EtchPress for AI agents

Lets your AI agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or anything that speaks MCP) find EtchPress sections, components and kit pages and put them straight into the page you have open in Etch, with your class prefix.

Ask in plain words: "add a three-plan pricing table after the hero", "build the Landscaping home page", "which testimonial layouts are there?". The agent searches the library, reads an item's options, and inserts it. The item goes from etchpress.com to your builder without passing through the agent, so a whole page costs it almost nothing.

You need an EtchPress Lifetime licence and Etch on WordPress or Etch Studio. Searching and reading items works without a licence key.

1. Start Etch's Connector

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

npx @digital-gravy/etch-connector serve

In WordPress, turn on Etch, Settings, AI, AI Connector (once). Open the page in the Etch builder (WordPress or Studio) and click the AI button in the left sidebar. If Chrome asks to let the site reach devices on your local network, choose Allow.

2. Add EtchPress to your agent

Your licence key is on your account page at etchpress.com.

Claude Code

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

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml)

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

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) and most other tools

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

ETCHPRESS_PREFIX is optional. With acme, the library's .pricing-table arrives as .acme-pricing-table.

3. Check it

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

What the agent can do

| Tool | What it does | | --- | --- | | etchpress_search | Finds items and kit pages by plain words | | etchpress_item | An item's options, variants, states, tokens, what it needs and how to change it | | etchpress_insert | Puts an item (any of its variants) or a whole kit page into the open page, with your prefix, and with the words the agent wrote for its components (fills) | | etchpress_compose | For what you describe ("a pricing section for a cleaning company, three plans"), the library parts that fit and the props the agent may write words into; the agent chooses, writes, and inserts them with fills | | etchpress_place_section | When nothing in the library fits, the agent writes one section as Etch blocks with your prefix and sends it here; EtchPress checks it (block types, the prefix on every class, tokens only, no literal colours, no scripts, headings, every class styled) and places it when it passes, or returns the faults to fix | | etchpress_texts and etchpress_set_texts | Read the words of the block you selected in Etch, and write them back rewritten to your instruction ("shorter", "in Spanish", "for a plumber in Austin") | | etchpress_section_rules | The house rules for a section the agent writes, and for a component (props, a repeater with a loop, conditions); read before etchpress_place_section, which takes a component since 0.4.0 | | etchpress_copy_rules | The EtchPress copy rulebook and the facts sheet: four modes (clearer, for intent, for search, more human), nothing invented; read it before a rewrite (0.3.0) | | etchpress_status | Checks the licence, the Connector and the connected tabs | | etchpress_save | Writes an item to a file to paste by hand, when the Connector is not running |

Inserting does not save the page unless you ask the agent to. 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 composing tools (0.2.0) are the EtchPress composer for people who work through an agent: the model doing the choosing and the writing is your agent itself, on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan, so no API key is needed. A section the agent wrote passes the code checks here; look at it on your canvas in light and dark before you save (the contrast checks run in the EtchPress panel inside Etch).

Good to know

• The first time it runs, this program adds an activation called "AI agent on " to your licence. You can see and remove it with your sites on your account page.
• It runs on your computer. It talks to etchpress.com and to Etch's Connector, nothing else, and it only ever runs its own insert script in your builder. Your agent passes item names and ids, never code.
• Etch Studio works too: connect the Studio builder tab the same way. The agent adds Studio's own navigation for a header, repairs the class links Studio's paste can drop, and gives a kit page's lists their demo rows as data sources you edit in Studio's Data panel. Showpieces need the EtchPress runtime files in the project's Asset Manager.

Help: [email protected]. Licence for the library: https://etchpress.com/licence/