI agent skill has been introduced that streamlines testing and iteration in WordPress and works with Playground. This innovative tool reduces setup time from minutes to seconds, enhancing collaboration and creativity.

Test it out today: https://t.co/LP7NWA8Jz5 pic.twitter.com/Xq6ujsp9vy

— WordPress (@WordPress) January 30, 2026

This new AI agent skill is said to give agents an easy way to test WordPress code and make building and experimenting with WordPress a lot more accessible.

During testing, agents were able to start WordPress, build playful plugins, and validate behavior in a tight feedback loop. Once Playground was running, the agent alternated between tools such as curl and Playwright to interact with WordPress, verify results, apply fixes when needed, and then re-verify with Playground.

When launched, this skill starts WordPress and detects where the current code should live inside a WordPress install. This helps agents move from “generated code” to “running site” with fewer manual steps. It is revealed that helper scripts handle startup and shutdown, so an agent doesn’t waste time guessing when WordPress is ready. This reduces the “ready to test” moment from roughly a minute to a few seconds on the author’s machine. The Playground CLI can also log in automatically to easier WP-Admin access during testing.

Availability

To try this new AI agent skill in Claude Code, Codex, or another AI agent, installation requires Node.js and npm.

In addition to the new AI agent skill, WordPress has also made an announcement of a new experimental GitHub repo where WordPress is testing how AI agents can work with WordPress tools. It’s an early step in exploring how AI agents can collaborate with WordPress tooling and is open to community contributions. It is revealed that future additions being explored include persistent Playground sites based on the current directory, running commands against an existing Playground instance (including wp-cli), and Blueprint generation.