MAMP PRO (macOS) Documentation

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Sites > Site > General > Basic > AI Support

MAMP PRO can grant an AI application access to individual sites you’ve shared with it. This lets you, for example, edit code or a WordPress installation directly with the help of an AI, query your databases, or automate routine tasks — without having to copy or upload content manually.

At the moment, only Claude for Desktop by Anthropic is supported. Throughout this documentation we therefore refer to “the AI application”, which always means Claude for Desktop.

What is MCP?

The connection between MAMP PRO and the AI application is based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — an open standard that lets AI applications interact with external programs, services, and data sources. To enable this, MAMP PRO provides an MCP server through which the AI communicates with shared sites.

You don’t need to worry about the technical details of the MCP server: MAMP PRO automatically registers itself in the AI application’s configuration file as soon as you enable AI access for the first site.

Requirements

  • MAMP PRO 7.4.3 or newer.
  • Claude for Desktop (macOS 12 or newer), installed on the same Mac. You’ll find the download on the Claude website.
  • An account for the AI application, signed in and ready to use. A free account is sufficient.
  • An active internet connection.

Data flow and privacy

The MCP server itself runs locally on your Mac. The content the AI reads or modifies through the MCP server — file and database contents — is sent to the AI provider’s servers for processing and therefore leaves your computer. Your chat history is also transmitted to the provider, just as it is whenever you use the AI application.

How the provider handles this data (retention, use for model training) depends on your account and your personal settings. You’ll find the current terms on the provider’s website — for Claude for Desktop, in the Anthropic Privacy Center, with personal settings at claude.ai/settings/data-privacy-controls.

Important: Don’t enable AI Support for sites whose content must not leave your computer — for example, customer data covered by a non-disclosure agreement, or personal data without a corresponding data processing agreement with the provider.

Enabling AI access

You enable AI Support individually for each site. Existing sites are not shared automatically — you actively decide which sites to make accessible to the AI.

Note: As long as Claude for Desktop is not installed, the options under AI support cannot be enabled.

  1. In the sites list, select the site you want to share.
  2. Open the General tab and then the Basic sub-tab.
  3. In the AI support section at the bottom of the panel, tick:
    • Grant AI apps access to site’s files…
      Allows the AI application to access all files and folders inside the site folder.
    • …and database(s)
      Additionally allows the AI application to access the databases assigned to the site. This option can only be enabled if file access is also enabled.
  4. Save the change using the Save button in the toolbar. Important: The first time you enable AI Support, MAMP PRO adds an entry for the MAMP PRO MCP server to the AI application’s configuration file. To make sure the AI picks up this new server, MAMP PRO restarts the AI application.

This restart is only required once. After that, the MCP server is permanently part of the AI application’s configuration. You can share more sites or remove existing shares without having to restart the AI application again.

After the restart, the entry MAMP PRO MCP Server appears in the AI application’s list of configured MCP servers — in Claude for Desktop, for example, under Settings › Developer › Local MCP servers. This confirms that the connection is in place.

Note: A regular chat that’s open at the moment of the restart is preserved and can be resumed afterwards. An incognito chat (if the AI application offers this feature) is lost after the restart, since incognito chats are typically not stored in the chat history.

What the AI can do via the MCP server

Once a site has been shared, the MCP server makes the following groups of functions available to the AI. Which of these the AI actually uses depends on what task you give it in the chat.

Through the MCP server, the AI works with the contents of your sites — files, databases, and WP-CLI commands. Configuring MAMP PRO itself — adding sites, switching PHP versions, controlling servers, or changing general settings — is something you continue to do directly in the application, just as before.

Information about your sites

The AI can fetch an overview of all currently shared sites, including site name, path to the site folder, and information about assigned databases.

Reading files

  • Read the full contents of a single file.
  • Read several files in one step — for example, to analyze multiple templates at once.
  • List the contents of a folder (one level).
  • Query metadata for files or folders (size, modification date, type) — without reading the contents.
  • Check whether a file or folder exists.
  • Recursively search for files and folders matching a name pattern (for example, all .php files).

Creating, modifying, and deleting files

  • Create a new file with any content, or overwrite the full contents of an existing file.
  • Append contents to the end of an existing file.
  • Replace a unique passage in a file with another — useful for targeted changes without rewriting the whole file.
  • Copy files.
  • Move or rename files or folders.
  • Delete individual files.

Managing folders

  • Create folders, including any required intermediate folders.
  • Delete entire folders recursively — including all files and subfolders they contain.

Important: Deletions and overwrites cannot be undone by MAMP PRO. Take regular snapshots or backups before letting the AI carry out larger changes.

Querying and modifying databases

If you’ve enabled …and database(s), the AI can run SQL statements against the MySQL database(s) of the shared site. This lets you read data, modify individual records, run bulk updates, or analyze the structure of a database. Other database systems (such as Redis or Memcached) are not exposed through the MCP server.

