Problem 1: WordPress strips <style> blocks entirely

What happened: Early posts were written with a <style> tag at the top of the HTML block, defining CSS classes such as .matrix-bracket for rendering quantum circuit diagrams in the Grover’s Algorithm post. When the post was saved and previewed in WordPress, all styling vanished — the <style> block was silently removed by WordPress’s content sanitisation.

Fix: Every CSS rule must be written as an inline style="..." attribute on the element it targets. No exceptions. Claude handles this when explicitly instructed: “Use inline CSS only. Do not use <style> tags.”

Problem 2: WordPress strips SVG elements

What happened: Posts in the quantum computing series used inline SVG to draw circuit gate diagrams. WordPress stripped all <svg> tags on save, leaving blank spaces where diagrams should have appeared.

Fix: Replace SVG diagrams with Unicode box-drawing characters and monospace <pre> or <div> elements with font-family: 'Courier New', monospace applied inline. The instruction to Claude: “Do not use SVG. Use Unicode and monospace divs for all diagrams.”

Problem 3: <script> tags are blocked

What happened: Attempts to add interactive elements via JavaScript were silently discarded. WordPress removes <script> tags from Custom HTML blocks for security reasons.

Fix: All interactivity must be replaced with pure HTML/CSS alternatives. Claude’s default behaviour now includes “no <script> tags” as a standing instruction for all WordPress posts.

Problem 4: API parameter case sensitivity

What happened: Passing "order": "DESC" (uppercase) to the posts.list operation returned a validation error: “order is not one of asc and desc.”

Fix: The WordPress.com REST API enforces lowercase values for enumerated parameters. Always use "order": "desc" in API calls.

Problem 5: Duplicate categories and tags

What happened: Without checking first, Claude created duplicate taxonomy terms — a “Python” category appeared twice under slightly different capitalisation.

Fix: Claude’s posting workflow now always calls categories.list and tags.list before any creation step. Only genuinely new terms are created.

Tip: Let Claude Choose Categories and Tags Automatically

You do not need to specify categories and tags manually. Simply ask Claude to “use appropriate categories and tags” and it will inspect the existing taxonomy on your site, infer suitable terms from the post content, and create any new ones that are genuinely needed. This works well for most posts and saves the step of looking up category IDs yourself.

Step 1 — Enable the WordPress Connector in claude.ai

Go to claude.ai → Settings → Integrations. Find the WordPress.com connector and click Connect. Authorise it with your WordPress.com account. Once connected, the connector appears as an available tool in all your conversations.

Step 2 — Prepare your content and prompt Claude

Provide Claude with the raw content, a reference post URL for style matching, and the constraint set:

Step 3 — Review the artifact in claude.ai

Claude renders the HTML in an artifact panel. Review layout, colours, code block rendering, and table formatting. Verify that no <style> or <script> tags appear in the source.

Step 4 — Trigger the WordPress MCP posting

Once the HTML is finalised:

Claude will call categories.list and tags.list, create any missing terms, then execute posts.create and return the draft edit and preview URLs.

Step 5 — Preview in WordPress and publish

Open the draft URL Claude returns. If the Custom HTML block renders correctly, click Publish. If styling is missing, return to the conversation and ask Claude to convert any remaining CSS classes to inline attributes.