Security use case
Audit WordPress security with AI, without letting it change a thing.
Audit WordPress security with AI by reviewing named signals: installed plugin versions, administrator access and recent agent activity. GoBuildWP Free supplies these reads under the site's Read Only profile. The owner compares access with an approved roster; the findings are a bounded review, not proof that a site is secure.
GoBuildWP Free, Works in Cursor, Runs under Read Only, Pricing
Illustrative ability sequence for GoBuildWP Free 1.18.6. IDs, results and recovery outcomes are examples, not a recorded client or WordPress test. Select Read Only explicitly for the initial reads; Production Safe is the default. Connection management requires manage_options on a single site or superadmin on multisite.
The problem
Scanning is solved. Reading the results is not
Security plugins are good at producing findings. What a site owner usually lacks is someone to read them against the actual site, separate the urgent from the cosmetic, and turn them into three things to do this week.
That is a job for an AI client, as long as it cannot make things worse while doing it. Under GoBuildWP's Read Only profile, reads work and every write is refused by the site itself, whatever the prompt says. The client runs the bounded security audit, reads plugins, users and agent history, and writes the fix list.
What Cursor can do here
- Run GoBuildWP's security configuration audit of hardening signals and outstanding updates
- List installed plugins and themes with versions, active state and available updates
- List users by role with capabilities, never with passwords or secrets
- Read a curated, non-secret set of site settings
- Review the change ledger to see what connected agents have done on the site
What it cannot do
- Scan for malware. The audit checks configuration and says so in its own description
- Change anything under Read Only: updates, role changes and deletions are refused by the profile
- Read wp-config.php or other server files, which needs Developer Full Access that an audit has no use for
- Replace a firewall, a malware scanner or your host's security monitoring
The prompt
The prompt to paste into Cursor
Paste this into Cursor's agent chat. The profile enforces read-only; the prompt makes the output useful.
- "Change nothing" is good manners. The Read Only profile is what actually enforces it.
- Severity order puts the one or two findings that matter above the housekeeping.
- Step 4 audits the agents themselves, a useful habit on any site with more than one connection.
Do a read-only security review of this WordPress site. Change nothing.
1. Run security-audit and explain each finding in plain language, most serious first.
2. List plugins and themes with updates available. Flag anything inactive that could be removed.
3. List administrator accounts and point out any that look unexpected.
4. Run list-changes and summarise what AI agents have changed on this site in the last 30 days.
5. Finish with a numbered fix list: what to do, why, and whether it needs a developer.Under the prompt
The abilities Cursor will call
Registered GoBuildWP abilities, each with its own schema and permission check. The live ability list on your site is the final word; the tool map lists every group.
security-auditBounded hardening signals and outstanding updates; not a malware scan
list-extensionsInstalled plugins and themes, versions, active state and update availability
get-extensionOne plugin's installed copy, plus its WordPress.org record when there is one
list-usersUsers by role with capabilities; passwords and secrets are never returned
get-site-settingsA curated, non-secret set of reading, discussion and URL settings
list-changesThe verified change ledger with actor, risk and rollback state
agent-contextSite guidance and environment for the connected client
Safety and recovery
Read Only from the first call
- Safety profile
- Read Only, start to finish. Set it before you connect, so the very first session is already unable to write.
- Change ledger
- A read-only audit writes nothing, so there is nothing to roll back. The ledger appears in this workflow as evidence: list-changes shows what earlier agent sessions did.
- Rollback
- When you act on the fix list, do it in Production Safe, one change at a time, and take a backup before plugin updates. The ledger is not a backup.
- #2201Edit element, Home (Claude Code)Rollback available for this supported edit
- #2198Update post status, PricingRolled back
- #2190Delete 3 spam commentsConfirmed first
What this audit is not
- It is bounded: it checks the signals GoBuildWP implements and outstanding updates, not every possible weakness.
- An available update is not proof of a vulnerability, and no update is not proof of safety.
- User names and roles are sent to your AI provider as part of the audit.
- Anything suspicious it notices in content is a lead for a person to check, not a verdict.
How profiles, confirmations and rollback fit together: safety profiles and the change ledger.
Setup
Connect Cursor in Read Only
Cursor stores MCP servers in a JSON file. Set the profile before connecting so there is never a writable session.
The whole audit runs on GoBuildWP Free: security-audit, plugin, user and settings reads, the change ledger and, where Wordfence or Solid Security is active, its status, open findings and lockouts.
