Version history
Every update, from day one.
Track every release — from chatbot and MCP improvements to scheduled automations, trusted plans, and safer WordPress operations.
WordPress 7 AI foundations support
PressBot 1.7.0 adds progressive WordPress 7 AI support: AI Client detection, Connector-aware setup states, workflow-focused Abilities, and a text-only public chat route through WordPress AI Client. PressBot BYOK remains the full tool workflow path for RAG, WooCommerce, bookings, lead capture, admin agent, and Trusted Plans.
WordPress 7 integration
- Detects WP AI Client, AI Connectors, Abilities API, and
wp_supports_ai()without requiring WordPress 7 - Uses WordPress Connector credentials through Core APIs for text-only public chat when available
- Registers PressBot Abilities for AI Visibility audits, Opportunity Inbox, External Knowledge search, conversation summaries, and Trusted Plan creation
- Does not import raw Connector API keys; full tool workflows continue through PressBot BYOK providers
Delete a conversation in one click — without breaking your leads
PressBot 1.6.9 adds one-session conversation deletion from the Conversations list and the Session Detail screen. Removing a session also clears the cached conversation summary, so future summaries no longer include the deleted thread. Linked leads are preserved — only the conversation reference is detached.
Cleanup that respects the rest of the system
Conversations were previously all-or-nothing. Now you can prune individual sessions — test threads, spam, or noisy QA runs — without nuking the full log or losing the leads those sessions produced.
Conversation management
- Delete a single conversation from the Conversations list or the Session Detail screen
- Cached conversation summaries are cleared on deletion so future summaries stay clean
- Lead rows are preserved — only the link to the deleted conversation is safely detached
External Knowledge answers now show source URLs
PressBot 1.6.8 makes RAG-powered answers easier to verify. When your retrieval endpoint returns source URLs, the public chatbot now renders them as markdown links so visitors can jump straight to the original transcript, video, document, or archive source.
Verification got one click shorter
The answer itself now carries the original URLs when available, so citation-style responses are not just grounded — they are easier for visitors to inspect without digging through raw retrieval payloads.
Answer verification
- Retrieved source URLs now show up directly in chatbot answers as markdown links when the retriever provides them
- Visitors can verify claims against transcripts, videos, PDFs, docs, or archive pages without leaving the answer context blind
- The External Knowledge flow stays grounded in your approved corpus instead of inventing citation targets
External Knowledge for source-grounded visitor answers
PressBot 1.6.7 adds External Knowledge, a generic retrieval connector for the public chatbot. Site owners can connect an approved RAG endpoint so visitors can ask questions against transcripts, manuals, docs, courses, policies, support material, or research libraries.
Bring your own retrieval service
Your external service owns ingestion, embeddings, ranking, and corpus cleanup. PressBot handles the WordPress chatbot layer, settings, tool routing, source normalization, UTF-8-safe streaming, and safety caps.
External Knowledge
- Added the visitor-safe
search_knowledge_corpustool for source-grounded public chatbot answers - Added settings for endpoint URL, encrypted bearer token, default scope, result limit, knowledge label, and custom retrieval instructions
- Configured external corpora are treated as approved answer domains, with guidance to cite source titles, URLs, timestamps, or document paths when available
- If matches are not useful, the chatbot should say the approved knowledge corpus does not contain enough information instead of guessing
Reliability & Safety
- Remote retrieval is bounded with caps for query length, scope length, result count, response body size, match text, source metadata, URL length, and supported protocols
- Remote snippets are stripped of HTML and normalized before reaching the model
- Public chat streaming now preserves UTF-8, including Spanish accents and other non-English characters in streamed retrieval answers
Admin Widget Polish
- Improved admin post action cards with hide controls, persistent hidden state, and cleaner status layout
- Published post cards auto-dismiss visually while preserving post context for follow-up edits
- Post cards now include refresh-page guidance so admins know when to reload the WordPress list after create, publish, discard, or update actions
WordPress 7.0 direction documented
PressBot 1.6.6 documents how the product should fit the post-WordPress 7.0 AI stack. The direction stays practical: AI Visibility, Trusted Plans, and review-first operations now, with Core AI Client, Connectors, and Abilities treated as progressive integration targets as the ecosystem settles.
