WordPress AI Agent Skills

A collection of Agent Skills for professional WordPress development. These skills ensure your AI coding agent — whether it’s Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, GitHub Copilot, Codex, or any other — follows official WordPress coding standards, security best practices, accessibility requirements (WCAG 2.1 AA), and WordPress.org directory guidelines when building plugins and themes, or reviewing existing plugins for security vulnerabilities and repository readiness.

🎯 What Are Agent Skills?

Agent Skills are an open standard for extending AI agents with specialized capabilities. A skill is simply a folder containing a SKILL.md file (with YAML frontmatter + instructions) and optional supporting files like references/, scripts/, and assets/.

All major AI coding tools now support the same skills format natively:

Write once, use everywhere. Skills you create for one tool work across all tools that support the standard.

📦 Included Skills

1. wp-plugin-dev — WordPress Plugin Development

Guides your AI agent to build production-ready WordPress plugins with proper architecture and security.

Triggers when you say things like:

• “Build me a plugin for X”
• “Create a WordPress plugin”
• “I need a WooCommerce extension”
• “Add a REST API endpoint”

What it enforces:

• Clean bootstrap — Main plugin file contains only constants, hooks, and autoloading. No feature logic.
• Modular architecture — Every feature gets its own class file (includes/, admin/, public/, api/)
• Security — Mandatory sanitize_*() on all input, esc_*() on all output, $wpdb->prepare() for all SQL, nonces on all forms, capability checks on all privileged actions
• Caching — Transients API and wp_cache_* for expensive operations
• WordPress.org compliance — GPL licensing, readme.txt, uninstall.php, proper prefixing, translatable strings

Supported plugin types:

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2. wp-plugin-review — WordPress Plugin Review

Guides your AI agent to perform a comprehensive code review of any WordPress plugin, combining automated tooling with deep manual analysis.

Triggers when you say things like:

• “Review this plugin”
• “Audit a WordPress plugin”
• “Check plugin security”
• “Check my plugin for repository submission”
• “Plugin code review”

What it does:

• Two-phase review — Runs automated tools (PHPCS with WPCS, PHPStan, PHPUnit) followed by deep manual code inspection
• Security audit — Checks input sanitization, output escaping, SQL injection, nonce verification, capability checks, file security, and external request handling
• Coding standards — Validates naming conventions, hook usage, enqueuing, internationalization, and PHP compatibility
• Repository readiness — Verifies readme.txt, plugin headers, licensing, prefixing, data/privacy compliance, and admin UX
• Unit test assessment — Evaluates test existence, quality, coverage areas, and CI/CD readiness
• Accessibility review — Checks ARIA attributes, keyboard navigation, color contrast, screen reader support, and semantic HTML

Report output:

The final report includes an overall score out of 100, per-category scores, before/after code fix snippets, and a priority-ordered list of recommended fixes.

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3. wp-theme-dev — WordPress Theme Development

Guides your AI agent to build accessible, standards-compliant WordPress themes.

Triggers when you say things like:

• “Build me a theme for X”
• “Create a block theme”
• “I need a classic WordPress theme”
• “Make a child theme”

What it enforces:

• Block themes as default — Full Site Editing with theme.json, HTML templates, block patterns, style variations
• Classic theme support — Template hierarchy, The Loop, Customizer API when requested
• Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) — Skip links, keyboard navigation, visible focus indicators, ARIA landmarks, 4.5:1 color contrast, underlined content links, proper heading hierarchy, screen-reader-text, reduced motion support
• Modern CSS — Custom properties, Grid/Flexbox, clamp() fluid typography, logical properties for RTL
• WordPress.org compliance — All 14 review categories, no plugin territory, proper licensing, readme.txt with resource credits

Supported theme types:

🚀 Installation

Since all major AI coding tools now support the Agent Skills open standard, the setup is almost identical across platforms — just copy the skill folders into your tool’s skills directory.

Quick Install (All Platforms)

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/wpacademy/wordpress-dev-skills

Then copy the skill folders to your platform’s skills directory:

Repeat the same for wp-plugin-review and wp-theme-dev.

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Claude Code

cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-dev your-project/.claude/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-review your-project/.claude/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-theme-dev your-project/.claude/skills/

Your project structure:

your-project/
└── .claude/
    └── skills/
        ├── wp-plugin-dev/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   └── references/
        ├── wp-plugin-review/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   ├── scripts/
        │   └── references/
        └── wp-theme-dev/
            ├── SKILL.md
            └── references/

Skills are auto-discovered by Claude based on the description in each SKILL.md’s frontmatter.

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Cursor

Cursor supports Agent Skills natively since v2.4. Place skills in .cursor/skills/:

cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-dev your-project/.cursor/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-review your-project/.cursor/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-theme-dev your-project/.cursor/skills/

Your project structure:

your-project/
└── .cursor/
    └── skills/
        ├── wp-plugin-dev/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   └── references/
        ├── wp-plugin-review/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   ├── scripts/
        │   └── references/
        └── wp-theme-dev/
            ├── SKILL.md
            └── references/

Skills are auto-invoked when the agent determines they’re relevant, or you can manually invoke with @wp-plugin-dev, @wp-plugin-review, or @wp-theme-dev in the chat.

