Resident Engineer

An AI engineer with SSH access to your site. Not a chatbot with an API key.

Every Woop! Host site comes with a Resident Engineer: Claude Code pre-installed on the site's own server, ready to update, debug, audit, and build — the way a careful developer would.

Start your 30-day trial — no credit card

Bring your own Claude subscription (Pro or higher). We don't resell AI tokens.

The problem, plainly

WordPress doesn't break at 2pm on a Tuesday.

It breaks at 11pm, with "There has been a critical error on this website" and no clue which of nineteen plugins did it. Updates are roulette you keep postponing. The security audit slips every month because nothing's visibly on fire. And the fix for all of it — a developer with SSH who knows WordPress cold — costs more per hour than your hosting costs per year.

Most "AI WordPress" products don't solve this. They connect an AI to your site from the outside — an API, an MCP toggle, a page-builder wizard — and it can only do what's on its tool menu. Reading logs, bisecting a plugin conflict, fixing a mistake it just made: not on the menu.

The Resident Engineer lives inside. It runs on your site's own VM, as your own Unix user, with the same access you'd have over SSH: the real theme and plugin files, WP-CLI, the database, the logs. If a developer with a terminal could do it, it can do it. You sign in with your own Claude subscription (Pro or higher) — we don't resell AI tokens or mark anything up.

AI from the outside
A remote AI calls your site through an API or MCP toggle. It can only do what's on its tool menu — and diagnosing what it just broke isn't on it.
An engineer in residence
Runs on your site's own VM as your own Unix user. Real files, WP-CLI, database, logs — the same access you'd have over SSH.

The first fifteen minutes

Type one command. Meet your site.

Minutes later: a health report from live data. WordPress and PHP versions, every plugin and its update status, database size, user accounts, permission problems, and what needs attention first. Run it on your messiest site — that's the point.

Then just describe the job:

  • "Update everything, one plugin at a time, and roll back anything that breaks the site."
  • "It's showing a critical error. Find out why."
  • "We rebranded — replace the old company name everywhere, including the database. Dry-run first."
Try it on your own site — free for 30 days

The skill library

The maintenance every site needs monthly — and almost nobody does properly.

Woop! maintains a library of WordPress skills on every server — tested procedures the agent follows, updated fleet-wide by us. Each one exists because a real headache does. Ask by name or in plain language.

The 11pm critical error
→ Troubleshoot
Logs-first diagnosis, plugin bisection, names the culprit.
Update roulette
→ Safe update
Backup first, one at a time, verify the site responds, auto-rollback on failure.
"When did we last back up?"
→ Backup
Timestamped database + code snapshots, stored outside your webroot.
"Is the site okay? Genuinely?"
→ Site report
Full health and inventory from live WP-CLI data.
The site got slow and nobody knows why
→ Performance audit
Autoload bloat, stale transients, revision pileups, oversized images.
"Have we been hacked?"
→ Security audit
Core checksums, user review, permissions — read-only, never displays secrets.
The rebrand / migration search-replace you're scared of
→ Content ops
Serialization-safe, dry-run first.
Theme changes that die on the next update
→ Child theme
Presentation changes that survive.
"We just need one custom block"
→ Custom block
A real Gutenberg block in a site plugin, no build tooling.
"Command not found"
→ Environment check
The agent diagnoses its own toolbox and drafts the support ticket for you.
The migration you've been putting off
→ Migrate in
Pulls your site from any server over SSH — a Woop! site or not — verifies every byte, backs up first, and asks before it overwrites anything.
"Can we get a staging copy of prod?"
→ Migrate in
Clones production to staging in one conversation — then makes it safe: no customer emails, no live payment keys, no search engines.
Moving out? No hostage-taking.
→ Migrate out
A verified bundle of your database and files, plus a manifest any competent host can read. Your site was always yours.

The open layer

No feature list, because there's a shell.

The skills cover the everyday jobs. But the Resident Engineer isn't limited to them — it has a shell, not a menu.

  • Read any plugin's source to understand a conflict.
  • Write a one-off migration script.
  • Build custom functionality.
  • Fix its own mistakes.
A real example from our own servers

"I rambled off a voice memo for a few minutes about the site I wanted. Then typed build this and pasted the transcription. Two minutes later I was looking at the new site. It wasn't even terrible."