Progressive AI stack, not premature claims
PressBot is positioned as the WordPress AI operations layer: audit, explain, plan, approve, apply, and report. The 7.0 APIs are integration targets, not a dependency claim.
Product Direction
- Lead with AI Visibility audits, Trusted Plans, and review-first remediation for real WordPress teams
- Describe Core AI Client, Connectors, and Abilities as progressive integration targets
- Set the product boundary that 1.7.0 now follows: progressive Core AI integration, with BYOK still powering full tool workflows
- Keep the product story anchored in safer operations, not speculative platform language
WordPress 7.0 Readiness
- Prepared messaging for the shift toward agent-addressable WordPress capabilities
- Clarified that PressBot already uses typed tools, approvals, and operator guardrails in its own admin agent
- Framed WordPress-native AI APIs as future interoperability surfaces
- Kept external-facing copy grounded in shipped workflows rather than future architecture
Copy Guardrails
- No claims that PressBot includes WordPress Core AI Client, Connector, or Ability integration yet
- No implication that every plugin automatically becomes available to external agents
- Clear distinction between current PressBot operations and future WordPress AI interoperability
- Public language stays useful for site owners and agencies, not only platform developers
AI Visibility turns gaps into reviewable plans
PressBot 1.6.5 introduces the AI Visibility Opportunity Engine, dedicated Yoast SEO and Advanced Custom Fields tools for the admin agent, and a sharper Trusted Plans review experience. Audits group answer-readiness opportunities, estimate the score lift, and turn the lowest-risk fixes into Trusted Plans you preview before anything changes.
Audit, group, plan, review — in that order
v1 writes are scoped to Yoast SEO title, meta description, focus keyphrase, the native post excerpt, and tags. Nothing changes until you apply the Trusted Plan.
Features
- AI Visibility Opportunity Engine audits pages, groups quick wins, and estimates expected score lift
- Reviewable Trusted Plans with per-action before/after diffs on pending and applied cards
- Yoast SEO admin-agent tools: get, audit, suggest, and update post meta with confirmation
- Advanced Custom Fields admin-agent tools: field groups, fields, schema, options, audits, validated updates
Improvements
- Restored, Restore failed, and Skipped status labels on Trusted Plan cards
- Apply, restore, and cancel actions redirect back to the exact card you were reviewing
- Post-apply notices show concrete success counts instead of generic confirmations
DeepSeek now streams live
PressBot 1.6.4 turns DeepSeek into a much more natural real-time chat option. Public chatbot replies now arrive token by token instead of landing as one delayed block, so the lowest-cost provider feels faster, more conversational, and much closer to the live experience visitors already get with Claude.
The budget chat option stops feeling buffered
DeepSeek now streams in the widget instead of waiting to dump the full answer at the end, which makes low-cost public chat feel noticeably faster during real visitor conversations.
Improvements
- DeepSeek public-chat replies now stream live instead of appearing as one big buffered response
- The low-cost chatbot path now feels much closer to Claude and Gemini in the frontend experience
- DeepSeek is now a more practical fit for high-volume sites that still want a responsive visitor chat experience
Bug Fixes
- DeepSeek no longer waits to dump the whole reply at once in supported hosting environments
- Public-chat follow-ups like booking checks and lead capture still stay in the same conversation flow while replies stream
DeepSeek + smarter Inbox planning
PressBot 1.6.3 expands the public-chat lineup with DeepSeek, sharpens the Opportunity Inbox into a better review layer for recurring content work, and cleans up onboarding and analytics around the full four-provider BYOK setup. Shield and Plugin Guardian also got quieter, more reliable handling in the background.
Inbox turns patterns into plans
Historical summaries now help the Opportunity Inbox spot recurring themes, raise more urgent digests, and turn stale drafts or existing-content refreshes into Trusted Plans you can review before acting.
Features
- DeepSeek V4 Flash joins the lineup as a fourth BYOK provider for the public chatbot
- Opportunity Inbox now uses historical summaries to weigh recurring themes more intelligently
- Inbox suggestions can now spin stale drafts and existing-content refreshes into Trusted Plans
Improvements
- Analytics now recognizes the full provider lineup more cleanly, including OpenAI and DeepSeek references
- Getting Started and setup guidance now show the right API-key steps for Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI, and DeepSeek
- Higher-priority digest handling helps urgent Inbox items surface faster
Bug Fixes
- Shield now handles custom login flows more reliably without breaking the protected path
- Plugin Guardian now stays quiet during PressBot’s own updates instead of surfacing noisy review warnings
OpenAI / GPT Support
PressBot added OpenAI support alongside Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini. The current lineup also includes DeepSeek as the ultra-low-cost public chatbot option. Bring your own OpenAI API key and use the GPT-5 family for the chatbot, the admin agent, or image generation via GPT Image 2 — the same BYOK model, no markup, no middleman.