Important: Write operations (UPDATE, DELETE, DROP …) — for example on tables — are also possible and can change or remove data permanently. Databases themselves, however, cannot be created or dropped. Back up your databases regularly.

WordPress via WP-CLI

For a site with a WordPress installation, the AI can run WP-CLI commands — the official command-line interface for WordPress. This lets you, for example:

  • install, activate, deactivate, or update plugins and themes (only from downloads.wordpress.org),
  • manage options, posts, and metadata,
  • clear caches or work on the database via WordPress’s own commands. WP-CLI is built into MAMP PRO and doesn’t need to be installed separately. It requires a regular WordPress installation inside the site folder.

Installing a fresh WordPress instance only works if the site already has a database assigned in MAMP PRO and there is no wp-config.php file in the site folder yet.

Important: Because WP-CLI is a very powerful tool, the MCP server tries to detect commands that could cause harm. Just as with direct MySQL access, databases cannot be created or dropped, and access to the shell is also blocked by the MCP server. Even so, keep your data safe — for instance, by taking regular snapshots.

Results may vary depending on the AI model

The MAMP PRO MCP server simply provides the tools — how they’re used and the quality of the result depend on the AI application and the language model you’re using. The same request can lead to different approaches, code suggestions, or levels of detail depending on which model is selected. The same principle will apply if further AI applications are supported in the future: the MCP server stays the same, while interpretation and outcome are up to the respective AI provider.

Specifying a site in chat

When several sites are shared, tell the AI in the chat which site you want to work on. The principle is the same as in the sites list in MAMP PRO: there, you select a site first before making changes to it. In the chat, you simply mention the site name — the AI will remember it for the prompts that follow.

To switch to a different site, mention its name explicitly as well. In longer chats, it can help to repeat the site name from time to time.

Example prompts

Here are some typical tasks you can give the AI in the chat once a site is shared:

  • “Take a look at wp-content/themes/my-theme/functions.php in site-3 and explain what the register_blocks() function does.”
  • “Find all .php files in site-1 that call mysql_query and suggest a replacement using PDO.”
  • “Run a SQL query on the site-2 database that counts all published posts from the last 30 days.”
  • “Install and activate the redirection plugin in site-3 via WP-CLI.”

    Note: In longer chats, remind the AI from time to time which site you’re currently working on.

AI access while MAMP PRO is not running

After the initial setup, MAMP PRO does not need to be open for the AI to access shared sites. The only requirement is that the servers and services you started in MAMP PRO keep running — even after you quit the application.

To prevent the servers from being stopped automatically when you quit MAMP PRO, disable the following option:

  1. Open MAMP PRO › Settings.
  2. Choose the General tab.
  3. Untick Stop Servers in the When quitting MAMP PRO section. As long as this option is disabled and you’ve started the servers in MAMP PRO at least once, you can quit the application at any time. The AI will continue to access your shared sites and databases through the MCP server, and you can immediately see and test changes in your web browser.

If Stop Servers is enabled, on the other hand, the servers and services are stopped together with MAMP PRO. The AI will only be able to reach the shared sites again once you’ve started MAMP PRO and the servers are running.

Removing AI access

Single site

To remove AI access for a single site, untick the corresponding boxes under AI support and click Save. The site will no longer be offered through the MCP server and will be unreachable for the AI.

The MAMP PRO MCP server entry in the AI application’s configuration file remains in place — even if no site is shared anymore. You can share sites again at any time without having to restart the AI application.

Removing AI Support entirely

If you want to disable AI Support entirely, you can explicitly remove the MAMP PRO MCP server from the AI application’s configuration:

  1. From the menu bar, choose Tools › AI Support › Remove from ‘Claude for Desktop’….
  2. Confirm the action.
  3. MAMP PRO quits the AI application and restarts it. This action removes AI Support completely:
  • The MAMP PRO MCP server entry is removed from the AI application’s configuration file.
  • For all previously shared sites, the ticks under AI support are cleared; the sites are no longer shared with any AI. If you want to use AI Support again later, simply re-enable the boxes for the sites you want. Since the entry is added back to the AI application’s configuration in the process, the AI application is restarted one more time, just as during the initial setup.

Security and responsibility

AI Support gives an external application far-reaching access to your local files and databases — including creating, modifying, and deleting content.

  • You stay in control of access. An AI application can only reach sites for which you have explicitly enabled AI Support in MAMP PRO.
  • Actions cannot be undone automatically. MAMP PRO does not create automatic backups before AI actions. Use snapshots and backups before letting the AI carry out larger changes.
  • Review what the AI is about to do. Depending on the configuration, the AI application asks for confirmation before taking action — especially for write operations. Read these dialogs carefully before approving.
  • No liability on the part of MAMP GmbH. MAMP GmbH assumes no liability for actions an AI application performs through the MCP server — including data loss, faulty configuration, or unwanted changes to files and databases. Responsibility for using AI Support and for the consequences lies entirely with you.