Insert Widget is a WordPress ability from Ultimate Addons for Elementor — usable via Easy MCP AI, which connects Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI assistant to your site.
Install Free Plugin →Insert Widget
WriteInserts a single new widget into an existing Elementor post at a specified position.
Requires the Ultimate Addons for Elementor (Header Footer & Elementor) plugin on WordPress 6.9+ (the WP Abilities API). No ability registers unless the plugin's 'Enable AI Tools' master switch (uae_mcp_settings.enable_abilities) is turned on in settings. Most abilities require the 'manage_options' capability; a smaller set of read/discovery abilities (template and page listing, the Elementor builder read/list/schema abilities, active-template lookup, display-rule locations, and design tokens) instead require only 'edit_posts' or 'read'. Abilities that act on a specific page, post, or template additionally check the current user's per-object 'edit_post' (or 'delete_post') capability on that item. Separately, every non-readonly (Write or Destructive) ability is gated behind a site-wide 'Allow Modifications' setting at registration time: if it is off, none of those abilities are even registered with the WP Abilities API, regardless of capability checks — this covers all template/page CRUD, widget/extension toggles, display-rule updates, theme/settings changes, and the Elementor builder writes alike, not just the builder ones. Eight of those abilities (the seven Elementor page-builder writes — build, insert-widget, update-widget, remove-element, move-element, add-section, add-column — plus pages-create) additionally re-check this same setting explicitly inside execute() as a redundant safeguard.
What it does
Takes a post_id, a widget_type slug (validated against the plugin's widget allow-list, which also reports if a required companion plugin is inactive), a settings JSON string (defaults to '{}'), and a position ('append', 'prepend', a numeric index, or an object like {"after":"id"}/{"before":"id"}/{"inside":"id"}). It builds the widget element, inserts it into the existing element tree, and saves the updated tree back to the post. Its instructions say this is for adding one widget incrementally, not for building a layout from scratch, and recommend calling builder-get-structure first to find the right position.
See it in action
You ask your AI assistant
"Add a button widget after element abc123 in post 42, with text "Get Started" linking to /signup."
Inputs
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| post_id | integer | Yes | Any Elementor-enabled post ID (page, post, or HFE template). |
| widget_type | string | Yes | Widget type slug (e.g. "navigation-menu", "site-logo", "heading"); discoverable via builder-list-widget-types. |
| settings | string | No | JSON string of widget settings (default '{}'); keys discoverable via builder-get-schema. |
| position | string|integer|object | No | Where to insert: "append" (default), "prepend", a numeric index, or {"after":"id"}/{"before":"id"}/{"inside":"id"}. |
Returns
Returns success, the new element_id assigned to the inserted widget, and a human-readable message.
Permission
permission_callback requires current_user_can('edit_posts'); execute() additionally calls check_modifications_allowed() (403 unless 'Allow Modifications' is on) and validate_elementor_post() (confirms the post is Elementor-editable and checks current_user_can('edit_post', ID)).
More Ultimate Addons for Elementor abilities
Activate Widget
Enables a specific HFE widget by its slug.
Add Column to Section
Adds a new column to an existing section or container in an Elementor post, redistributing column widths automatically.
Add Section/Container
Adds a new structural layout element (a section with columns on legacy sites, or a flex container on container-mode sites) to an Elementor post.
Build Complete Layout
Builds a complete Elementor layout — sections, columns, and widgets — from a single JSON structure, replacing all existing content on the target post.
Bulk Toggle All Widgets
Activates or deactivates every HFE widget at once.
Clear Elementor Cache
Clears the Elementor CSS cache globally to regenerate all stylesheets.