OpenAI joins the provider lineup
Paste an sk- key, pick the right GPT-5 model per surface, and mix GPT with Claude and Gemini freely across supported surfaces. DeepSeek later expanded the public-chat lineup. Image generation picks up GPT Image 2 when OpenAI is configured and organization verification is complete.
Features
- OpenAI is now a first-class BYOK provider for both the visitor chatbot and the admin agent
- GPT-5 family models available in the per-agent model picker alongside Claude and Gemini
- GPT Image 2 supported for featured-image generation and the content pipeline; Gemini image generation unchanged
- Providers can now be mixed per surface — for example Claude for the admin agent, GPT for the public chatbot, and Gemini for images
Improvements
- Setup wizard, Getting Started guide, and in-product copy updated to reflect three-provider BYOK
- Clearer error handling when OpenAI organization verification is required for image requests
Plugin Guardian & Conversation Cleanup
A Shield-layer security feature plus focused cleanup work: Plugin Guardian now audits plugin updates before and after install, and Telegram conversation history in wp-admin is cleaner and more consistent wherever admins review it.
Plugin Guardian
Snapshot plugin updates before install, flag silent ownership changes, and run AI review on the changed PHP files from Shield.
Features
- Plugin Guardian adds a Shield watchdog for plugin updates with pre-update snapshots, ownership-change detection, and AI review of changed PHP files
Bug Fixes
- Telegram-originated agent sessions no longer show duplicate messages in the Conversations page
- Internal classifier rows are now hidden from the session transcript, session list, and CSV export so only user-facing conversation content is shown
- Conversation sessions now group correctly even when internal analytics rows use a different provider behind the scenes
Improvements
- Admin conversation counts and recent-activity stats now ignore internal analytics rows so dashboard totals match the transcript you actually see
- Related conversation listings now use the same internal-row filtering for a cleaner, more consistent history view
Automations & Local Approvals
PressBot Pro moves beyond one-off chat requests. You can now schedule recurring AI tasks, route risky runs into trusted plans for review, and apply or restore changes from a dedicated Automations workspace inside WordPress.
Scheduled Automations
Run recurring AI tasks on an hourly, daily, or weekly schedule with stored or Telegram delivery and a cleaner operations-focused workflow.
Local Approvals
Manage pending plans, apply and restore history, and run smoke tests from one approvals-focused workspace in wp-admin.
Features
- Scheduled Automations for recurring AI work with hourly, twice-daily, daily, or weekly schedules
- Review-required execution mode that stages changes as trusted plans instead of applying them immediately
- Local approvals flow with pending plans, plan activity history, manual apply and cancel actions, and restore support for completed runs
- New Automations admin workspace that brings scheduled tasks and trusted plans into one dedicated screen
Improvements
- Dedicated
pressbot_agentservice user for Telegram and scheduled automations so headless actions are attributable and safer - Settings workspace reorganized into clearer Essentials, Growth, and Operations sections with a better save flow
- Shield and visitor chat runtime refined with stronger layout polish, better SSE buffering behavior, and clearer failure reporting
- Automation infrastructure now requires WordPress 6.2+, matching the SQL features used by the scheduling layer
- Billing and invoice details are now hidden from the Freemius Account page by default so license holder invoices are not exposed on agency-managed client sites
Safer Agent Execution & MCP Gating
A hardening release focused on confirmation safety, accurate MCP access control, and more reliable headless agent behavior.
Security & Safety
- Destructive admin tools now correctly trigger confirmation before create, update, or delete actions run
- MCP Pro access is now gated by the real Freemius license tier instead of code availability on staging or dev installs
- Headless Telegram and automation actions now run as a dedicated service user instead of impersonating the first administrator
Reliability
- Application-level tool failures now surface correctly in the admin agent instead of showing as false successes
- Visitor chat streaming handles buffering-prone reverse proxies more reliably
- WordPress 6.2 minimum enforced for the automation SQL layer and surfaced with clearer admin notices
The AI Interface for WordPress
PressBot becomes a platform. Your WordPress site now speaks MCP — external AI clients like Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf can connect and manage your site alongside the dashboard agent, Telegram bot, and visitor chatbot. Four channels, one toolset.
