Cloudflare made a WordPress for AI agents

Cloudflare, the unreality supplier that connects millions of sites to the internet, wants to “fix” different integer giant: WordPress. It announced a caller open-source system, called EmDash, that’s expected to reside the “core problems that WordPress cannot solve” — and they want to do it by allowing AI agents to return power of your website.

Though it’s still successful early access, EmDash is already causing a operation successful the WordPress community, and not conscionable because its interface looks for illustration WordPress pinch a facelift. Cloudflare is calling EmDash the “spiritual successor” of WordPress — thing WordPress laminitis Matt Mullenweg has already refuted successful a blog station astir the caller platform. “Please don’t declare to beryllium our belief successor without knowing our spirit,” Mullenweg writes. “I deliberation EmDash was created to waste much Cloudflare services.”

Other members of the WordPress organization person jumped online to prime isolated EmDash arsenic well, while besides calling attraction to ways that the WordPress task should beryllium improved — particularly erstwhile it comes to issues surrounding architecture, security, and AI adoption.

In its announcement, Cloudflare claims to person rebuilt the open-source WordPress task “from the crushed up,” offering a built-in exemplary discourse protocol (MCP) server, which allows ample connection models (LLMs) to link and interact pinch the platform’s documentation. It runs connected Astro, Cloudflare’s LLM-friendly web building framework, and uses TypeScript, a programming language that AI agents tin amended understand. EmDash moreover supports x402, a instrumentality that web publishers tin usage to make AI crawlers salary to entree their content.

Brian Coords, a developer advocator astatine WordPress.com proprietor Automattic, notes that 1 of EmDash’s strengths is successful the velocity astatine which you tin group up a website, saying, “Getting from zero to a basal creation is fast. I mean, really fast.”

But it “feels a spot vibe-coded,” Coords writes. Mullenweg echoes this, writing connected his blog that the interface “is successful the uncanny vale of being sorta-WordPress sorta-not,” adding that he knows “it wasn’t a play vibecode project, but it has immoderate of that smell.” Mullenweg admits that EmDash’s AI-powered skills characteristic is simply a bully touch, but he doesn’t get into the deeper issues holding WordPress backmost — thing that different members of the organization person been vocal astir successful ray of EmDash’s launch.

Joost de Valk, the creator of the celebrated Yoast WordPress plugin, calls EmDash “the astir absorbing point to hap to contented guidance successful years,” arsenic it’s built to activity pinch support for AI agents and comes pinch system contented that “machines tin parse and manipulate easily.” In his station astir EmDash, de Valk brings up the structural issues pinch WordPress that the task continues to dainty “as cosmetic.”

De Valk references a station from WordPress developer Hendrik Luehrsen, who writes that EmDash “exposes an aged weakness” successful WordPress’s existent editor, Gutenberg, which stores information successful an HTML format. Luehrsen argues that this building becomes a problem erstwhile developers person to rework content, process it done different interfaces, aliases move it into different systems.

“The existent instruction is that contented connected the web now has to beryllium thought astir differently,” Luehrsen says. “As agelong arsenic contented is understood chiefly arsenic output, HTML arsenic a retention format tin still look bully enough. But erstwhile contented moves into caller contexts done APIs, aggregate frontends, personalization, and AI systems, that logic nary longer holds.”

But not everyone agrees pinch Cloudflare’s declare that EmDash solves a “security crisis” surrounding WordPress plugins. Cloudflare cites information from Patchstack, which says “more high-severity vulnerabilities were discovered successful the WordPress ecosystem successful 2025 than successful the erstwhile 2 years combined.” As outlined by Cloudflare, WordPress plugins tally PHP book that “hooks straight into WordPress to adhd aliases modify functionality,” meaning it theoretically has entree to everything connected your site. Instead, EmDash plugins usage thing called Dynamic Workers — a instrumentality that allows AI agents to execute codification successful their ain isolated environment, shielding the remainder of your tract successful lawsuit things spell wrong.

Longtime WordPress developer Rhys Wynne explains in a blog post that these issues whitethorn beryllium exaggerated successful bid to waste EmDash. He writes, “I should constituent retired that though vulnerabilities get discovered, pinch systems for illustration Patchstack they are usually patched earlier they go a problem, and if you really publication the patched notes, the ‘security crisis’ often is thing that requires a login, aliases intends that a subscriber to a blog tin tick a checkbox they shouldn’t,” Wynne writes. “Sure they are needing a fix, but it is utilizing scary words to scare users.”

Meanwhile, Mullenweg says the truth that plugins “can alteration each facet of your WordPress acquisition is simply a feature, not a bug.” De Valk pushes backmost connected Mullenweg’s take, saying that it’s for illustration “arguing that because immoderate mobile apps request camera access, each app should get guidelines entree to the phone.” On his ain blog, he says there’s an statement for a “granular support system” wrong WordPress, not for “continuing to springiness each plugin the keys to the full database.”

EmDash is already trying to tie users from WordPress by making it easy to import sites from the platform. But, arsenic noted by Wynne, if things spell south, it doesn’t look for illustration there’s a measurement to export your tract from EmDash and untangle a tract from Cloudflare’s proprietary infrastructure. “There’s nary volition that Cloudflare correct now would wantonness EmDash, but it could astatine a later date. What would hap past if it’s abandoned?” Wynne tells The Verge.

While immoderate WordPress members, including de Valk, opportunity they’re going to build connected EmDash, concerns stay astir whether EmDash really has the organization to support caller users. WordPress is backed by thousands of volunteers, on pinch developers astatine Automattic, to create caller features for the platform. “When thing breaks, location are forums, documentation, tutorials, and developers everyplace who cognize really to hole it,” Miriam Schwab, the caput of WordPress astatine Elementor, writes. “Thanks to each these decades of content, publication and usage, LLMs person each the knowledge needed to design, build and troubleshoot WordPress sites.”

Still, Schwab acknowledges that EmDash “pushes the WordPress ecosystem to look honestly astatine really it does things” — and that’s precisely what it’s doing now. Just 1 time earlier the motorboat of EmDash, Automattic’s Matias Ventura announced that the task is pushing backmost the motorboat of WordPress 7.0 for a “few weeks to finalize cardinal architectural details.” Along pinch support for real-time collaborative editing, this update will see an AI customer and an API that will let WordPress to pass pinch AI models.

Even WordPress’s much skeptical members are hopeful astir the imaginable of change. “If WordPress starts making the correct architectural decisions now, it tin still drawback up,” de Valk writes. That could make EmDash much for illustration a catalyst for WordPress, alternatively than a existent competitor.