# Vendor facets — WP Engine. Managed WordPress hosting; hosting earns nothing. Its agent
# offering is the AI Toolkit's Smart Search MCP, a two-tool (search, fetch) server hosted on
# WP Engine's own api.ai.wpengine.com — one shape per customer, on the vendor's domain, so it
# grades `platform`. Files the provider writes into the site root earn what the provider's work earns.
vendor: wpengine
name: WP Engine
website: https://wpengine.com
areas:
- hosting
registry_keys:
- wpengine
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  WP Engine moves no Kin Score check by hosting a site. Its AI Toolkit add-on gives a site a Smart Search
  MCP server, but the server lives on WP Engine's domain with the same two tools for every customer, so
  it grades `platform` (0.25 of mcp_server). A provider can upload its own llms.txt and .well-known documents
  into the site's public root over SFTP, and those earn what the provider wrote.
features:
- id: smart-search-mcp
  name: Smart Search AI MCP server (AI Toolkit)
  description: >-
    A beta MCP server at https://api.ai.wpengine.com/v1/smart-search/{site-name}/mcp exposing search and
    fetch over the site's vectorised WordPress content, with a bearer token from the User Portal.
  source: https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/ai-toolkit/smart-search/mcp/
  tier: paid
- id: ai-toolkit
  name: AI Toolkit (Smart Search, Managed Vector Database)
  description: >-
    Semantic and hybrid site search, a managed vector database and MCP connectivity, sold as a license
    on Premium and Headless Platform plans; bring your own LLM.
  source: https://wpengine.com/support/ai-toolkit/
  tier: paid
- id: sftp-root
  name: SFTP access to the site's public root
  description: >-
    SFTP uploads anywhere within the site's public root file system (nothing above it), so a provider
    can place static files such as llms.txt or .well-known documents.
  source: https://wpengine.com/support/sftp/
  tier: all
maps:
- feature: smart-search-mcp
  check: mcp_server
  layer: agent_readiness
  grade: platform
  note: >-
    Hosted on WP Engine's domain with an identical search/fetch tool pair for every customer — the vendor's
    server shape, not the provider's. `platform` (0.25) in 0.22.0.
  provider_must: Buy the AI Toolkit license and declare the endpoint in its mcp/ manifest.
  points: 12
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.22
- feature: sftp-root
  check: llms_txt_published
  layer: composite
  provider_must: Write the llms.txt and upload it to the site root; WP Engine generates none.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.351
  facet: discoverability
  points: 4
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.65
- feature: sftp-root
  check: well_known_published
  layer: composite
  provider_must: >-
    Author an api-catalog linkset, security.txt or protected-resource document and upload it under .well-known/
    in the public root.
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only where the site's server configuration serves the uploaded dotted directory with a usable Content-Type
    — WP Engine's SFTP docs confirm root placement, not how .well-known responses are served.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.005
  facet: discoverability
  points: 6
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.018
earns_nothing:
- feature: ai-toolkit
  why: Site search and a vector database improve the site; no check reads them.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - contract_present
  - spec_presence
  - protected_resource_metadata
  - agentic_commerce
  - agent_card
  note: >-
    A host serves what the provider builds; WP Engine documents no contract, auth-metadata or commerce-profile
    tooling for the customer's surface.
surface:
  discoverability:
    reachable: 10.0
    total: 54
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 3.0
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- https://developers.wpengine.com/docs/ai-toolkit/smart-search/mcp/
- https://wpengine.com/support/ai-toolkit/
- https://wpengine.com/support/sftp/
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 3
    in_baseline: 0
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5216
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 0 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 7325
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.7
    p90: 0.8
    max: 0.8
    mean_among_movers: 0.7
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 2.1
    p75: 2.2
    p90: 2.2
    max: 2.6
    mean_among_movers: 2.2
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    discoverability: 7.4
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 164
    emerging -> thin: 49
    developing -> strong: 49
    strong -> exemplar: 13
  agent_readiness_band_moves:
    agent-aware -> agent-ready: 639
    agent-ready -> agent-native: 68
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written