MCP Server
Expose all 99 admin tools to any MCP-compatible AI client. Streamable HTTP transport, WordPress Application Password auth — no SSH required.
Knowledge Base System
Store SOPs, workflows, and business docs as a dedicated post type. Entries power the chatbot, agent, and MCP resources automatically.
Booking Management
Create manual bookings for offline clients and block vacation days — with automatic conflict detection against your calendar.
Features
- MCP Server — expose all 99 admin tools to external AI clients (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) via the Model Context Protocol
- Streamable HTTP transport with WordPress Application Password authentication — no SSH or custom API keys required
- Knowledge base entries exposed as MCP resources — AI clients read your site context before taking action
- MCP settings panel with endpoint URL, auto-generated client config, and one-click connection testing
- 6 Knowledge Base admin tools — create, read, update, delete, and search entries via
pressbot_kbpost type with topic taxonomy. Free: 10 entries, Pro: unlimited create_manual_booking— add bookings for offline clients with automatic conflict detectioncreate_vacation_day— block calendar days with existing booking warnings
Improvements
- WP Booking Pro tools grouped in their own
bookingcategory - Knowledge base entries auto-loaded into chatbot and agent prompts for richer, site-aware responses
Booking Tools & Knowledge Base Durability
Two new admin tools for WP Booking Pro and a critical infrastructure improvement for knowledge base files.
Features
create_manual_booking— add bookings for clients who book via phone, WhatsApp, or in person, with automatic conflict detection against existing bookings, vacation days, and working hourscreate_vacation_day— block calendar days as vacation, reserved, or custom with warnings when existing bookings overlap
Improvements
- Knowledge base files moved from plugin directory to
wp-content/uploads/pressbot/— files now survive plugin updates and reinstalls - Automatic migration on upgrade with legacy-path fallback for un-migrated installs
Security Hardening & Onboarding Fix
Stronger bot user privacy, a fixed post-checkout onboarding page, and reliable conversion tracking for all new users.
Security
- Bot user fully hidden from public-facing WordPress metadata — no longer discoverable through any standard enumeration method
- Defense-in-depth: multiple layered protections for bot user privacy
Bug Fixes
- Thank-you page no longer crashes after checkout — new users now see proper onboarding
- Free download checkout flow now works correctly for all download types
Summary History, Auto Language & Tour Page
Conversation insights now persist over time, the chatbot matches each visitor's language automatically, and a new tour page lets prospects see the real admin UI before installing.
Features
- Conversation summary history — AI-generated insights are stored persistently, building a timeline of how visitor topics evolve over time
- History navigation on Conversations page — browse past summaries without re-generating them
- Sentiment trend chart on the Analytics page sidebar — see how visitor satisfaction changes day by day
- Auto language matching — the chatbot detects each visitor's language and responds in kind, no configuration needed
- Tour page — an interactive screenshot walkthrough of the admin UI, settings, agents, analytics, and more
Improvements
- Free tier stores the last 3 conversation summaries; Pro tier gets unlimited history
- Tightened focus mode — the chatbot stays strictly on-topic, no general advice or third-party recommendations
- Tour links added across the marketing site (homepage, pro page, feature pages, footer) for better discoverability
AI-Powered Setup, Smarter Writing & Better Security
Let AI handle the setup work — from conversation starters to welcome messages. The admin agent now writes posts about trending topics, and Shield gives you clearer security alerts.
