Guides
Install the real WordPress plugin (not just a script tag)
Install the AI Assistant plugin, add the floating widget or an inline [bmai_assistant] block, publish your knowledge, and recognize signed-in visitors.
On this page
AI Assistant reaches WordPress through a real, installable plugin — not a copy-pasted script tag. The plugin loads the floating widget on every front-end page and signs a short-lived proof of who is logged in, so a returning signed-in visitor never has to sign in twice.
This is the WordPress-specific path. Wix, Squarespace and Webflow don't yet have a native app of their own — on those builders you still add the one script tag from Add AI Assistant to WordPress, Wix or Squarespace.
Before you start
- A self-hosted WordPress site (wordpress.org). The widget works on any PHP build; signed-in visitor recognition additionally needs the OpenSSL PHP extension (ES256) — without it the widget still loads, and the settings screen names exactly what your host is missing.
- An admin account on the site.
- Your workspace open in the Console.
1. Download your plugin
Every workspace's plugin is generated for that workspace — your workspace id and the embed origin are baked in at download time, so there is nothing to type into it.
- In your Console, open your connection settings and choose Download WordPress plugin.
- In wp-admin, open Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, upload the zip and activate it.
- Activation generates the site's own ES256 signing key. Its settings screen shows the values a signed-in-visitor identity provider needs (issuer, JWKS URL, the launch endpoint) and a Test identity button that proves the signing endpoint answers.
The plugin's own copy, look and available tools all come from AI Assistant at chat time — updating any of that never means updating the plugin.
2. Put the chat where you want it
Out of the box the plugin adds the floating widget to every page — nothing else to do. To put a button inside a specific page (a contact page, a pricing page) that opens the same assistant — optionally with a starting question — use the Busymate AI trigger block in the block editor, or the [bmai_assistant] shortcode anywhere shortcodes work:
[bmai_assistant label="Ask about sizing" prompt="What sizes do you have?"]Both ship directly in the plugin you downloaded — no separate install, no iframe to hand-place. See the live example at wordpress.demo.busymate.ai (Larkspur Studio), where both the floating widget and an inline block are visible.
3. Teach it your content
Point a website source at your site, or paste in your own pages and policies — the same knowledge pipeline every connection uses, with citations back to the page an answer came from.
4. Recognize signed-in visitors
The plugin signs the WordPress user id into its proof, so a signed-in visitor is recognized automatically once you register it as an identity provider — see Recognize signed-in customers for the exact fields (issuer, JWKS URL, the launch endpoint the plugin's settings screen shows) and how to verify the wiring end to end before trusting it with real customer data.
Agent-ready out of the box
The plugin makes your site readable, understandable and operable by AI agents and answer engines — not just by people — with nothing to configure:
/llms.txt— a short, standards-shaped index of your site (name, key pages, latest content, contact) that an AI assistant reads before answering a question about you./agents.json— the one machine-readable capability card an agent looks for first: your content index, the MCP interface your connected workspace exposes (once you've connected one — see Manage from any MCP client below), and a human contact.- Markdown on request, on the SAME page — request any published page or post with
Accept: text/markdownand you get that exact page back as clean Markdown with a small frontmatter (title, description, canonical URL, last-updated date, language) instead of HTML — never a separate/…/mdURL to keep in sync. Ordinary visitors and search engines keep seeing HTML. - Structured data + discovery headers — JSON-LD on every page, and
Link:headers pointing at/llms.txtand/agents.jsonon every response, so a crawler that only reads headers still finds them. - Your site's own WordPress abilities become browser tools automatically — if your WordPress install exposes the core Abilities API (WordPress 6.9+), a signed-in visitor's own abilities are bridged into the same browser-native tool surface (WebMCP) the plugin's page tools already use — no second list to maintain, nothing to turn on.
Every one of these is generated from your site's own published content and connected workspace — there is no template to fall out of date, and each updates automatically the moment you save a post. See the live example at wordpress.demo.busymate.ai/llms.txt and /agents.json.
Manage from any MCP client
Every step above is available from any MCP client on your own account:
claude mcp add --transport http busymate-ai https://busymate.ai/mcpTroubleshooting
- Settings screen warns about openssl — the site's PHP build is missing the OpenSSL extension with EC (prime256v1) support; ask your host to enable it. The widget itself still works; only signed-in visitor recognition is unavailable until then.
- The widget never appears — check the browser console for a blocked or 404'd request to
/embed/v1.js; a caching plugin that strips query-string-free<script>tags can remove it. - A signed-in visitor is still treated as a guest — open Test identity on the plugin's settings screen; if it fails, the identity provider fields registered in Console don't match what the plugin's screen shows.
Verify
- Open your site in a private window: the floating widget appears and answers from your own content, with citations.
- Sign in as a real WordPress user and ask the assistant something only a signed-in visitor should see (if you've wired identity) — the reply recognizes that visitor.
- Ask it to hand off to a person — the conversation reaches your Inbox.
Next
- Teach your assistant your own content — pages and posts beside whatever else you connect.
- Recognize signed-in customers — the proof the plugin mints, registered as an identity provider.
- Set up human handoff — staff the Inbox before visitors start asking to talk to someone.
Questions
Do I need the plugin, or can I just use the script tag?
The script tag works everywhere, WordPress included. The plugin adds one thing the script tag can't: a signed proof of who is logged in, so a returning customer doesn't have to identify themselves twice.
Does the plugin work without WooCommerce?
Yes. WooCommerce only changes which admin capability guards the plugin's settings screen — everything else (the widget, the identity proof) is the same on any WordPress site.
Can I put the chat inline on a page instead of a floating button?
Yes, with the Busymate AI trigger block or the
[bmai_assistant]shortcode the plugin ships with — no manual markup, no iframe. See the live demo above.