MCP for J add-on logoMCP for YOOtheme Pro is a Pro add-on for MCP for J that lets your AI client work with YOOtheme Pro sites. Fourteen tools read and change customizer settings, read and save page-builder layouts on articles and YOOtheme Builder modules, switch dynamic-content templates on and off, and browse your saved layouts and the installed elements. Ask it to change the header layout, rewrite the headline on a builder page, or check why a style change isn't showing, and it does it the way YOOtheme itself saves, without anyone opening the customizer.

Please log in to download MCP for YOOtheme Pro.

Why this exists

YOOtheme Pro keeps nearly everything that makes a site look the way it does in places Joomla's own tools can't reach: the customizer settings are a JSON document tucked inside the template style, a builder page is a layout stored in the article's full text, and templates and saved layouts live in YOOtheme's own storage. MCP for J's core tools can read an article or a template style, but they see that data as an opaque blob. This add-on understands it, so your AI client can answer "what does this page actually contain?" and change one setting or one headline without disturbing the rest.

A customer asked for it, which is usually the best reason to build something.

What Claude can do

Fourteen tools, grouped the way you would reach for them.

AreaToolsWhat you can do
Status2Version, YOOtheme styles and their compiled stylesheets, how many pages and modules use the builder, and a health check for the things that stop a change from showing.
Customizer settings2Read the settings (API keys and passwords masked), and change named settings such as header.layout or site.layout. Everything you don't name stays as it is.
Page builder5List the pages built with the builder, read a layout as an outline or in full, and save a changed layout back to an article or a YOOtheme Builder module.
Library3List YOOtheme's Templates in the order they're tried and switch one on or off; list My Layouts and saved styles.
Elements and cache2The element types installed on the site, with their settings, and clearing YOOtheme's caches.

Installing it

You will need Joomla 5 or 6, PHP 8.2 or later, MCP for J, and YOOtheme Pro 5 itself, which you buy from YOOtheme. Without YOOtheme Pro installed, every tool says so and does nothing.

  1. Subscribe on the sign-up page, or get this and every other Pro add-on with MCP for J Pro โ€” All Access.
  2. Install it from Components โ†’ MCP for J โ†’ Browse MCP Add-Ons, or download the ZIP and install it through System โ†’ Install โ†’ Extensions.
  3. That's it. The plugin enables itself, and the tools appear in your AI client the next time it lists them.

There is no admin screen for this plugin, by design. It adds tools to MCP for J rather than a place to click.

Using it

Ask for what you want in plain language. "Switch the header to the stacked centred layout" changes that one setting. "Show me the outline of the About page and change its main headline to โ€ฆ" reads the builder layout, edits it and saves it back. "Why doesn't my colour change show up?" runs the health check.

Start with the health check on a new site. It's read-only and tells you which YOOtheme styles exist, whether their stylesheets are up to date, and anything that will stop a change from appearing.

Two things worth knowing

Style changes need one click in the customizer. YOOtheme compiles its stylesheet in your browser, inside the customizer, and nothing on the server can do that step. So layout settings (header, navbar, page width and so on) show on the next page load, but colours, fonts and other style settings reach visitors only after someone opens the customizer and saves. The tools tell you when that applies.

A page is saved exactly as YOOtheme saves it. The tools read the layout with a fingerprint and refuse to save if anyone changed the page in the meantime, the same check YOOtheme's builder makes. Every element in a layout has to be one that's installed, because YOOtheme quietly shows an unknown element as nothing. Blog and category lists show a simple copy of each builder page; the tools write a plain version of it so those lists don't keep showing the old text, and opening the page in the builder once regenerates YOOtheme's own.

Permissions and security

The tools use YOOtheme's own rules: changing settings needs edit rights on Templates, and saving a page needs edit rights on that article. In this first version, the tools that change anything (settings, layouts, switching templates) are for Super Users only. Anyone else can read. Custom scripts and the YOOtheme API key stay in the customizer and can't be changed here at all, even by a Super User.

Where version 1.0.0 stands

Worth saying plainly, since you are being asked to pay for it. Version 1.0.0 was built against YOOtheme Pro 5.0.53 and tested on a Joomla 6 site running it, including checking that YOOtheme renders the settings and pages these tools save. It had a full security review before release. It hasn't yet been used on a busy production site, so take a backup before letting it loose on one. If you run into something, I would genuinely like to hear about it.

Open source

GPL-2.0-or-later, the same license as Joomla itself. The full source is in the ZIP you download.

Please log in to download MCP for YOOtheme Pro.


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Written by:
Tim Davis is the founder and owner of Cybersalt.
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