Pattern Builder
Pattern Builder puts a theme’s pattern files and the patterns saved in the editor on one screen under Appearance, opens either kind in the WordPress editor, and writes theme patterns back to the theme’s files. Nothing is mirrored into the database, so the theme in your repository is the theme on the
Pattern Builder puts a theme’s pattern files and the patterns saved in the editor on one screen under Appearance, opens either kind in the WordPress editor, and writes theme patterns back to the theme’s files. Nothing is mirrored into the database, so the theme in your repository is the theme on the site.
It also gives an AI agent a proper set of tools for the same work. Connect Claude from the Agents tab and it can read the site’s design system, write patterns that use it, check them before they’re saved, and read and write the theme’s templates and template parts. Every operation is a tool of its own, so you can let it read freely and approve each change it makes.
Working with an agent
Connecting is one paste. The Agents tab checks what a connection needs, installs the MCP Adapter plugin for you when it’s missing, creates a password only the agent uses, and hands you a message for Claude Code. Paste it in and Claude sets the connection up itself. Each connection is listed with when it was last used, and any of them can be revoked in one click.
What the agent can do. List, read, render, create and update patterns. Read the design system and add to it: color, spacing and type presets, global styles, block style variations and the layout widths. Find the images the site already has, and add images and fonts. Read, create, change and delete the theme’s templates and template parts. With an account connected, upload patterns to patternbuilderwp.com and install from it through your account, without ever holding a cloud credential.
What the writes refuse. A write that fails Pattern Builder’s checks is refused with the problem named, and the authoring guide has the agent run the block validator, against the WordPress your site runs, before it saves anything. A theme pattern file can’t be made to carry PHP, so permission to edit patterns is never permission to run code on the site.
The skills that travel with it. pattern-author is how a pattern gets written: the theme’s own design tokens, markup that checks as valid, and sections factored out so a layout is built once and placed many times. design-reproduction is for rebuilding a design that already exists, whether a live site, a screenshot or a Figma file. Claude installs either one from your site with a single command.
No model inside. Pattern Builder has no AI in it and sends nothing to any AI service. The tools are WordPress core’s Abilities API, served over REST and, through the MCP Adapter plugin, as MCP tools, so any MCP client can connect; the Agents tab writes the message for Claude Code. The agent tools need WordPress 6.9 or later. Everything else works on 6.8.
