Chagency

Description

Chagency is the first chatbot to ship on top of the new AI infrastructure introduced in WordPress 7. A small, native plugin that lets you talk to your site through whichever AI provider you have configured. It runs in the WordPress admin and, when you turn it on, on every page of your public site.

The name (chat + ai + ency) is meant as a small bridge between the new AI primitives shipped with WordPress and the broader world of chat and agents. It starts as a chatbot today and grows alongside the Abilities API into an agent that can take real actions tomorrow.

🪨 Built on WordPress, period

Chagency relies entirely on what WordPress 7 ships in core:

• wp_ai_client_prompt(), the AI Client API.
• wp_get_connectors(), the Connectors API.
• wp_register_ability() / wp_get_ability(), the Abilities API.
• @wordpress/components, @wordpress/element, @wordpress/boot, the Gutenberg toolkit.

That is the entire dependency surface. No bundled AI vendor SDKs, no third-party JavaScript libraries beyond the Gutenberg stack, no telemetry, no phone-home. The plugin stays small on purpose: fewer moving parts means less friction, fewer security holes, less to break when WordPress, browsers, or providers change.

You will need at least one AI provider plugin (e.g. AI Provider for Anthropic, AI Provider for Google, AI Provider for OpenAI) to talk to a model. That is WordPress 7’s architecture: providers are separate plugins that register a Connector. They are not a Chagency dependency.

💡 Tip: For the smoothest setup, install AI Engine. It registers every AI provider it manages as a Connector, so a single configuration covers all your WordPress 7 AI plugins (including Chagency). Every request then flows through one clean, unified system.

🪄 What you get

• A floating chat panel pinned to the bottom-right of every page (admin and / or public site, controlled by two independent toggles).
• A single settings page under Settings → Chagency, with the bare minimum: where to show the chatbot, the chat title, the greeting, the system instruction, and the model preference.
• Live updates: flipping a toggle in Settings shows or hides the launcher immediately on the same page, no reload needed.
• Per-provider Test buttons that fire a canary prompt and report round-trip time.
• Conversation persistence in your browser’s localStorage, scoped per user.
• Placeholder expansion ({user_name}, {site_name}, {current_page}, {current_url}, {user_role}, {site_url}) so the assistant always knows who and where it is.
• Exposed as an Ability (chagency/send-message) so other plugins, MCP clients, and AI agents can invoke Chagency directly.

🚀 Getting started

1. Install and activate Chagency.
2. Install and configure at least one AI provider plugin under Settings → Connectors (we recommend AI Engine, which exposes all its providers as Connectors at once).
3. Click the chat launcher in the bottom-right of any admin page and start talking.
4. Want it on the public site too? Open Settings → Chagency and flip the second toggle.

🙋 Frequently Asked Questions

Why “Chagency”?

It’s a portmanteau of chat, AI, and a bit of agent. Not “agency” in the sense of a marketing shop. The plugin starts as a minimal chatbot for the new WordPress 7 AI framework and grows alongside the Abilities API into a true agent.

Does it need WordPress 7?

Yes. It uses wp_ai_client_prompt(), wp_get_connectors(), and the Abilities API, all added in WordPress 7.0. On older versions it refuses to boot and tells you why.

Which AI providers are supported?

Whatever you configure under Settings → Connectors. Chagency is provider-agnostic. Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, or any third-party Connector are treated equally.

Can visitors on the front end use it?

Yes. Open Settings → Chagency and turn on Show on the public site. The chat then appears for every visitor, signed in or not.

Does it store my conversations?

No. Conversations live only in your own browser (localStorage, per user). Hit Reset in the panel to clear them. Nothing is stored server-side.

Can I use it as a building block in my own plugin?

Yes. The chagency/send-message Ability is registered on wp_abilities_api_init and can be called with wp_get_ability( 'chagency/send-message' )->execute( array( 'message' => '...' ) ).

Source code

The unminified React / JavaScript source is shipped inside the plugin folder under src/, alongside the compiled output in build/. Public source repository: https://github.com/jordymeow/chagency

To rebuild from source:

pnpm install && pnpm run build

The build is @wordpress/scripts (webpack) with no custom plugins or transforms.