The short answer
Bricks 2.4, in beta as of July 2026, is the first Bricks release with built-in AI support: roughly 145 "abilities" across about 25 categories that let an AI app like Claude build pages, edit templates, adjust theme styles, and more. Bricks does not include its own chatbot; you connect an AI client you already use, and Bricks provides the controls it can operate. AI edits to pages and elements save automatic restorable revisions, the best safety decision in the release.
The Bricks 2.4 changelog talks about an "Abilities API" and an "MCP Adapter," and by our count on the Bricks > AI screen that adds up to around 145 abilities in roughly 25 groups. That phrasing was written for developers. This article translates it for everyone else: what actually shipped, what it can do, what protects you when it goes wrong, and what it still cannot do.
Bias disclosure, as always: we build a competing AI tool for Bricks. That is precisely why this explainer sticks to checkable facts instead of adjectives.
What did Bricks 2.4 actually ship?
Three pieces, which together form the AI integration.
Abilities. An ability is one specific, named action that outside software is allowed to perform in Bricks: "create an element," "update a theme style," and so on. Bricks 2.4 ships roughly 145 of them, organized into about 25 categories. They are not buttons you click; they are controls an AI can operate on your behalf.
The plumbing. Abilities are declared through the WordPress Abilities API, a WordPress standard for describing what actions software offers, and exposed to AI apps through an MCP Adapter. MCP is the open standard that lets AI clients like Claude operate other software; if the term is new, our plain-English MCP guide covers it in five minutes. You don't need to understand either piece to use the feature, but the names are in every changelog, so now you know what they mean.
An admin screen. Inside WordPress, Bricks 2.4 adds a settings area where you enable or disable abilities individually and set up AI clients. Don't want an AI anywhere near your WooCommerce settings? Leave those abilities off. This screen is also where the headline of the release becomes clear: Bricks did not build an AI. It built the sockets an AI plugs into. The thinking comes from an AI client you bring (a Claude subscription, for example), and that client is where the AI costs live.
What can the abilities actually do?
Here is the map, grouped the way you would actually use it:
| Area | What an AI can do there |
|---|---|
| Elements & pages | Create, edit, and delete elements; build entire sections on your pages |
| Templates & components | Create and manage templates and reusable components |
| Theme styles, variables & classes | Work with site-wide design settings: theme styles, CSS variables, global classes |
| Forms & popups | Build and edit forms and popups |
| WooCommerce | Handle WooCommerce setup tasks |
| Menus | Create and manage navigation menus |
| Read-only helpers | List breakpoints, look up element schemas, render output without saving, preview dynamic data |
The read-only group deserves a sentence, because it is quietly clever. Element schemas let the AI look up which settings an element accepts before guessing. Render-without-saving lets it preview a result without committing anything. Dynamic data preview shows what a placeholder, say a post title, will resolve to. These abilities don't make the AI more powerful; they make it more careful.
And the takeaway that matters most: you never memorize this list. When an AI client connects over MCP, it discovers every enabled ability automatically. Your job is describing what you want in plain English; picking the right abilities is the AI's job.
What happens when the AI gets something wrong?
Sooner or later it will, so this is the part of the design we examined hardest. Bricks 2.4 answers with two layers, and both are well thought out.
Layer one: permissions. The AI gets no special access. It acts as a real WordPress user and inherits exactly that user's permissions: if the account can't manage plugins, neither can the AI. The practical move: create a dedicated user with only the permissions the AI needs, instead of connecting it through your admin account.
Layer two: revisions. AI writes to pages, templates, and elements automatically save a restorable revision. This deserves real praise: it is an undo history built specifically for AI mistakes, and it turns "the AI overwrote my section" from a disaster into a two-minute annoyance. One honest limit: site-wide global data (classes, variables, theme styles) is not revision-tracked, so treat those changes with extra care.
Watch out
One caveat keeps both layers honest: Bricks 2.4 is beta software as of July 2026. Revisions protect you from bad AI edits, not from beta bugs. Run all of this on a staging site (a private copy of your site used for testing) until the stable release lands.
So how good is the AI, really?
A careful distinction: the abilities decide what an AI can do (its reach). The quality of the result depends on what the AI knows, and that is where the gap sits. The abilities and MCP support are free with your Bricks license, but the intelligence is not included: you bring your own AI client and pay for it separately.
We connected Claude to the native MCP and asked it to build a real hero section; the full test is here. Short version: the structure was clean and genuinely usable, but every color was hardcoded, not a single CSS variable appeared in the output, and the AI had no awareness of CSS frameworks. Excellent hands, no knowledge of your site's design system. That is fine for a one-off section, and a consistency problem across a whole site.
What should you actually do with this?
- Create a staging copy of your site. Beta software plus write access is a staging-only combination.
- Enable a small set of abilities on the admin screen to start: pages and elements are plenty for a first session.
- Connect an AI client. Our step-by-step connection guide covers the native route and the alternatives.
- Start small. Ask for one section, inspect what it built, and restore one revision on purpose so the undo path is familiar before you need it.
Bricks 2.4's AI layer is real engineering, not a marketing checkbox. The permissions model, the automatic revisions, and a thought-through abilities catalog prove that. Go in knowing what it is: a very capable pair of hands waiting for an AI brain you supply, with no built-in knowledge of your design system. Set it up on staging and see for yourself.
FAQ
Questions about this topic
Do I have to learn what all 145 abilities do?
No. When your AI client connects, it discovers every enabled ability automatically and picks the right ones for the task. That is how MCP works. Your job is to describe the outcome you want in plain English.
Does Bricks 2.4 include its own AI assistant?
No. Bricks 2.4 ships the connection layer (abilities, an MCP adapter, and an admin screen) but no chatbot and no built-in intelligence. You connect an AI client you already use, such as Claude, and that client is where the AI costs live.
Can the AI destroy my live site?
It can make wrong changes, but only within the permissions of the WordPress user it acts as, and AI edits to pages and elements save restorable revisions you can roll back. Site-wide data like classes, variables, and theme styles is not revision-tracked, and the feature is in beta as of July 2026, so we recommend keeping it on a staging site for now.
What is the difference between the Abilities API and MCP?
The Abilities API is the WordPress-side standard for declaring which actions software offers. MCP is the industry standard AI apps use to call those actions, and the MCP Adapter translates between the two. You never need to touch any of them directly.