Features
- AI-suggested conversation starters — click "Suggest with AI" in Settings and get 4 site-specific prompts generated from your knowledge base, ready for visitors to click
- AI-suggested welcome message — generate a personalized greeting that matches your site's tone and personality
- Smart auto-suggest — when you generate or refresh your knowledge base, conversation starters are automatically suggested if you haven't customized them yet
- Custom bot avatar — upload your own image for the chatbot bubble and header through the WordPress media library
Improvements
- Conversations table now shows what each visitor said first, so you can scan conversations at a glance without opening each one
- Conversation starters now fill the input field instead of sending immediately, giving visitors a chance to review or edit before sending
- Getting Started page is now a live checklist that tracks your actual setup progress — API key, knowledge base, widget status, and first conversation
- Admin agent can now write blog posts about current events and trending topics using real-time web research
- When the admin agent can't create a post, you'll see exactly what went wrong instead of a generic error message
Bug Fixes
- Web research in the admin agent now works correctly with Gemini models — previously returned empty results on some configurations
- Shield security alerts now correctly distinguish between real usernames and display names when reporting distributed attacks
- Checkout confirmation page is now protected against bot traffic that could trigger false conversion events
- Blog posts now show their featured image when shared on Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms
Starter Chips, Satisfaction Ratings & KB Refresh
Give visitors a head start, find out what they think, and keep your chatbot's knowledge fresh.
Features
- Suggested prompts — clickable starter chips appear below the greeting when the chatbot opens, giving visitors quick conversation starters like "What do you do?" or "How can I contact you?"
- Customizable chips — configure up to 4 starter prompts from Settings, or use the smart defaults that work for most sites
- Conversation satisfaction ratings — visitors can rate their experience with thumbs up or down after a conversation, giving you a clear signal on chatbot quality
- Satisfaction metrics in Conversations — see your overall satisfaction percentage at a glance, plus per-session ratings in the table and session detail views
- Satisfaction data in CSV exports — ratings are included when you export conversation history
- One-click knowledge base refresh — update your chatbot's knowledge when your site content changes, without regenerating from scratch
Auto-Generate Knowledge Base
Your chatbot should know about your site from the start. Now it can.
Features
- One-click knowledge base generation — PressBot reads your pages, posts, and products, then creates a ready-to-use knowledge file so the chatbot can answer visitor questions immediately
- New setup wizard step — after connecting your API key, the wizard offers to generate your knowledge base before you go live
- Generate button in Settings — create or regenerate your knowledge base anytime from the Knowledge Base sidebar
Improvements
- Stronger chatbot boundaries — the visitor chatbot now gives clearer responses when asked to do things outside its scope, like creating pages or changing settings
Activation & Onboarding Fixes
Smoother first-run experience for new free installations.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where new users could see a permissions error during first-time plugin activation
- Fixed welcome overlay appearing too early — it now waits until the initial setup is complete
- Fixed download links in welcome emails pointing to the wrong location
Improvements
- Improved onboarding flow so each step completes before the next one begins
Initial Public Release
The first public release of PressBot Pro — an AI-powered WordPress assistant with a visitor chatbot and admin agent.
Core Platform
- Visitor chatbot widget with knowledge base integration, dark mode support, and WooCommerce product search
- Admin AI agent with 99 tools across 20 categories for full site management through conversation
- BYOK model — originally Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini) API keys, with later releases adding OpenAI and DeepSeek. No per-message fees, full control over costs and privacy
- Per-agent model selection — choose different models for the chatbot vs the admin agent
Content & Media
- 8-stage content pipeline — research, strategize, write, critique, generate images, categorize, and publish
- AI image generation via Gemini with multiple aspect ratios and automatic featured image assignment
- AI vision — auto-generate alt text, captions, and descriptions for media library images
- Bulk operations with real-time progress reporting — process up to 100 posts or 50 images at once
Integrations
- Telegram bot — manage your WordPress site from your phone with the same 99 tools
- WooCommerce — 10 dedicated tools for products, orders, coupons, and sales analytics
- Google Analytics 4 — query real traffic data through the agent, composite site reports
- WP Booking Pro — visitor availability checks through conversation
Security & Intelligence
- PressBot Shield — AI-powered login protection with auto-lockouts, threat analysis, IP blocking, and custom login URLs
- 12-check security audit covering file permissions, debug mode, SSL, admin username, and more
- Agent memory — persistent preferences and context across sessions, auto-saved proactively
- Web search integration for real-time research and current information
Engagement & Customization
- Proactive messaging — exit intent and timed nudge triggers with configurable messages and suggestion chips
- Lead capture from chatbot conversations
- Explain CTAs — add contextual "Ask PressBot" buttons anywhere via data attributes, shortcodes, or JavaScript API
- Contextual suggestion chips that change based on the current admin screen
- Full conversation logging with export to CSV, message statistics, and configurable retention
Stay up to date
New version, same idea.
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