MCP for Advanced Module Manager is a free add-on for MCP for J that lets your AI client work with Advanced Module Manager by Regular Labs. Its 22 tools show what really decides where each module appears, manage Condition Sets and their rules, put many modules on one set in a single call, and find modules with identical rules. It works with both the Free and Pro editions.
Why this exists
Turning on Advanced Module Manager's system plugin changes what a module's settings mean. Joomla's own access level, menu assignment, language and publishing dates stop deciding where a module shows, and the module's Condition Set decides instead. A module with no set shows on every page, to every visitor, even one assigned to no pages at all. So an AI client using Joomla's normal module tools can report a change as saved when nothing on the page will move.
This add-on works with what actually decides. Condition Sets are also shared: one set of rules can serve any number of modules, so a group of modules with the same assignments can be kept in one place and changed once. The tools make that the normal way to work.
What Claude can do
There are 22 tools, grouped roughly the way you'd reach for them.
| Area | Tools | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostics | 2 | Edition, versions and what decides visibility right now, plus a health check for the problems that fail silently. |
| Modules | 3 | List modules with their rules in plain English, see why one module shows where it does and which modules share its set, and set Advanced Module Manager's category, colour, "hide if empty" and notes. |
| Condition Sets | 7 | List, read, create, update, duplicate, publish, unpublish, trash and delete. |
| Rules | 4 | The rule types available and what each takes, then add, change and remove rules one at a time. |
| Grouping | 4 | Find modules with identical rules, put many modules on one set in one call, take them off, and make modules show wherever another one does. |
| Conversion | 2 | Work out and create the sets that keep modules showing as Joomla's own settings say. |
Before you turn the plugin on
This is the job the add-on was built for. Ask for the conversion preview and it reads each module's menu assignment, access level, language and publishing dates, then proposes the Condition Sets that would keep it showing the same way. Modules with the same settings share one set, and a set you already have is reused if its rules match. Nothing changes until you confirm, and Joomla's own settings are left as they are. It works with the plugin off, so you can run it first, and with the plugin on, to repair a site where it's already on.
One case needs you. A module assigned to no pages can't be expressed as a set, so it's listed for you to unpublish or give some pages.
Free, Pro, and which add-on you need
Advanced Module Manager comes in a Free and a Pro edition. The two add-ons split along that same line, because nobody should pay us for AI access to something they already have for free.
| Advanced Module Manager feature | Regular Labs edition | Covered by |
|---|---|---|
| Condition Sets, attachments, categories, colours, hide if empty, notes | Free and Pro | This free add-on |
| Rules: menu items, home page, date, Joomla content, access levels, user groups, languages, devices, browsers, tags, components, templates, URLs, other sets | Free and Pro | This free add-on |
| Rules: time, days, months, seasons, users, IP addresses, geolocation, article custom fields, HikaShop, ZOO and FLEXIcontent | Pro only | MCP for Advanced Module Manager Pro |
| Extra fields, HTML around a module, HTML for an empty module | Pro only | The Pro add-on |
The Free edition quietly skips Pro rule types rather than failing, so a set holding only those shows its modules everywhere. That can happen after a downgrade. This add-on's read tools mark those rules and the health check flags them.
Installing it
You'll need Joomla 5 or 6, PHP 8.2 or later, MCP for J, and Advanced Module Manager 12.1.0 or later is recommended, because that release has a security fix. The health check warns on anything older.
- Download the ZIP above and install it through System โ Install โ Extensions, or install it from Components โ MCP for J โ Browse MCP Add-Ons.
- That's the whole install. The plugin enables itself, and the tools show up in your connected AI client the next time it lists them.
There's no admin screen for this plugin, by design.
Using it
Ask in plain language:
- "Check Advanced Module Manager on this site. Is anything showing that shouldn't be?"
- "Why does the newsletter module show on the contact page?"
- "Make all five sidebar modules show only on the shop pages, using one shared set."
- "Which modules have the same rules and could share a set?"
- "I want to turn the plugin on. What would change, and can you keep everything showing as it does now?"
Shared sets reach further than they look
A change to a set changes every module on it, and other Regular Labs extensions can use the same sets. So every change says what it reaches, and updates can be previewed first. A set that isn't published counts as no set at all, so unpublishing, trashing or deleting one puts all its modules on every page. Those need an explicit confirmation, and without it you just get the list of what would be affected.
Permissions and security
Tools use Advanced Module Manager's and Conditions' own permissions and the module's own edit permission, and refuse rather than fall back.
PHP rules run code on your server, and a Super User's token would pass Regular Labs' own check. So these tools never write one, and never attach, publish, copy or include a set that runs one, or change a set one of those depends on, because each could make the code run somewhere it doesn't run today. Reads report that the rule exists, its size and a fingerprint, never the code. You can still manage PHP rules in the Joomla administrator.
URL rules that use regular expressions have to compile, and a pattern that could tie up a visitor's request is refused. Names and labels stay plain text.
How it was tested
Driven end to end on Joomla 6.1.4 and PHP 8.4 against both Advanced Module Manager Free 12.1.0 and Pro 12.1.0. Results were checked on real front-end pages, as a guest and logged in, with the plugin on and off, including every rule type this add-on writes. It had an independent security review, and each finding has its own attack test.
Open source
GPL-2.0-or-later, the same license as Joomla itself. The full source is in the ZIP you download.
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