How we compare

Where the agent runs is the whole story.

Woop! Host MCP hosts AI site builders Claude Code VPS templates
Where the agent runs On your site's own server On your laptop, calling your site remotely In the host's cloud UI On a server you set up and secure
What it can touch Everything a developer with SSH could An enumerated tool menu Page design and content Everything, including root — all your problem
WordPress expertise built in 10 maintained skills + operating rules Whatever your AI client brings Design-focused None — blank Linux box
Containment Unix jail; worst case is your own site, covered by backups Approval prompts and scoped tokens Sandboxed by design None by default
Server managed by Woop! The host The host You
Setup SSH in, type claude Toggle + connect a client Built in Hours of sysadmin work
AI cost Your existing Claude subscription Your AI client Usually bundled Your subscription or API key
Hosting price £3.85 GBP/GBP month ~$5–45/mo Plan-dependent ~$5–30/mo + your time

Fair's fair: MCP works from a phone with no terminal. Builders need zero technical skill. A raw VPS gives you root. What nobody else combines: an agent on the server, real developer access, WordPress judgement built in, and containment you didn't have to build.

Safety, honestly

The jail came first. The AI moved in later.

We didn't add security to an AI feature. We added an AI to a security architecture we've been hardening for over two decades: every site on its own VM, every user jailed and unprivileged, with just enough access to run one WordPress site. Our founder has spent 23 years — seven or eight incidents a day — locking this environment down. The agent lives inside that jail, as your own Unix user. It can do nothing you couldn't do over SSH yourself.

The agent's permission system adds a seatbelt on top — catastrophic commands (wp db drop, sudo, credential reads) are blocked by a policy file only we can change. But we'll be straight with you: the seatbelt isn't the safety story. The jail is. That's why we can tell you the worst case honestly — your own site gets damaged — and why the skills are backup-first by habit, with a snapshot before every risky operation.

Want the engineering? Read how we built it — the jail, the PATH fix, the first command that failed because the jail didn't even allow date. Read the technical deep-dive →

The honest limitations

What it can't do yet.

It can't see your site.
It verifies changes through HTTP responses, logs, and code — not pixels. For visual work, you review in the browser (or send it screenshots). Browser-based verification is on our roadmap.
You need a terminal.
Today this is for people comfortable with SSH. If that's not you yet, it's a fifteen-minute learning curve and we'll walk you through it — but we won't pretend it's a drag-and-drop builder.
You need a Claude subscription.
Pro or higher, from Anthropic, billed by them. We never see your credentials — they're stored on your own VM.
£3.85GBP/month

One site, one server, one Resident Engineer.

Every plan includes its own VM, the full skill library, and servers in Auckland, Sydney, Dallas, and Frankfurt. 30-day trial, no credit card. Bring your Claude subscription and your messiest site.

Start the trial

Still just another WordPress host.

FAQ

Fair questions.

Is this an AI page builder?
No. Builders generate sites inside their own tooling. This is an agent operating your real WordPress install — standard files, standard database, no proprietary anything. Cancel and your site is still just WordPress.
Is this MCP?
No — and that's deliberate. MCP connects a remote AI to your site through a fixed tool menu. Our agent runs on the server with a shell, so it isn't limited to a menu. (MCP is disabled on our fleet; we may add curated MCP tools later for things like browser-based verification.)
What Claude subscription do I need?
Claude Pro or higher. You sign in once on your VM; credentials stay there, per-user.
What if the AI breaks my site?
The skills back up before risky operations, and updates verify-and-roll-back automatically.
Can Woop! staff run the agent for me?

Sure — talk to us. Tell us what you need done and our staff will drive the Resident Engineer for you. Think of it as hiring through a manager instead of briefing the engineer yourself: you say what you want, we translate, the work gets done.

It's the right choice if you'd rather delegate than drive — no terminal, no back-and-forth, just an outcome. It's also the way in if you don't have a Claude subscription: our staff use ours.

The trade: you get our interpretation of the brief, not the live tweak-as-you-go control you'd have at the keyboard. Small jobs are often free; bigger ones get a quote before we start. Just ask.

Can I use it from my phone, without a terminal?
Not today. Terminal-only is the honest current answer; a no-terminal path is under investigation.