Build a WordPress site with Claude Code: a walkthrough

Claude Code is a coding agent that lives in your terminal. Most people point it at a repository. This walkthrough points it at a WordPress site instead, through Delta’s MCP server, and builds the site from nothing: a design system, a header and footer, templates, pages and a content type. No PHP is written. The agent operates the theme the way you would operate it from wp-admin, only faster and in plain language.

It is written for a first build. If you already have a Delta site, skip to the section on reviewing, which is where the work actually is.

Before you start

• A WordPress install with Delta active, on a staging or test site. A local site works: Claude Code connects from your machine, so mysite.test is fine.
• Claude Code installed, so claude runs in a terminal.
• A brief. One page of text is enough: who the site is for, what it must do, three adjectives for the look, a logo or a colour if you have one, and the pages you know you need. The better this is, the less you correct later.

Step 1: connect

In wp-admin, open Delta → Connect and pick the Claude Code tab. Delta writes the command for your site. For a site at example.com it is:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user delta-example-com 'https://example.com/wp-json/21press-delta/mcp'

Run it, start claude in any folder (a folder with your brief in it is a good choice), type /mcp, select the server and authenticate. A browser tab opens on your WordPress login; sign in as an administrator and approve. The full version, with the Application Password fallback and the things that go wrong, is in Connect Claude Code to WordPress.

Step 2: let it look

Start with a question, not an instruction:

Look at delta-example-com and tell me what's there.

Claude Code reads Delta’s briefing (the start-here tool), checks the design system and reports: a fresh site, seed tokens, no templates, a handful of default pages. That report is your check that the connection works and that the agent understands the ground rules, including the one that matters most on a new site: Delta ships no templates, so the agent will create the header, footer and page templates itself, with the conditions that decide where each applies.

Step 3: the design system

Do this before any page. Everything the agent builds later uses the tokens you settle here, so a change to the palette on day three is one edit rather than forty.

Read brief.md in this folder. Create a design system for the site from it: colour, type, spacing, radius and shadow tokens, and notes that describe the look and the rules. Show me two directions on a Sketchbook board before you change anything.

Two things are happening in that prompt. Claude Code reads a local file, which is the point of using a coding agent: your brief, your copy drafts and your reference images can sit in the folder. And it is asked to propose before it writes. Delta’s Sketchbook is a board where the agent draws options without touching the live site; you look, pick one, and only then does it set the tokens. The design system recipe is a longer version of this prompt if you want more control over the brief.

Step 4: structure

Build the site structure: a header with the logo and a menu, a footer, a default page template, and the pages in the brief (Home, Services, About, Contact). Use the design system. Create the menu and put the pages in it. Don't write final copy yet; use the brief's wording where it exists and mark the rest as placeholders.

Expect a few minutes of tool calls. The agent creates templates, sets their display conditions, creates pages as plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, builds the menu, and reports what it made with links. Open the site in a browser beside the terminal and click through. The agent’s own summary is not the review; the site is.

If something is off, say so with the page open. Delta’s Front panel lets you click an element on the live page and tell the agent “this one”, which beats describing a box in words. Our article on giving an agent visual feedback covers what to say.

Step 5: content types, forms and the rest

A site is rarely just pages. Ask for what the brief needs, one thing at a time:

Add a Case Studies content type with a client name, an industry taxonomy and a hero image. Build its archive and single templates in the design system, and add it to the menu.

The same goes for a contact form (Delta drives seven form plugins through their own abilities), SEO titles and descriptions (SureRank or SEOPress), redirects and, if you sell, WooCommerce. The agent uses the plugin’s abilities, so the result is a real form or a real product, visible in that plugin’s own admin screens. If a plugin needs installing, that waits for your approval; installing software and creating users are the kinds of action Delta will not do unasked.

Step 6: copy

Write the copy yourself, or have the agent draft it from the brief and edit it hard. Put drafts in the folder as Markdown and ask Claude Code to place them: it reads the file and updates the page, keeping the layout. Copy is where agents sound like agents; the layout work holds up better than the words.

Reviewing, and taking things back

Three habits make the difference between a build you trust and one you do not.

• Snapshot before a big change. Ask for one (“take a snapshot called before-homepage-redesign”). Delta’s snapshots capture the design system, templates and page overlays, and restore in one step.
• Check what it changed, not what it said. Delta → Context has a Changed by an agent panel for rules and skills; for pages, the live site and the page list are the record.
• Write down what you keep saying. If you correct the same thing twice (“no gradients”, “British spelling”), ask the agent to add it to the site’s rules. Rules live on the site, so they apply from Claude Code, Cursor or Claude Desktop alike.

What to expect

A first structure, from brief to clickable site with placeholder copy, is an afternoon. Most of the time after that is yours: deciding, reviewing, writing. The agent is fast at the parts that used to be slow (templates, tokens, a content type with its fields) and no better than anyone else at knowing what your business should say. Treat it as a very quick builder who needs a clear client, and the terminal turns out to be a good place to be that client.

Next: Starting a build covers building from a visual or by cloning a URL, and the recipes are prompts for one job at a time, from a light and dark mode to an accessibility audit.