For global availability across all projects, copy to ~/.cursor/skills/ instead.

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Windsurf (Cascade)

Windsurf supports Agent Skills natively. Place skills in .windsurf/skills/:

cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-dev your-project/.windsurf/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-review your-project/.windsurf/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-theme-dev your-project/.windsurf/skills/

Your project structure:

your-project/
└── .windsurf/
    └── skills/
        ├── wp-plugin-dev/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   └── references/
        ├── wp-plugin-review/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   ├── scripts/
        │   └── references/
        └── wp-theme-dev/
            ├── SKILL.md
            └── references/

You can also create skills via the Cascade UI: three dots menu → Skills → + Workspace.

Skills are auto-invoked via progressive disclosure, or manually with @wp-plugin-dev.

For global availability, copy to ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/ instead.

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Google Antigravity

Antigravity supports Agent Skills natively. Place skills in .agent/skills/:

cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-dev your-project/.agent/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-review your-project/.agent/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-theme-dev your-project/.agent/skills/

Your project structure:

your-project/
└── .agent/
    └── skills/
        ├── wp-plugin-dev/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   └── references/
        ├── wp-plugin-review/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   ├── scripts/
        │   └── references/
        └── wp-theme-dev/
            ├── SKILL.md
            └── references/

The agent loads only the skill metadata at session start and activates full instructions on-demand when relevant.

For global availability, copy to ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/ instead.

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GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot supports Agent Skills in VS Code, CLI, and the coding agent:

cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-dev your-project/.github/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-plugin-review your-project/.github/skills/
cp -r wordpress-dev-skills/wp-theme-dev your-project/.github/skills/

Your project structure:

your-project/
└── .github/
    └── skills/
        ├── wp-plugin-dev/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   └── references/
        ├── wp-plugin-review/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   ├── scripts/
        │   └── references/
        └── wp-theme-dev/
            ├── SKILL.md
            └── references/

For personal skills across all projects, copy to ~/.copilot/skills/ instead.

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Any Other Tool

These skills follow the Agent Skills open standard. For any tool that supports it, just copy the skill folders to the tool’s skills directory. For tools that don’t yet support the standard natively:

1. Paste the SKILL.md content as custom instructions or system prompt
2. Attach reference files as additional context when needed
3. Or combine everything into a single document for your tool’s rules/settings

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Platform Comparison

💡 Tip: Since all platforms now follow the same Agent Skills standard, the skill folders are 100% portable. No conversion needed — just copy and use.

💡 Usage Examples

Plugin Development

Build me a WordPress plugin called "Smart Reviews" that adds a custom
post type for reviews with star ratings, a REST API endpoint to fetch
reviews, and a Gutenberg block to display them.

Your AI agent will automatically:

• Scaffold a clean, modular plugin structure
• Keep the main file as a bootstrap loader only
• Create separate class files for the CPT, REST API, and block
• Sanitize all input, escape all output, use $wpdb->prepare()
• Generate readme.txt and uninstall.php

Plugin Review

Review my "Smart Reviews" plugin for security issues, coding standards
compliance, and WordPress.org repository readiness. Generate a full report.

Your AI agent will automatically:

• Install and run PHPCS (with WordPress Coding Standards), PHPStan, and PHPUnit
• Perform a deep manual review of security patterns, coding standards, and repository guidelines
• Check accessibility of any admin UI components
• Evaluate unit test coverage and quality
• Generate a detailed Markdown report with severity ratings, before/after code fixes, and an overall score out of 100

Theme Development

Create a block theme called "Starter Blue" with a hero section,
blog archive, and dark mode style variation. Make it accessibility-ready.

Your AI agent will automatically:

• Generate theme.json with accessible color palette (4.5:1+ contrast)
• Create HTML templates with proper semantic structure
• Add skip links, ARIA landmarks, underlined content links
• Include keyboard-navigable mobile menu with aria-expanded
• Build block patterns with translatable strings
• Generate readme.txt with resource credits

📚 Sources & References

These skills are built from official WordPress documentation:

• WordPress Plugin Handbook
• WordPress Plugin Guidelines
• WordPress Theme Handbook
• Theme Review Requirements
• Accessibility-Ready Requirements
• WordPress Security APIs
• OWASP Top 10
• PHPCS WordPress Coding Standards
• WCAG 2.1 Level AA
• Agent Skills Specification

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you’d like to improve these skills:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b improve-security-reference)
3. Make your changes
4. Test with your preferred AI agent to verify the skill produces correct output
5. Submit a pull request

Areas that could use contributions:

• Additional boilerplate patterns (e.g., WP-CLI commands, multisite support)
• Expanded Gutenberg block development patterns
• Performance optimization reference
• Testing/CI pipeline patterns

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GPLv2 or later, consistent with WordPress itself.

👤 Author

Mian — Full-stack WordPress developer with 15+ years of experience.

• YouTube: WP Academy (125K+ subscribers)
• Website: msrbuilds.com