Pro adds integration-health, which reports why a Pro module is not loading, the security plugin's hardening plan, IP blocks and scans, and an approval queue for the fixes that follow.
Install GoBuildWP Free
The security audit and every read it relies on are in the free plugin.
Set the profile to Read Only
Do this on the GoBuildWP settings screen before generating the connection.
Add the server to Cursor
Paste the generated block into ~/.cursor/mcp.json, or .cursor/mcp.json for one project.
Finish the browser sign-in
Cursor marks the server as needing login until you complete the OAuth approval.
Run the audit and keep the list
Save the fix list in the project, so the next audit can be compared with this one.
After the fix list
Widening the audit beyond security-audit
The prompt above covers the core reads. Two more free, read-only abilities make the picture fuller without adding risk. site-health-tests runs WordPress's own Site Health checks in the request, including PHP version, HTTPS support, debug mode and scheduled events, and returns each result as good, recommended or critical; the checks that need outgoing HTTP requests are listed as not run, so treat those as open. backup-status reports the last backup and the last successful one for UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, BackWPup or All-in-One WP Migration, which belongs in any security review because recovery is part of security.
If the client has trouble connecting at all, connection-doctor tests the site's own MCP endpoints from the server and reports when a firewall, CDN or stripped Authorization header is answering instead of WordPress. It changes nothing and leaves the host-side fix for a person.
Acting on findings one change at a time
An audit is quick to run; working through its fix list is where the time goes, and it should happen in a different session from the audit. Switch to Production Safe only for that session and keep the order below, so each change can be checked before the next.
- Confirm a recent good backup with backup-status. On Pro, backup-trigger can start one through UpdraftPlus, a WP-Cron BackWPup job or an All-in-One WP Migration export; Duplicator builds still need a person.
- Update plugins one at a time. On Pro, safe-update requires a recent successful backup by default; an explicit override can skip it. It retains files, compares selected checks and attempts file recovery on failure. Recovery can fail and does not restore database changes.
- Review security-harden-plan for Wordfence or Solid Security, then apply it with security-apply-settings. It reads each setting back and runs sign-in and REST checks before and after; when a check that passed before fails afterwards, or a write fails, it tries to put every changed setting back in the same call and reports the outcome. A check that was already failing is only reported. Confirm you can still sign in, and keep another way into the site before you start.
- Remove unexpected administrator accounts yourself in wp-admin after checking who they belong to; an account that looks unfamiliar may be a host's or an agency's.
Making the audit a habit
Save each fix list next to the date it was produced and ask the next audit to compare against it, so improvements and regressions both show up. Scheduled routines on the site only run the accessibility, content and media-alt audits, not security-audit, so a recurring security review is still a session you start; a monthly reminder is enough for most small sites.
Audit the agents as well as the site. export-changes gives a flat record of every write, which agent made it and whether it can still be undone, and list-sessions groups those writes per connection. A credential whose sessions you do not recognise is a finding in its own right: revoke it on the Connected Apps screen for an OAuth client, or on the user's profile for an Application Password. Revoking stops new calls; it does not undo what is already in the ledger.
FAQ
Questions about how to audit WordPress security with AI
Can AI check my WordPress site for security issues?
It can read configuration, plugins, users and status and explain what it finds. It is not a malware scanner: GoBuildWP's security-audit covers hardening signals and outstanding updates, and says so.
Is it safe to connect an AI for a security audit?
Use Read Only and a dedicated connection. The connected user must be administrator-level, so give it its own access token with a Read Only ceiling. The profile is enforced by the site, so neither a prompt nor text planted in a comment or post can unlock writes.
Can it fix the problems it finds?
Some, with a different profile and your approval: content and supported settings under Production Safe. Plugin installation and file changes need Developer Full Access, which belongs on staging.
Does this need GoBuildWP Pro?
No. The audit and the reads behind it are part of GoBuildWP Free.
Can it read Wordfence or Solid Security?
Yes, on GoBuildWP Free. security-plugin-status, security-scan-findings and security-lockouts are reads, so they run under Read Only and fit this audit: firewall mode, open scan findings and who is blocked, with IPs reduced to their network and usernames and emails never exposed. Acting on the findings is a separate, GoBuildWP Pro step: security-harden-plan proposes settings, and applying settings, blocking an IP or starting a scan requires the installed operation's write authority and confirmation. Supported settings/host changes can have recovery; scan-start is irreversible. Retain an independent recovery route and verify access separately.
Try it on staging first.
Install the free plugin, connect Cursor, and run the read-only half of this prompt before anything on the site changes.