Update Template 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 →Update Template
WriteUpdates an existing HFE template's type and/or publish status in a single call.
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
After validating the template exists and is an 'elementor-hf' post, updates the 'ehf_template_type' meta if a new type is supplied and/or changes post_status (publish/draft) via wp_update_post if a new status is supplied. At least one of type or status must be provided, and status changes are blocked if the template is currently trashed (the caller must use templates-restore first). Returns the old and new type/status values.
See it in action
You ask your AI assistant
"Change template 482 from draft to publish and set its type to footer."
Inputs
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| template_id | integer | Yes | Template post ID. |
| type | string | No | New template type (enum: type_header, type_footer, type_before_footer, custom). |
| status | string | No | New post status (enum: publish, draft). |
Returns
An object with success, template_id, old_type, new_type, old_status, and new_status.
Permission
Requires current_user_can('manage_options'); execute() also calls validate_template(), returning 404 if the post isn't a valid 'elementor-hf' template, and explicitly rejects status changes when the template is trashed. No check_modifications_allowed call is present.
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.