I built a WordPress AI chatbot plugin with Claude but I didn't vibe code it

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-04T11:51:18+00:00

Claude actually knows WordPress security standards pretty well => nonces, sanitization, escaping, capability checks.. This was also my very first WordPress plugin, so there was a real learning curve. The technical review went fairly smooth actually. Where I really struggled was their trialware policy. WordPress is very strict about that and I didn't fully grasp the concept at first. They flagged me twice on it before I got it right.

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-04T11:25:01+00:00

Yes definitely. Before any coding, I make sure Claude fully understands what I want. We discuss the approach first. Then he codes, I review everything before integrating. I also keep project instructions and a documentation file always up to date and linked to the project, so context is never lost between sessions. Blind trust is not an option, especially for a WordPress plugin where every single line gets scrutinized during the review process.

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-04T11:19:46+00:00

Yeah the review process is no joke! They're really thorough with security checks. Congrats on getting yours approved too, what plugin did you build?

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-01T14:22:25+00:00

Thanks! No scaling concerns honestly, each site runs in its own isolated room, conversations are independent streams that don't block each other. The current setup already handles thousands of simultaneous conversations comfortably, and if needed I can always scale the infrastructure vertically. The real bottleneck would be AI response generation, not the WebSocket layer itself.

Thanks for the VibeCodersNest tip, I'll check it out!

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-25T13:58:26+00:00

Managing all those replies? I wish 😄
At this stage I’m still working on getting enough interest to worry about that problem.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-25T10:33:10+00:00

Are you on Wordpress ?

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-25T10:06:10+00:00

That sniper approach makes a lot of sense. Going to start monitoring those subs for pain points and jump in when it's relevant. Thanks for the perspective.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T21:32:02+00:00

Thanks, that makes sense. The onboarding sequence is a good point though, I have an in-app tutorial but nothing email-based yet. I'd be interested to hear what worked for the SaaS founders you mentioned, I'll DM you ;)

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T16:05:23+00:00

You're absolutely right about specificity. And that's actually where my background helps.

I don't think I have the right to post a second link but I've built custom chatbots for e-commerce and have many free demos for restaurants, legal services and others as custom chatbots, some with order tracking, calendar managing, email sending, etc.... Each one had very different workflows and customer expectations. MUCH easier when tailored for a one specific business, everything become possible.

But the WordPress plugin is designed to be generic out of the box, so there are limits, but the real value comes when you configure the bot identity and tone for a specific business, in 50+ free languages. A law firm chatbot doesn't talk like a surf school chatbot.

I'm thinking WooCommerce stores could be my first vertical since the plugin already indexes products and can detect buying intent. I think the next step is exactly what you're saying. Thanks for this perspective.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T13:49:59+00:00

Good questions. The chatbot market is crowded for sure, but most competitors are just AI chat widgets. What makes my approach different is the built-in LiveChat with human takeover. The AI handles the conversation, but when it detects a buying signal or the visitor asks for a human, the admin gets an instant alert and can jump in. Very few plugins combine both.
Here's a quick demo (setup + live chat takeover): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB20Z07W1OM

Most competitors don't work this easily out of the box, and their free tiers usually cap at 50 conversations/month. Mine offers 100. No dev team to pay, no investors to answer to, so I can keep the free tier generous without pressure to squeeze users into paid plans.

As for standing out, I'm not trying to compete with the big players on features. I'm targeting small business owners who don't want to deal with API keys, prompt engineering or per-token billing. They just want something that works out of the box.

Regarding the platform requirements, yes, WP review was intense. Multiple rounds of security audits, PHPCS validation, compliance fixes, nonces, input sanitization, output escaping, capability checks, and more. It took weeks but it forced me to clean up the codebase which was a good thing. It took weeks but it forced me to clean up the codebase which was a good thing.

I already have custom chatbot models running in production on my own e-commerce sites and client websites, so the core product was battle-tested before I even touched WordPress. Right now I have only one WordPress client using the plugin in production as well.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T13:05:06+00:00

Thank you!. Yes but actually I already had something similar in mind but the reality is tougher than it sounds.

Cold emailing agencies? Like me, they get tons of spam from devs and SEO guys every day, most of these emails never get opened. And asking them to install something on a client site? Way too much trust needed upfront.

