Render Template Shortcode 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 →Render Template Shortcode
Read-onlyRenders an HFE template shortcode and returns its HTML output.
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
This ability renders an existing HFE template's [hfe_template id="..."] shortcode server-side and returns the resulting HTML. Before rendering, it calls validate_template() from the shared abilities trait, which confirms the given template_id exists and is of the elementor-hf custom post type, returning a 404 error otherwise. It then invokes the shortcode and returns the HTML together with the template's id and title. The registration metadata warns that output may be large for complex templates.
See it in action
You ask your AI assistant
"Render the HTML output of my header template with ID 245 so I can preview it."
Inputs
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| template_id | integer | Yes | Template post ID to render. |
Returns
Returns html (string, the rendered shortcode output), template_id (integer), and title (string), or a WP_Error (404) if the template post does not exist or is not of post type elementor-hf.
Permission
Requires current_user_can('manage_options'); additionally, validate_template() checks that the post exists and is of post type elementor-hf before rendering.
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.