Update Element is a WordPress ability from Page Builder: Pagelayer – Drag and Drop website builder — usable via Easy MCP AI, which connects Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI assistant to your site.
Install Free Plugin →Update Element
WriteChange the attrs and/or content of one existing page node by its ID — the cheapest way to edit part of a page.
Requires the Pagelayer plugin on WordPress 6.9+ (or another source of wp_register_ability()) for the Abilities API — registration is skipped entirely via a function_exists() guard when it isn't available, and ability categories similarly require wp_register_ability_category(). Most abilities require the 'edit_posts' capability; update-global-styles, create-menu, and delete-menu require 'manage_options'. search-images additionally needs a Pexels API key configured on the Pagelayer AI Agents settings page, and get-library-sections/import-library-section call Pagelayer's own hosted library API. Four near-duplicate abilities (get-widget, get-widgets-summary, edit-layout, navigator) are registered in source with mcp_public:false — fully callable over the REST Abilities API but intentionally left out of the advertised MCP tool list as duplicates of get-widget-schema, list-widgets, update-page, and get-page respectively — and are excluded from this listing.
What it does
Locates a node by pagelayer-id or "@0.1.2" position path and merges the given attrs into its existing attrs, not a full replace, and/or replaces its content, after scrubbing any inline CSS from what was sent, rejecting the write outright if found, and, unless skip_validation is set, running the content-quality gate against just the updated node. This is the ability update-page's own description recommends over resending the whole pagelayer_data tree for a small change.
See it in action
You ask your AI assistant
"Change the heading text on element a8fn2 of page 128 to "Welcome to Our Bakery"."
Inputs
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| post_id | integer | Yes | Page post ID. |
| element_id | string | Yes | pagelayer-id or "@0.1.2" position path, as shown in the get-page outline. |
| attrs | object | No | Attribute values to merge into the node. |
| content | string | No | Replacement content for the node. |
| skip_validation | boolean | No | Bypass the content-quality gate. |
Returns
An object with success:true, or a WP_Error if the element isn't found, inline CSS was found in what was sent, or the updated node fails the quality gate.
Permission
Requires the 'edit_posts' capability.
More Page Builder: Pagelayer – Drag and Drop website builder abilities
Add Element
Insert a new element node into a page at a given parent container and index.
Begin Transaction
Snapshot a page's current layout and content as a backup before a multi-step editing sequence.
Change Element Styles
Batch-apply style property changes to page elements matched by ID, pagelayer-id, or widget tag.
Commit Transaction
Discard a page's transaction backup, finalizing the changes made since begin-transaction.
Create / Update Navigation Menu
Create a WordPress nav menu from a list of items (or rebuild an existing one of the same name), optionally with nested Mega Menu content, and assign it to a theme location.
Create Design UI Sections
Append new section nodes onto an existing page without touching what's already there.