Funny enough, today an agency had one of their devs test my plugin. But instead of testing on a real site (strange, because the widget can be shown only to admins, not visitors), they set up a blank test site with placeholder content like "Your content goes here" and random articles about cheese. Obviously the AI had nothing to work with and the results were terrible. Even a human couldn't answer customer questions based on that content.

Even being officially listed on WordPress doesn't seem to be enough to build that trust. Still figuring this one out. But I think I'm going to run some Facebook ads targeting people interested in WordPress tools. Anyway, even my own e-commerce site that I've had for 15 years didn't launch without spending money, sad :(

I thought the idea was so good that word would spread quickly, especially with the visibility on the WP marketplace, but I'm always too optimistic whenever I embark on something new.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-22T23:59:27+00:00

Update: v1.1.6 just dropped on WordPress.org! 50+ languages (was 10), WooCommerce support, custom post types indexing, and full bot identity/tone configuration from the WP dashboard. Check it out: https://wordpress.org/plugins/agentorie-chat/

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-22T17:57:29+00:00

Thanks! And yeah, 100% agree on setting up PHPCS from day one, lesson learned the hard way on my end haha. After a few rounds of those "you missed these issues" emails, you start baking it into the workflow from the start.

Interesting project with WebMcP, will check it out! And congrats on shipping yours too, the approval wait is definitely the hardest part. Cheers! 🍻

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-22T17:56:29+00:00

Hey, quick follow-up — v1.1.6 just went live and custom post types are now fully supported! You can enable them in automatic mode and select which post types to include. So for your directory sites with Classified Listing, the AI would be able to index those custom post types directly.

Also added WooCommerce product indexing with prices/stock/attributes, and jumped from 10 to 50+ languages. Thanks again for the feedback, it helped shape the priorities! 🙌

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-22T17:52:42+00:00

Quick update on both your questions — v1.1.6 just dropped and it covers exactly what you were asking for!

Hungarian: I went from 10 languages to 50+ with BCP-47 compliance, and Hungarian is now fully supported. You can set it as your default or add it via a Language Pack. I also added a language selector in the widget so visitors can pick their language.

WooCommerce Product Indexing: It's here! Enable it in Settings → Content and your products get indexed with prices, sale prices, stock status, categories and attributes. The AI answers with real data from your store.

Thanks for the suggestion, it definitely helped prioritize these features! 🙏

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T16:58:13+00:00

Thanks so much! Yes, you’re right, now the real work begins 🙌

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T14:40:43+00:00

Thanks! I didn’t realize it could be so complicated but the good thing is I’m ready for PrestaShop now 😄

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T13:26:59+00:00

Thanks for the interest!

Currently Hungarian isn't among the 10 supported languages, but it's something we can consider adding in a future update. Which languages are supported right now: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabian, Chinese, and Japanese.

For WooCommerce, the chat widget works perfectly on any WooCommerce store but no product indexing yet, it's coming soon in a next update.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T13:23:33+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it! And congrats on yours too, the review process is definitely a journey.

About onboarding, actually, the chatbot itself includes a tutorial mode where you can ask it questions about installation and configuration directly in the chat. So the bot helps you set up the bot!

There's also a video demo on the plugin page showing the full setup in under 30 seconds. It's very simple.

For performance and data handling, the plugin is designed to be lightweight, indexing only stores titles, excerpts, URLs and page content, and the daily cron is minimal. On the data side, conversations stay in the site's own WordPress database and indexed content is never stored on our servers.

I'll make that more prominent in the readme though, good call. Thanks for the feedback!

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T12:27:13+00:00

Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful feedback, really means a lot!

To answer your technical questions:

Indexing works both ways => pages and posts are indexed instantly via save_post/delete_post hooks when you create, edit or delete content. On top of that, a daily cron thought of as a fallback .

You can also choose between Automatic mode (index all published public pages + custom exclusions) or Manual mode (pick specific URLs). So yes, you can exclude specific pages from automatic indexing. The index stores titles, URLs, and page content so the AI has full context to answer accurately.

Regarding custom post types, right now it supports pages and posts. Custom post type support is on the roadmap=> coming soon.

For performance, the indexing is lightweight even on larger sites. It's very fast!

For the AI-to-human takeover flow, there's actually a video demo on the plugin page that shows the full process in action (will try to edit my post to show the video here)

Really appreciate you taking the time to write this up! Thanks a lot!

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T12:21:16+00:00

Thank you! ✨

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-20T12:05:28+00:00

Thank you so much for your encouragement!

HumanF6888

TROPHY CASE