Pair the AuditAE WordPress plugin

Steps

1. Install the plugin

In WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New, search for AuditAE, click Install, then Activate. It's listed on WordPress.org as AuditAE – MCP & AI SEO. Installing from WordPress.org keeps it updated. The plugin is free, and its own tabs (AI Readiness Score, AI crawler log, internal links, llms.txt and schema) work without an AuditAE account.

2. Generate a pairing code

Go to Settings → AuditAE, open the Connect tab and click Generate pairing code. You get an 8-character code that works once and expires after 10 minutes. Regenerate pairing code replaces it with a new one. You need to be a WordPress administrator, and the site must use HTTPS.

3. Paste the code into AuditAE

Sign in to AuditAE (new accounts get $5 of free credit, no card) and open Connect a WordPress site. Enter your site URL and the pairing code, then click Connect site. The plugin's Connect tab refreshes by itself and shows Paired as soon as the connection is made.

4. Choose what AEBOT can do

Back on the plugin's Connect tab, the What AEBOT can do card appears once the site is paired. A new pairing can read the site and create drafts. Tick publish and write_seo (Write SEO settings) if you want AEBOT to publish and apply SEO fixes directly, then click Save permissions. See What AEBOT can do at each WordPress permission level.

What pairing sets up

• A site in AuditAE. If your workspace doesn't have the domain yet, pairing adds it, named after your WordPress site. You can edit its brand, competitors and prompts afterwards.
• Your first audit. If pairing added the site and the workspace has never run an audit, pairing starts one: 4 buyer questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We email you when it's ready.
• A secure connection. AuditAE trades the code for a long-lived access token and stores it encrypted. You can revoke it from either side at any time.
• A default author. Drafts AEBOT creates are attributed to the administrator who generated the pairing code.

Using the paired site

• In AEBOT: ask it to read, draft or fix posts, add schema, update llms.txt or turn AI-bot 404s into redirects. It checks the pairing's permissions first and only offers what they allow. See Using AEBOT.
• From the plugin: fix buttons on the plugin's Score tab open AEBOT with that fix.
• From Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor: the wp_* MCP tools work on every paired site. See Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor.
• Pricing: reads are free; each standard write costs 5¢ and a designed page (wp_design_page) 25¢, from your AuditAE balance.

All your paired sites are listed at WordPress sites.

Troubleshooting

Another plugin blocked the pairing request

A JWT, security or "REST API access" plugin can refuse AuditAE's requests before the AuditAE plugin sees them. In that plugin's settings, allow /wp-json/auditae/v1/ (or whitelist the AuditAE endpoints), then click Connect site again. The same pairing code still works. If the block starts after pairing, update AuditAE in Plugins first: recent versions get past most JWT auth plugins on their own.

The code expired or was cancelled

A code lasts 10 minutes and works once. Too many wrong attempts cancel it, which can happen when automated traffic or other sites on the same network hit the pairing endpoint. Click Generate pairing code for a new one and paste it straight away.

WordPress says Paired but AuditAE doesn't show the site

The site may have answered too slowly, or the connection wasn't saved on our side. Generate a new pairing code on the plugin's Connect tab and paste it into AuditAE.

The site isn't on HTTPS

The plugin refuses to pair over plain HTTP. Switch the site to HTTPS. For a local development site only, you can opt out with define('AUDITAE_ALLOW_INSECURE', true) in wp-config.php.

/llms.txt returns 404

With Plain permalinks on Apache, the server answers 404 for files like /llms.txt before WordPress can serve them. Choose any other structure under Settings → Permalinks. The plugin's Score tab tells you when this is happening.

Unpair a site

• From WordPress: on the plugin's Connect tab, click Disconnect AuditAE. The token is wiped and AEBOT loses access immediately. The plugin's activity log is kept.
• From AuditAE: open the site under WordPress sites and click Disconnect under Disconnect this site. That revokes the token on both sides.

Pairing again later works the same way: generate a new code and paste it in.

More about the plugin

• WordPress AI plugin: everything the free plugin does.
• Connect Claude to WordPress: a walkthrough of editing WordPress from Claude.
• WordPress MCP: the WordPress tools for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor.