Like many of you, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately evaluating AI. My first projects were simple ChatGPT Software Evaluations and then, an implementation plan, Power Point to explain the benefits to the team, and an executive summary for management. Today, I decided to use the free version of Bolt to create a semi-simple WordPress Plugin.

Bolt describes themselves:

Bolt is an in-browser AI web development agent for full stack web application development. It provides a chat-based environment where you prompt an agent to make code changes. These changes are implemented in realtime in the development environment.

The plugin I created was designed to give me a combined overview page with the latest scan results of all of my sites, in one spot on the CahillDigital.com website.

My initial instructions to Bolt were as follows:

I want to create a wordpress app that will contact multiple websites wordfence api endpoints and return scan status. will be installed on https:/allthingscahill.com to monitor https://cahilldigital.com
https://carnivalglass.com
https://barredowlretreat.com
https://robertjwolfmd.com
https://pawfectpuppytraining.com

In around a minute or two, I had a basic working version of the monitor. Then I asked it to add a flag showing whether the site was using live or demo data, then asked it to create a WordPress plugin. 5 minutes or so later I had a plugin, complete with full instructions, meeting the WordPress coding guidelines.

It took me longer to install the plugin on my site. Really…

In retrospect, this was almost too easy. My concerns, as always are with potentially exposing sensitive data (that’s not happening here, as I use this within my WordPress Admin Console), and the accessibility of the code (for debug). On that point, I was happy to find it looked just like any other WordPress plugin. In fact, it’s read to deploy on WordPress.org for other developers to use.

I’m still wary of AI, but I’m optimistic. I saved at least a day or two, and the truth is, I never write instructions that are *that* good. The overall output was great.

Give it a shot, see how you do!