AI agents.

Let Claude Code, Codex or Cursor find EtchPress items and put them into the page you have open in Etch, renamed to your prefix.

What it does

Ask in plain words: "add a three-plan pricing table after the hero", "build the Landscaping home page", "which testimonial layouts are there?". Your agent searches the library, reads an item's options and inserts it. The item goes from etchpress.com straight to your builder, so a whole page costs the agent almost nothing.

You need Etch, on WordPress or in Etch Studio. Searching and reading items works without a key; inserting needs EtchPress Lifetime and your licence key.

Start Etch's Connector

Etch's own Connector links your agent to the builder tab. Run it in a terminal:

npx @digital-gravy/etch-connector serve

Turn on the AI Connector.In WordPress: Etch, Settings, AI, AI Connector. Once.
Connect the tab.Open the page in the Etch builder and click the AI button in the left sidebar.
Allow it in Chrome.If Chrome asks to let the site reach devices on your local network, choose Allow.

Add EtchPress to your agent

Your licence key is in your account. The prefix is optional: with acme, .pricing-table arrives as .acme-pricing-table. On a WordPress site with the EtchPress Runtime 0.15.0 or later, the panel's Agents place shows these three commands with your key and prefix already filled in.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add etchpress --scope user --env ETCHPRESS_LICENCE_KEY=your-key --env ETCHPRESS_PREFIX=acme -- npx -y etchpress-mcp

Codex, in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.etchpress]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "etchpress-mcp"]
env = { ETCHPRESS_LICENCE_KEY = "your-key", ETCHPRESS_PREFIX = "acme" }

Cursor and most other tools, in their mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "etchpress": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "etchpress-mcp"],
  "env": { "ETCHPRESS_LICENCE_KEY": "your-key", "ETCHPRESS_PREFIX": "acme" } } } }

Compose from your agent

Since MCP 0.2.0 the EtchPress composer runs in your agent too, with the agent as the model, so it costs you your Claude or ChatGPT plan and no API key: say what a section or a page is for and the agent composes it from the library parts that fit, with its words in place; when nothing fits it writes one section under the house rules and EtchPress checks it before it is placed; select a block and ask for shorter, warmer or Spanish words and it rewrites them under the EtchPress copy rules (the etchpress_copy_rules tool since MCP 0.3.0, and the etchpress-copy skill in your download: the four modes, the facts sheet, nothing invented). Since MCP 0.4.0 it can write a section with a real Etch component when nothing in the library fits: etchpress_section_rules gives it the rules, and EtchPress checks the section before it is placed. Anthropic does not allow third-party apps to use a Claude plan directly, so inside the panel Claude needs an API key; the agent route is how a plan pays.

Check it

Ask your agent to "check the EtchPress setup". It says what is missing and how to fix it.

Good to know

Inserting does not save the page unless you ask. Cmd+Z in Etch undoes an insert.
If a component in the item is already on your site in a different version, the agent asks you first: keep yours, or update it everywhere. The panel in Etch adds a third answer, Keep both; the MCP gets it in its next release.
The first run adds one activation to your licence, named AI agent on followed by your computer's name. Remove it like a site's.
It runs on your computer and talks only to etchpress.com and Etch's Connector. Your agent passes item names, never code.
No Connector? The agent can save an item as a file you paste by hand.
Etch Studio: the agent adds Studio's own navigation for a header and gives a kit page's lists their demo rows as data sources, which you edit in Studio's Data panel. Showpieces need the runtime files in your Asset Manager.

Privacy

EtchPress sees which items your key inserts, never your prompts, your agent's replies or your site.